MIAMI -- Brian Brohm's final throw of his junior season was made not
with a football, but rather an orange, lofted overhand into the damp
South Florida night. The toss -- which had an arc resembling a fade pass
into a corner of the end zone -- landed a few rows into the heart of the
Louisville crowd, on the same side of the field where at game's end, a
fan had been holding a sign that read, "BCS: Becoming Champions
Step-by-step."
The fifth-ranked Cardinals' 24-13 victory over No. 15 Wake Forest on
Tuesday was only the latest step, but it was by far the most meaningful.
From the GMAC Bowl in 2003, to the Liberty Bowl in '04, to the Gator
Bowl in '05, to the Orange Bowl in '06, Louisville has ascended from a
high-powered, offensive curiosity in Conference USA to one of the
nation's elite, BCS-conference teams. Big East champs this year, national
champs the next? It could happen, but much of it hinges on whether Brohm
returns for his senior year.
Brian Brohm had taken the fruit-turned-projectile out of the Orange Bowl
trophy after passing for an MVP-worthy 311 yards, and leading the Cardinals
back from a 13-10 fourth-quarter deficit. It was a performance that
likely solidified his stock as an NFL first-rounder; just how high depends
on scouts' opinions of Notre Dame's Brady Quinn and LSU's JaMarcus
Russell, who square off Wednesday night in the Sugar Bowl. As Louisville
fans serenaded Brohm with chants of "One More Year!" he said, "It'll be
hard not to come back, but you still have to go back [home], and let
everything settle down and see what the right thing to do is."
Brian Brohm made those comments to a scrum of reporters while on the field,
but a few minutes earlier, right after the gun had sounded on the
Cardinals' 12-1 season, Brian Brohm also remarked the Orange Bowl win "is a great
start for next season."
If this was the season Louisville solidified its status as a national
power, next year could be the one in which fourth-year coach Bobby
Petrino puts the coronation on the Cardinals' meteoric rise. The program
went from 1-10 in 1997, to a pair of C-USA titles under John L. Smith at
the start of the decade, to the top of the Big East in 2006. Back in
1985, when the Cards were in the midst of their seventh straight losing
season, ex-Louisville coach Howard Schnellenberger said, "We're on a
collision course with the national championship. The only variable is
time."
Then, it seemed like one hell of a joke. Who knew the red-and-black's
time variable was set at 22 years?
The springboard victory over Wake Forest wasn't in hand until the final
12 minutes; it could just as easily have turned into a Cinderella
ending for the upstart Demon Deacons. Louisville's offense, which ranked No.
1 in the nation in the regular season, was held to just 149 total yards
at halftime (nearly 90 under average) as they clung to a 10-3 lead.
Brian Brohm was out-passed by Wake freshman Riley Skinner, 124 yards to 79, and
the Deacons were adhering to the game plan Jim Grobe had laid out
Monday: "You'd just like to see yourself heading into the fourth quarter
with a chance."
Wake had its opportunity, tying the game 10-10 on a 30-yard touchdown
pass from Skinner to Nate Morton early in the third quarter, and taking
a lead on a Sam Swank field goal early in the fourth.
Brian Brohm said a sideline motivational speech -- no doubt inspired by the
fact that Louisville was trailing a 10-point underdog in the program's
biggest game ever -- sparked the Cardinals' offense. Said Brian Brohm, "Basically we just all got together and we got into each other's faces and
said, 'Let's go win this game and not wait around and wait for somebody
else to do something. Let's go make plays and do it right now.'"
The nation's ninth-ranked passer began to pick apart the Deacons'
secondary, starting on the next drive with a 19-yard pass to wideout Harry
Douglas and then a 25-yard pass to senior running back Kolby Smith. The
drive ended with an Anthony Allen one-yard TD to put Louisville up
17-13, a lead it would never relinquish. Said Smith, "I felt like if we
hadn't scored on that drive, it would have been hard for us. We had the
momentum, and we don't like to settle for field goals."
Brian Brohm would complete 17-of-21 passes in the second half. Seven of them
were to the speedy Douglas ("He always looks like the fastest guy out
on the field," Petrino said), who finished with 10 catches and 165
yards. Douglas, a junior, already intends to be back for his final season,
and said of the pressure the crowd was putting on Brohm, "I love it. I
want him to come back for another year."
"We're taking big steps," said Douglas, "and next year, I don't want
anything less than a national championship."
For Smith, a senior who had 126 all-purpose yards in his last college
game, the Orange Bowl win was merely reassurance he was leaving
Louisville in a good place. "This program isn't finished," he said. "We've
taken it to another level each year, and it's still growing. I just helped
get the snowball rolling, and I expect it to grow into bigger and
better things."
University of Louisville president Dr. James R. Ramsey, who was on the
field for the postgame mayhem, said he sees the football program "only
getting better and better" under Petrino.
"Hopefully, this [Orange Bowl win] means we'll be considered among the
elite teams year in and year out," Ramsey said.
Having Brian Brohm come back for an encore would help make Louisville's case
to the nation. The Cardinals have a more-than-adequate backup in
sophomore Hunter Cantwell, who won two starts when Brian Brohm tore a ligament in
his throwing thumb earlier this season, but Brian Brohm would be a frontrunner
for the 2007 Heisman. Fellow star Michael Bush, the Cardinals' former
No. 1 running back who was injured in the season's first game, is a
junior who is also on the fence on weather to go to the NFL. Perhaps the
fact that honorary Orange Bowl captain Muhammad Ali wore Bush's jersey
during the coin toss Tuesday will help persuade him to stick around. As
for Brohm's future, Petrino said -- only partially in jest -- in the
postgame press conference, "Go ahead, put pressure on him. It's fine with
me."
Petrino then added, "We'd love to have Brian come back and Michael come
back, there's no question about that. ... They really just need to find
out where their draft status is, and then sit down and see what the
best decision is to make. You certainly don't want to take an opportunity
away. I'd love for then to come back and see if we can win one more
game."
One more game. From 12-1 to 13-0. That's all it would take. Louisville
will celebrate for a few days -- and then wait.
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