Jeff Brohm

Jeffrey Scott Brohm (born April 24, 1971) is the head American football coach at Purdue University and former quarterback. He played college football at Louisville for coach Howard Schnellenberger from 1989 to 1993 and played in the National Football League (NFL) for 7 seasons from 1994 to 2000 and the XFL in 2001. He then served as the head coach at Western Kentucky (2013–2015). On December 5, 2016, Brohm was hired by Purdue University.
Brohm was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Oscar, was a quarterback for Louisville and a high school football coach in Louisville. He attended Trinity High School in Louisville, Kentucky. After graduation from high school, he was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 7th round of the 1989 MLB Draft, but he instead decided to pursue playing football and baseball at the University of Louisville. After spending his freshman season as a backup quarterback, he was once again selected in the MLB Draft, this time in the 4th round by the Cleveland Indians. This time Brohm had a change of heart and decided to pursue a professional baseball career in the summers when he wasn't playing football. After two summers, he decided to drop baseball and focus solely on football. As starting quarterback for two seasons, he lead the Cardinals to the 1993 Liberty Bowl.
Brohm went undrafted in the 1994 NFL Draft. He played seven years as a quarterback in the NFL, with the San Diego Chargers in 1994, the Washington Redskins in 1995, the San Francisco 49ers from 1995 to 1997, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1998, the Denver Broncos in 1999 and the Cleveland Browns in 2000. He also played one season with the Orlando Rage of the XFL, where he was named to the All-XFL team despite having his season end early with a shoulder injury.
In 2002, Brohm moved to the AF2 where he became the head coach of the Louisville Fire. Brom returned to the University of Louisville in 2003. He spent the next six years as a quarterback, passing game coordinator, offensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the Cardinals and helped them win the 2007 Orange Bowl. In 2009, Brohm went to Florida Atlantic University, where he was reunited with Schnellenberger as offensive coordinator. Brohn them went on to coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 2010 to 2011, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2012 and at Western Kentucky University in 2013 as an associate head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. When Petrino returned to Louisville in 2014, Brohm was promoted to head coach of Western Kentucky University where he lead the team to 3 bowl games with 2 victories.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1971. He is the son of Donna and Oscar Brohm. Jeff and his siblings Greg, Kimberly and Brian were born in Louisville, while his father was an assistant football coach at Trinity High School in Louisville.

Brohm was a standout high school player at Trinity High School in Louisville. He was named the "Kentucky High School Player of the Decade" for the 1980s and won the Kentucky "Mr. Football" Award in 1988 while leading his team to a state championship and undefeated season. Brohm was inducted as a member of the 2014 Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame class.

1989 and 1990 seasons

In February 1989, Brohm committed to play football for Howard Schnellenberger's Louisville Cardinals football team. Brohm played in every game, but was regulated to backing up Browning Nagle. The 1990 Cardinals ended the season 10–1–1 in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl. Brohm played for two series during the Fiesta Bowl, but on his first series, he was intercepted. On his second series he was intercepted yet again on his second series by Charles Garner who returned it 49-yards for a touchdown.

1991 season

With Nagle graduated, Brohm had claimed the starting quarterback designation for the 1991 team. Just two games into the season, Brohm and the Cardinals were facing the Tennessee Volunteers, when Brohm suffered a fracture in his right ankle, placing him in a cast for six weeks.

1992 season

Brohm returned from his ankle injury to regain his starting quarterback role. In his first game back, Brohm was just a two-point conversion away from knocking of #17 Ohio State as Brohm's pressured pass floated just past the arms of Ralph Dawkins. Brohm played well against #6 Florida, completing 66.6% of his passes and frustrated the Gators defense with his ability to scramble, but the Cardinals still lost 31–17.

1993 season

Brohm returned for his senior season, after taking ever snap as a junior, Brohm proved that he was fully recovered from his ankle injury. After defeating San Jose State to begin the season, Brohm had a dominant performance against Memphis State, throwing for four touchdowns and 219 yards, 175 yards and three touchdowns of which went to Aaron Bailey. The following week, Brohm threw for a career-high 331 yards defeating the #23 Arizona State 35–17. Brohm lead the Cardinals to the #17 ranking and traveled to #24 West Virginia, Brohm threw for 270 yards, but had to very critical turnovers, including an interception with 3:02 to play. The Cardinals were upset by the Mountaineers 36–34. After a 7–1 start, the Cardinal accepted a bid to be the home team in the 1993 Liberty Bowl Brohm broke his index finger on his passing had in Louisville final regular season game. His finger was repaired with a steel plate and pins, and he wasn't allowed to throw until the week before the bowl game. Trailing 7–3 going into the 4th quarter against the Michigan State in the Liberty Bowl, Brohm threw for two touchdowns in the final minute leading the Cardinals to a 18–7 victory.

Statistics

Brohm's statistics are as follows:

Baseball

After Trinity High School, Brohm was drafted in the 7th round of the 1989 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos. He turned down the Expos offer to accept a scholarship to play football for the University of Louisville. However, after one year of college football, he had a change of heart and decided to pursue both sports, playing minor league baseball during his college summers.

He held a workout for all MLB teams prior to the 1990 MLB draft and was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 4th round, and chose to play baseball and football. He played for two summers in the minor leagues before quitting to focus on football as well as the Indians pushing to make him drop football entirely.

Career statistics

Football

After going undrafted in the 1994 NFL Draft, Brohm signed with the San Diego Chargers in 1994 as an undrafted free agent. Brohm beat out Trent Green to become the teams third-string quarterback. Brohm also played for the Washington Redskins, San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns of the National Football League and for the Orlando Rage of the XFL, who took him with the fourth overall pick in the XFL Draft. Brohm got to play in the season opener for the 49ers in 1997 after Steve Young was sacked seven times and left the game with a concussion. Brohm was in line to start Week 2 for the 49ers, but he cracked a bone near the base of his middle finger on his passing hand. Brohm didn't make a start, instead Jim Druckenmiller made the start for the 49ers. During the 2001 XFL season, he owned the league's highest QB rating at 99.9 and was named first team All-XFL. He was at the receiving end of a particularly brutal sack in the Week 5 contest against the Memphis Maniax, but returned the next week; a shoulder injury in the Week 7 contest against the Los Angeles Xtreme ended Brohm's playing career.

Career passing stats

NFL

XFL

Louisville Fire

On December 19, 2001, Brohm was named the head coach of the Louisville Fire arena football team. The Fire started the 0–7 before they defeated the Carolina Rhinos 31–28 to improve to 1–7. The Fire would finish the season 2–14.

Louisville

On December 24, 2002, Bobby Petrino hired Brohm to return to his alma mater as quarterbacks coach. Brohm worked with first year starting quarterback Stefan LeFors, helping him to a 3,145 yard passing season, the 3rd best in school history. LeFors finished first in the nation in passing efficiency and completion percentage. LeFors was also named First Team All-Conference USA. During Brohm's second season, he helped recruit his brother Brian Brohm, who was one of the most sought after recruits in the nation. LeFors and Brian would split time at quarterback, similar to how Jeff split time as a freshman with Nagle. LeFors and Brohm lead the Cardinals to the 2004 Liberty Bowl and a #6 ranking to end the season. Brian finished the season as the Conference USA Freshman of the Year, and LeFors was named First Team All-Conference USA and the Conference USA Co-Offensive Player of the Year. In 2005, Brian took over the starting role permanently, leading the Cardinals to a 8–2 regular season and a berth in the 2006 Gator Bowl. Brian tore his ACL, forcing the Cardinals to start walk-on Hunter Cantwell. Cantwell struggled, completed 15 of his 37 passes for 216 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions. In 2006, the Cardinals made yet another stride, Brian had lead the Cardinals to a victory of #15 Miami (FL), but he was injured his thumb in the process, forcing Cantwell into action. Cantwell lead the team to victories over Kansas State and Middle Tennessee, with Cantwell throwing for a career-high 340 yards against Middle Tennessee, before Brian's return. The Cardinals would finish the 2006 season, 12–1, establishing a record high victories for the school in a single season and winning the 2007 Orange Bowl.

After Petrino left Louisville to take the Atlanta Falcons head coaching job, new Cardinals head coach Steve Kragthorpe kept Brohm on his staff as an assistant head coach and passing game coordinator. Brohm declined an offer to join Nick Saban's staff at Alabama in 2007 to stay with Louisville. The Cardinals offense went in a different direction under the coaching change. Brian threw 473 times, which was second in school history for a single season, but he broke the then record for passing touchdowns in a single season with 30. He was promoted to offensive coordinator for the 2008 season. Cantwell struggled in his first season as the starting quarterback, throwing 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions and averaging just 207.8 passing yards a game. The Cardinals so struggled, going just 5–7, failing to go to a bowl for the second year in a row. The Cardinals offense average 377 yards a game, ranking 45th overall.

Florida Atlantic

Brohm joined his former college head coach Howard Schnellenberger at Florida Atlantic for the 2009 season as the quarterback coach. Brohm later revealed that he had been in contact with Schnellenberger for a month prior to the hiring. Brohm inherited Rusty Smith, whom had won the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year, to coach. After just 7 games, Smith had 1,915 yards passing to go along with 14 passing touchdowns and just 5 interceptions, but he sprained his non-throwing shoulder in the 7th game against Middle Tennessee, ending his career. With the injury, Brohm worked with Jeff Van Camp to replace Smith. Van Camp finished the year 1,372 yards passing and 12 touchdowns with just two interceptions and a win in the Shula Bowl.

Illinois

He then took a position coaching quarterbacks on Ron Zook's staff at Illinois. The move to Illinois reunited Brohm with Paul Petrino, whom Brohm worked with at Louisville. Brohm and Petrino were tasked with replacing Juice Williams, and in spring camp Nathan Scheelhaase emerged as the leading candidate. The Illini named Scheelhaase the starting quarterback as a redshirt freshman, and he made strong progress throughout his first two starts. With Scheelhaase's running ability, Brohm made sure that he taught him to keep running throughout his reads before deciding to run. Scheelhaase really began to start hitting his stride during a 44–10 defeat of Purdue, throwing for four touchdowns. The Illini finished the regular season 6–6, earning a berth in the 2010 Texas Bowl.

In year two, Brohm worked to improve Scheelhaase's passing in accuracy, decisiveness and drop backs. Scheelhaase got the Illini off to a hot start going 6–0, even defeating #22 Arizona State and Brohm had acknowledged his development as a passer. The Illini would finish the regular season 0–6, costing Zook his job. Brohm was promoted to interim offensive coordinator during the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

UAB

In 2012, new head coach Garrick McGee hired Brohm to serve as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UAB. In an interview prior to the 2012 season, Brohm said he regretted not accepting the position of offensive coordinator with Alabama. The offseason began with redshirt freshman quarterback Austin Brown pushing Jonathan Perry for the starting role. After an 0–3 start, Brohm named Brown the new starting quarterback. In four of his first five starts, Brown threw for 300 yards. The Blazers finished the season 3–9, with the offense finishing 53rd in the country with 417 yards per game.

Western Kentucky

2013 season

After a single season at UAB, Brohm decided to take a pay cut and take the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator position at Western Kentucky University, where he was again coaching under Bobby Petrino. Brohm had to replace Kawaun Jakes, who was the career leader in passing touchdowns and third in passing yards for the Hilltoppers. They selected Brandon Doughty to be the starter during the 2013 season, and was aided by the return of the NCAA single season all-purpose yards record holder, Antonio Andrews. The Hilltoppers began the season with an upset of SEC foe Kentucky. Brohm's lone season as offensive coordinator did not disappoint, as the Hilltoppers averaged 459 yards per game, and both Doughty and Andrews set the single season record for yards in a season in passing and rushing respectively.

2014 season

On January 8, 2014, Petrino was hired to his former position of head coach at Louisville in place of Charlie Strong, who moved to replace Mack Brown at Texas. Brohm was named as a candidate to become head coach later that same day. On January 10, 2014, Brohm was officially named the head coach of the Hilltoppers. On August 29, 2014, his Hilltoppers opened the season with a 59–31 win over the Bowling Green Falcons, scoring more points than during any game in the 2013 season. The team broke school records for total yards in a game (702) and most points scored since moving to the FBS level. Doughty also set three individual records. The following week Brohm suffered his first defeat as a head coach, losing 42-34 to Illinois. After losing 5 out of his first 8 games as a head coach (four of which were by a single possession), the Hilltoppers rallied to win their last four regular season games. This included a win over undefeated #19 Marshall 67-66 in overtime, again breaking the school record for points in an FBS game for the third time of the season. The Hilltoppers 7–5 regular season season earned them a berth in the 2014 Bahamas Bowl where they played Central Michigan Chippewas. Leading 49-14 heading into the fourth quarter, the Chippewas rallied to be down 1-point, but their failed two-point conversion with no time left lead to a Hilltoppers victory.

Purdue

On December 5, 2016, Brohm was hired by Purdue University to be the head coach of the football team.

AF2

College

His younger brother Brian is a football coach and a former quarterback who last played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Another brother, Greg, played wide receiver at Louisville and had a stint in the Canadian Football League at the Edmonton Eskimos camp before being cut.

Their sister, Kim Brohm, was a three-sport athlete at Spalding University. She played softball, volleyball, and basketball for the Pelicans.

Brohm married his wife Jennifer L. Hawkins in 2003, they have two children, Brady and Brooke.