Jeff Brohm has a history of top-10 upsets. Should Ole Miss be on alert vs Louisville?
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When Jeff Brohm returned to his hometown and alma mater to become the new head football coach at Louisville in December 2022, he brought several things with him.
There was his last name, which had been synonymous with football in Kentucky’s largest city for generations. There was his sterling track record as a head coach, including a 30-10 mark at Western Kentucky and four bowl appearances in six seasons at Purdue, historically one of the toughest places to win in the Big Ten. There was his offensive scheme, a quarterback-friendly system that lights up scoreboards.
In three seasons with the Cardinals, there’s at least one other part of his coaching identity that Brohm has burnished.
For much of his coaching career, Brohm’s teams have made a habit of pulling off big upsets, defeating some of the highest-ranked teams and most prestigious programs in college football. Just last year, for example, Louisville went on the road and knocked off a Miami team that was No. 2 in the US LBM Coaches Poll and that went on to make it all the way to the College Football Playoff championship game.
Brohm will have another opportunity to add to that growing list in his first game of the 2026 season, when the Cardinals take on No. 10 Mississippi in Nashville.
Heading into that contest, here’s a look at Brohm’s history against top-10 opponents:
Jeff Brohm record vs top-10 teams
Over his 12 seasons as a head coach, Brohm has compiled a 5-8 record against teams that were ranked in the top 10 of the Coaches Poll at the time of the matchup. Since 2018, he’s 5-4 in such contests, including a 3-5 mark against top-five opponents.
Brohm’s squad was unranked in all but one of those 13 games.
Moreover, two of Brohm's eight losses came at Western Kentucky, and was at a laughably large disadvantage in those matchups (at LSU in 2015 and at Alabama in 2016). He's 5-6 vs. top-10 foes as a coach at a Power Four school. At Louisville, he’s 2-2. That mark also doesn’t include one of his signature wins with the Cardinals, a 33-21 victory in 2023 against Notre Dame, which was No. 10 in the Associated Press top 25 but No. 11 in the Coaches Poll.
Brohm’s Purdue team in 2018 famously upset then-No. 2 Ohio State, 49-20 and, three years later, the Boilermakers knocked off No. 2 Iowa and No. 6 Michigan State in a span of three weeks, earning them the nickname “Spoilermakers.” At Louisville, where his teams have managed to beat No. 8 Clemson in 2024 and No. 2 Miami in 2025, Brohm has become known to some fans as “Big Game Brohm.”
Here’s a game-by-game look at how Brohm’s teams have fared against top-10 opponents, including his all-time record:
- 2015: No. 5 LSU 48, Western Kentucky 20 (0-1)
- 2016: No. 1 Alabama 38, Western Kentucky 10 (0-2)
- 2017: No. 8 Michigan 28, Purdue 10 (0-3)
- 2017: No. 6 Wisconsin 17, Purdue 9 (0-4)
- 2018: Purdue 49, No. 2 Ohio State 20 (1-4)
- 2021: Purdue 24, No. 2 Iowa 7 (2-4)
- 2021: Purdue 40, No. 6 Michigan State 29 (3-4)
- 2021: No. 5 Ohio State 59, Purdue 31 (3-5)
- 2022: No. 2 Michigan 43, Purdue 22 * (3-6)
- 2023: No. 4 Florida State 16, No. 14 Louisville 6 ** (3-7)
- 2024: No. 6 Miami 52, Louisville 45 (3-8)
- 2024: Louisville 33, No. 8 Clemson 21 (4-8)
- 2025: Louisville 24, No. 2 Miami 21 (5-8)
* Big Ten championship game
** ACC championship game
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jeff Brohm has a history of top-10 upsets. Should Ole Miss be on alert vs Louisville?
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