Brown: Louisville football schedule in Jeff Brohm's 1st season is like a welcome home present

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The University of Louisville is still on a collision course. The caveat is the Cardinals will be crashing their way into the ACC football championship game.
The late Howard Schnellenberger's vision for the program he once coached: “The University of Louisville is on a collision course with the national championship. The only variable is time."
The variable for the Cards is no longer time, it’s the schedule.
It’s like a welcome home present for Jeff Brohm in his first year as the head coach of his alma mater.
This is the first season where the ACC has not played in divisions since the league expanded to 12 teams back in 2005. And, by luck of the draw, U of L won’t play its old Atlantic Division foes Clemson and Florida State.
No two teams have historically been more dominant in ACC play than the Tigers and Seminoles. Those two are again looking like the favorites to possibly meet in Charlotte on Dec. 2 for the conference title game.
Since joining the ACC, the Cards have never beaten the Tigers in eight tries and are 4-5 against the Seminoles.
Want to see the other side of scheduling, just look at North Carolina coach Mack Brown’s comments. Brown was not pleased with the way the league has the Tar Heels closing the season: a rivalry game against Duke is followed by a road trip to Clemson and ends with another rivalry game at N.C. State.
Scheduling matters.
And in another fortunate stroke, the Cards don’t play the Tar Heels and their Heisman Trophy contender, quarterback Drake Maye, either.
Now let’s stop to consider the teams U of L does have to play. Five of its eight ACC games are against the only conference teams that didn’t qualify for a bowl last season — the five programs that finished with overall losing records in 2022.
The season opener will pit Brohm against the other first-year coach in the league in Georgia Tech’s Brent Key. The biggest difference is Key inherits a full-on rebuilding project in Atlanta.
Virginia and Virginia Tech aren’t much better off than the Yellow Jackets. The Cavaliers, entering year two under Tony Elliott, and Hokies, in year-two of Brent Pry, didn’t show a lot of promise last season. There's no reason to think this will be a breakout season for either.
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And Boston College’s Jeff Hafley, who has a 15-20 record in three seasons, could be playing his way onto the proverbial hot seat in Chestnut Hill.
Miami is the one school that is seemingly hyped every preseason like it's set for a return to the program's glory days. And every year, the Hurricanes have under-performed those expectations. The U has not won an ACC football title since joining the league.
The toughest games appear to be a pair of road games at N.C. State and at Pittsburgh. The Cards do have a winning record in Raleigh, N.C. The Panthers have won six of the last eight meetings against U of L, although only three of those were as ACC foes.
The Cards can look to Duke’s performance last season as a reason for optimism. The Blue Devils went 9-4 in coach Mike Elko’s first year, which earned him the ACC's 2022 coach of the year honors, but they also benefited from playing a weak schedule.
Like U of L this season, Duke also didn’t have Clemson or Florida State on its schedule and played those five teams that didn’t make a bowl. The Blue Devils' three conference losses were by a combined eight points. They very easily could have made an appearance in the ACC championship game.
Projections: How many games will Louisville football win in first season under Jeff Brohm?
U of L should be as good, if not better, than the Blue Devils were last year.
Brohm used the transfer portal to strengthen areas where the Cards had some holes on the offensive line, at receiver and in the secondary. In adding Jack Plummer, who played for him at Purdue, they’ll have an experienced quarterback who knows the system.
It all lines up for Brohm’s dream come true of coaching his hometown team to have a chance for a fairy-tale ending in year one.