Published: November 01, 2007 11:45 pm      

Louisville’s Brohm wants to avert 2005 repeat at WVU

MORGANTOWN — Brian Brohm, Louisville’s great quarterback, possibly could have been a first-round pick in last year’s National Football League draft.

But the 6-4, 230-pound senior said Thursday in a media conference call that he has had no second thoughts about deciding to return for his last season.

“I’ve gone through some adversity this year and learned from that,” he explained. “I think the whole experience will help me in the future.”

Louisville, which won the Big East championship last season, has struggled under new head coach Steve Kragthorpe. The Cardinals are 5-4 overall and 2-2 in the Big East as they prepare for next Thursday night’s clash at West Virginia (7-1, 2-1).

“I’ve got three more games, and I’m trying to make the best of them. I don’t think I’ve hurt my future with the NFL at all (by waiting a year).”

U of L defeated WVU 44-34 last season at home, and that avenged the 46-44 triple-overtime loss to the Mountaineers here in 2005. But Brohm said he and teammates have talked about returning to Morgantown since summer.

“Two years ago we had them beat,” he recalled. “Then Pat White came in and we had a breakdown. That was a tough defeat to take. It’s still sticks in my mind.

“I definitely don’t want that same type of feeling this year as I leave that field just because of what happened there two years ago. Yes, I’m sure (the Mountaineers) want to get back at us for beating them here last year.”

Brohm has completed 251 of 368 passes in nine games for 3,229 yards and 26 touchdowns to lead the Big East. He’s also No. 1 in total offense with 354.6 yards per game and is tops in pass efficiency with a rating of 161.4.

“Just losing early has been the toughest thing for me,” he said. “We had such high expectations and those kinda got knocked down.

“I just try to keep everybody positive. It’s been a struggle. I try to keep everyone upbeat, so we can move forward and get better. Guys got down when we were losing early.”

Brohm said he doesn’t see any of the three games remaining that the Cardinals can’t win. After visiting WVU, they travel to South Florida and then host Rutgers in their season’s finale.

“If things shake out the right way, you never know what may happen,” he reasoned.

Brohm noted that the Mountaineers’ defense seems to be playing really well right now.

“Just watching them on film, you can see they’ve got a lot of speed,” he said. “They know what they’re doing.

“They hit their assignments. They really get to the ball quick. It’s tough to run on them. They know where they’re going and get there fast.”

Since the last two meetings were high-scoring, does he anticipate another shootout?

“It’s always tough to tell,” Brohm replied. “The offense is going to prepare that way. But you never know what’s going to happen.

“We’re just going to try to score every time we get the ball. That’s always our goal when we get out there.”