Jeff Brohm has a coaching staff problem, and it’s time for him to explain how he ended up here. On the morning of December 30th, 2025, Brohm had a defensive staff that had just finished the season ranked 16th in yards allowed per game, 15th in yards per play allowed, while also being one of the best teams in the country at stopping explosive plays. By the end of that day, he would need to replace his co-defensive coordinators as well as the positions they coached.
At that moment, Jeff Brohm had a choice
to make, and he made a choice that would be described as “lazy” in any setting. Jeff Brohm lost four spots on his defensive coaching staff, and he ended up not hiring anyone to fill them. In the biggest offseason of his career, Brohm chose the easiest solution to his problem, and his program is paying for it now.
Eleven months after Brohm made the call to promote from within instead of at least hiring a proven defensive coordinator, the fanbase is left to wonder how we got here. The Cards haven’t had an offensive coordinator who has called plays since Shawn Watson was in the booth, so this fanbase is very aware of how important the defensive coordinator spot is with an offensive-minded head coach. You can have a quarterback win the Heisman, but you’re going to win nine games if the defense can’t do their part.
The story that came out of Floyd Street was that Ron English wanted to take a year away to watch his son play his final year of college ball. Seth English is currently listed as a third-string safety for Navy, and PFF credits him with one snap this season. It is possible that Seth has an unreported injury, as he did play a fair amount last season, but I’ve always struggled to believe that Ron English would give up nearly a million dollars when he had spent his career not watching his son play. Mark Hagan not only not being immediately promoted to the play caller but also not being retained at all was also telling.
It is past time for Jeff Brohm to be transparent about how the defensive staff that led a top-15 defense exited this program. The fans also deserve to know why he didn’t go out and hire a defensive coordinator with more experience than Mark Ivey.
Brohm hired five defensive coordinators between 2020 and 2021. The experience seems to show that he has the ability to manage the process of finding someone to run his defense. The fact that he hired five defensive coordinators in two years is quite a red flag when it comes to his ability to find the right guy. He hired three coordinators in one season. You are reading that correctly. Brohm had three co-coordinators running his defense that season.
At the end of the day, the Louisville fanbase has been left wondering how we got here because Jeff Brohm hasn’t taken the time to explain much of anything. His announcement of the defensive staff changes lasted all of 1 minute and 12 seconds back in February. There was no prideful declaration about how the coaches he promoted had earned their roles. They were just the names who now had the titles. Over a month to hire a defensive coordinator and Brohm’s only message to the fans was that he didn’t hire anyone and he didn’t have any glowing commentary about that fact.
As the remaining weeks of this season go by, we will all continue to see a defense perform well below what any of us expected from a productivity standpoint. Before Jeff Brohm makes his decision to retain or move on from the defensive staff he put together. He owes the fans something to give them faith that he can get his defense back on track for the 2027 season.
