We weren’t going to touch this, but Jeff Brohm‘s very vehement and public denial has forced our hand.
Perhaps a nanosecond after Bobby Petrino was fired last weekend, Brohm, a former Louisville quarterback, was mentioned as a potential, or even likely, successor with the Cardinals. In fact, most sportsbooks have the current Purdue head coach listed as an overwhelming favorite to fill the opening.
Earlier in the day Thursday, a report surfaced that Brohm would be named as the Cardinals’ new head coach on the Monday after the Boilermakers finished up the regular season. Shortly thereafter, Brohm, who said he addressed the speculation with his team, twice described the report as “completely false.”
“Completely false,” Brohm said according to the Louisville Courier & Journal, “and, once again, complete speculation. I don’t know how else to answer that. It caught me off guard as well. I think I’m an open book. I communicate with the players and the coaches and the administration and completely hold true to that. ... I don’t think that would happen with anybody, to be honest with you. I don’t want to comment on someone else bringing something out on Twitter, but all I can say is it’s completely false.”
(Invoke the Nick Saban clause at your leisure.)
Brohm is in his second season in West Lafayette after spending three years as the head coach at Western Kentucky. After going 7-6 in his first season, Brohm has the Boilermakers at 5-5 in 2018.