Back in the good old days when John L. was coaching and the National Signing Day gatherings at the Brown & Williamson Club were a thing, it was almost an open door party with booze where anybody could attend. Through a friend who worked for the Athletic Dept at the time a group of us used to bend Art Valero's ear and Art was a pro at talking to the armchair QB fan. Of the many things I got in talking to him and other coaches was the differences in evaluating and then recruiting certain positions and position types, i.e. we weren't going toe-to-toe back then with Alabama or Auburn in Alabama, we were trying to get that kid who fell in the tier between them and say Ole Miss and Miss State (and South Carolina at the time). We were in a league with Southern Miss who was the final hurdle to clear before clearing the informal label of midmajor, so in essence we had to outevaluate and then land kids who Southern Miss might be getting out of Alabama and in the Panhandle. John L. recruited Florida really well, but it's forgotten by most that he had a great core of kids from Alabama not the least of which was Michael Josiah and Dewayne White, and did very well augmenting that with kids from Northern Ohio, notably Anthony Floyd, Dave Ragone and perhaps fatefully Jon Gannon.
I use all of that as prologue because one thing I got from going to those Signing Day film sessions John L. would have was a coach told me the single toughest position group to scout and evaluate was defensive backs followed by Linebackers and this was in the period when 7on7 tournies were becoming commonplace. The reason being, all film you got from High schools at the time was the line of scrimmage shot where the ball is snapped, the QB drops to throw and everything visible to the viewer does NOT include what you need to scout. You don't see the LB drop or you don't see the LBs technique in man coverage if he is isolated. That is exponentially true of the DBs where their drop and technique in a backpedal or opening his hips on a fade route isn't seen.
So how does that apply to Brohm's Portal success or perceived success? He has stacks of college film on kids he can evaluate and also the benefit of seeing kids in a college scheme already performing. High school recruiting and evaluation comes with obvious inherent risks which is in part why we found success well prior to Kentucky recruiting high school kids in South Florida and the Panhandle. They'd chirp about getting USA Today AA's Tim Couch and Dennis Johnson when the reality was Tim Couch never once faced a Division 1 CB at Leslie County. Dennis Johnson never once had to concern himself playing Class A or Class AA football at Harrodsburg beating the block of a Division 1 offensive lineman. Louisville in recruiting kids from Florida had an abundance of players who played with and against Division 1 players all over the place...so you are a CB at one of those schools what do you think the caliber of WR you practice against everyday or play against every Friday night is? It becomes easier to project those kids. Brohm has that benefit in the Portal and I think we stand to reap some of those benefits in Year Two of his recruiting as Louisville's coach a year separated with a virtual scouting report of Big Ten talent.
...all of that sort of makes this year more remarkable to me. What he landed in the Portal for this season's team I almost can't conceive can ever be duplicated. Two starting OTs for an ACC title game, Starting safeties that were Portal acquisitions late. A RB that came in for the league's leading rusher and we didn't miss a beat and it allowed the staff to load manage the injured Jordan. Not to mention a WR that was legitimately putting up numbers pre-Pitt that had him in a clear conversation as being the best WR in the league with Coleman...and I've left out alot of players who were depth pieces and to be blunt, of whatever flaws Satterfield had as coach the building of depth was one of his biggest challenges. We were depleted at WR, we didn't have Power 5 caliber Tight ends and while we had decent offensive lines they didn't have good numbers. What the Portal has afforded Brohm is an opportunity to take chunks out of the bottom of his roster and bring in a more experienced, maybe better fit for his offensive and defensive scheme retrofitted player. And THAT is how you build roster depth. I doubt this is a Kelly Dickey stat, but I can't imagine we have ever played the volume of defensive players we did this year in any season prior to this one. Tight end clearly is something that wasn't Brohmesque this season, and I'd submit neither was WR...and given how hard he turned the WR room over post-Spring I can't imagine we won't see something similar post-Holiday Bowl.
I use all of that as prologue because one thing I got from going to those Signing Day film sessions John L. would have was a coach told me the single toughest position group to scout and evaluate was defensive backs followed by Linebackers and this was in the period when 7on7 tournies were becoming commonplace. The reason being, all film you got from High schools at the time was the line of scrimmage shot where the ball is snapped, the QB drops to throw and everything visible to the viewer does NOT include what you need to scout. You don't see the LB drop or you don't see the LBs technique in man coverage if he is isolated. That is exponentially true of the DBs where their drop and technique in a backpedal or opening his hips on a fade route isn't seen.
So how does that apply to Brohm's Portal success or perceived success? He has stacks of college film on kids he can evaluate and also the benefit of seeing kids in a college scheme already performing. High school recruiting and evaluation comes with obvious inherent risks which is in part why we found success well prior to Kentucky recruiting high school kids in South Florida and the Panhandle. They'd chirp about getting USA Today AA's Tim Couch and Dennis Johnson when the reality was Tim Couch never once faced a Division 1 CB at Leslie County. Dennis Johnson never once had to concern himself playing Class A or Class AA football at Harrodsburg beating the block of a Division 1 offensive lineman. Louisville in recruiting kids from Florida had an abundance of players who played with and against Division 1 players all over the place...so you are a CB at one of those schools what do you think the caliber of WR you practice against everyday or play against every Friday night is? It becomes easier to project those kids. Brohm has that benefit in the Portal and I think we stand to reap some of those benefits in Year Two of his recruiting as Louisville's coach a year separated with a virtual scouting report of Big Ten talent.
...all of that sort of makes this year more remarkable to me. What he landed in the Portal for this season's team I almost can't conceive can ever be duplicated. Two starting OTs for an ACC title game, Starting safeties that were Portal acquisitions late. A RB that came in for the league's leading rusher and we didn't miss a beat and it allowed the staff to load manage the injured Jordan. Not to mention a WR that was legitimately putting up numbers pre-Pitt that had him in a clear conversation as being the best WR in the league with Coleman...and I've left out alot of players who were depth pieces and to be blunt, of whatever flaws Satterfield had as coach the building of depth was one of his biggest challenges. We were depleted at WR, we didn't have Power 5 caliber Tight ends and while we had decent offensive lines they didn't have good numbers. What the Portal has afforded Brohm is an opportunity to take chunks out of the bottom of his roster and bring in a more experienced, maybe better fit for his offensive and defensive scheme retrofitted player. And THAT is how you build roster depth. I doubt this is a Kelly Dickey stat, but I can't imagine we have ever played the volume of defensive players we did this year in any season prior to this one. Tight end clearly is something that wasn't Brohmesque this season, and I'd submit neither was WR...and given how hard he turned the WR room over post-Spring I can't imagine we won't see something similar post-Holiday Bowl.
