SAN DIEGO — Louisville coach Jeff Brohm avoided an eggnog bath Wednesday night, but it cost him the Holiday Bowl.

Instead, USC coach Lincoln Riley got soaked by the holiday drink after the Trojans defeated the No. 15 Cardinals, 42-28.

Louisville finished 10-4 in Brohm’s first season at the helm of his alma mater. In the year since his hiring, Brohm assembled a transfer portal class that was key in the Cardinals' solid season.

One of the biggest pieces was quarterback Jack Plummer, who spent four years with Brohm at Purdue prior to one year at California. His leadership and familiarity with Brohm’s system was key in the team ranking 42^nd nationally in total offense heading into the Holiday Bowl. In Plummer’s final season, he totaled 3,204 yards with 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He completed 64.8% of his passes (256 of 395).

Defensively, the Cardinals benefited from continuity. Defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte and defensive backs Quincy Riley and Jarvis Brownlee all returned. It also helped that Brohm retained Mark Ivey, who switched from coaching the defensive line to linebackers. One of the biggest question marks coming into the season, Louisville’s linebacker group was highlighted by TJ Quinn. He finished as the team’s leading tackler with 92. The unit ended the season ranked first in red zone defense, 12^th in rushing defense, 16^th in total defense, 22^nd in scoring defense, tied for 24^th in sacks and 27^th in tackles for loss.

Brohm has started raising an already-high bar in Year 2 by signing 14 high school players, five of whom will be on campus next month, for the No. 35 recruiting class and racking up 16 players (and counting) from the transfer portal.

“I do think we have enough young players on the team that want to win and want to do well,” Brohm said. “Our coaches need to be committed to being there year-round, early, late, whatever it takes to help.”

Here’s a final look at the Cardinals’ 2023 season:

Making history

Despite losing its final three games, Louisville still had one of the best seasons in program history. In Brohm's return home, the Cardinals reached 10 wins for the seventh time in program history, made the ACC championship game for the first time, beat Notre Dame, which was ranked 11^th at the time, handily for only the second time and picked up their first win at Miami. The 38-31 victory over the Hurricanes in the ACC regular-season finale allowed U of L to clinch a spot in the ACC championship game, finishing second in the league standings.

Brohm’s win-now mentality allowed Louisville to play with a sense of urgency and exceed all expectations after being projected to finish eighth in the ACC. Though plenty of unknowns loomed heading into the season, those were quickly figured out as U of L posted a 6-0 start for the first time since 2013.

Brohm has been known to run a pass-first offense, but the Cardinals found success in running the ball. Running back Jawhar Jordan rose as the star of the offense and became the program’s first running back to rush for 1,000 yards (1,128) since Javian Hawkins, who had 1,525 in 2019. Though Jordan battled through a hamstring injury, he played in every game for the Cardinals, only missing the Holiday Bowl after declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft. He had help in the backfield with Wisconsin transfer Isaac Guerendo and Maurice Turner taking turns to keep the ground game sharp. Guerendo was the team’s second-leading rusher with 810 yards and 11 touchdowns to end the season.

Season’s sour end

For as well as Louisville did through 11 games, recency bias causes the last three to stick out most. Louisville’s season-ending skid was the first time the team lost three straight games since 2018, when the Cardinals lost nine consecutive contests.

“We were sitting at 10-1 and feeling pretty good about ourselves, and then we kind of just let things slip at the end,” Brohm said. “That's disappointing.”

For the fifth consecutive year, the Cardinals lost the Governor’s Cup to Kentucky, 38-31. The loss also ended Louisville’s 11-game winning streak at L&N Stadium, where the Cardinals played at a high level all season. After that game, Brohm acknowledged the team’s defense had been playing “subpar” for three weeks. The problems continued to loom as the Cardinals lost again to third-string quarterback Brock Glenn and Florida State, 16-6, in the ACC championship game. The defeat was the first time Louisville failed to reach the end zone since falling to Virginia, 27-3, on Sept. 22, 2018.

With a little less than three weeks to prepare for the Holiday Bowl, Louisville struggled again and fell to backup quarterback Miller Moss and USC, 42-28. Though the Cardinals reached the end zone and scored on the game’s first drive, the offense made costly mistakes down the stretch and couldn’t overcome a double-digit halftime deficit. Defensively, Louisville couldn’t contain USC’s receivers as nine Trojans recorded at least one catch.

Brohm said there was much to learn from the Holiday Bowl loss.

“How can we, as coaches, help put them in a better position needs to be researched and watched,” Brohm said, “because it was disappointing that we gave up that many big plays. That was not like our defense all year. While I'll give USC a lot of credit, there were a lot of little things I think we could have done better that could have helped us.”

Looking to the future

Louisville has some time off before officially turning its attention to the 2024 season, which will come with even greater expectations. Brohm doesn't appear to be shying away from the challenges, though.

On3’s transfer portal index has the Cardinals’ current transfer group ranked first in the nation, with the Cardinals addressing all of their immediate needs. The first verbal commit was former Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Shough, who likely will replace Plummer. Louisville also picked up three tight ends, added to its secondary and continued to keep depth on the offensive line by adding four linemen.

Adding that much experience should help the Cardinals repeat as one of the top teams in the ACC, which expanded to include Southern Methodist University, California and Stanford. They play SMU at home but go to Stanford next season.

Besides adding veterans, Louisville will have a few of its own returning. Prior to the Holiday Bowl, Gillotte announced he would return for his senior season. His junior campaign included 11 sacks (ninth nationally) and 14 ½ tackles for loss. Getting Gillotte back as an anchor for the Cardinals’ defensive line will be key in the unit keeping up the success it has created during the past two seasons.

Quinn also is expected to be back. Riley, a redshirt junior, and Brownlee, a junior, have yet to publicly announce whether they’ll be back at Louisville next year or enter the NFL draft. Brohm said Turner will play a big part next year as the most experienced returning running back. He ended his sophomore season with 284 yards and a touchdown, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. Despite losing Jamari Thrash, who declared for the NFL draft, Louisville’s wideout group is expected to be just as deep in 2024 with the expected returns of Kevin Coleman, Chris Bell, Ahmari Huggins-Bruce and Jimmy Calloway. The Cardinals also added two standout receivers from the transfer portal and two incoming freshman receivers. Freshman JoJo Stone is a midyear enrollee.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football: Highs, lows from coach Jeff Brohm's first season