Lincoln Riley has been known as college football’s quarterback whisperer over the last several seasons. There is another coach who has been making waves over that time as well. Jeff Brohm is becoming the premier quarterback whisperer in college football.
Brohm’s first college head coaching job was at Western Kentucky. He helped the Hilltoppers have a good passing attack and developed the quarterbacks well.
His first quarterback with WKU was Brandon Doughty. He was rated as the 88th quarterback in his recruiting class by 247 Sports. The year before Brohm arrived, Doughty passed for 2,857 yards, 14 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. In 2015, Brohm’s first season at the helm, he passed for 4,830 yards, 49 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 67.9 percent completion. He improved on those stats in 2016, passing for 5,055 yards, 48 touchdowns and nine interceptions on 71.9 percent completion. With Brohm’s help, Doughty was selected in the seventh round of the 2016 NFL Draft and had a few seasons in the league, which is very impressive from where he started.
In 2016, Brohm had a new quarterback in Mike White, who was a three-star recruit who wasn’t ranked in the top 1,000 recruits in his class. He started his career at South Florida and then transferred to the Hilltoppers. White passed for 4,363 yards, 37 touchdowns and seven interceptions on 67.3 percent completion.
Following the season, Brohm left for the Purdue job. White’s production dipped a little bit without Brohm, but he still played well enough to be the fifth-round selection of the Dallas Cowboys in the 2018 NFL Draft. He has played in the NFL since, although he was recently released by the Buffalo Bills, but is expected to sign with a team soon.
In his first two seasons as head coach of Purdue, David Blough showed flashes, then eventually won the starting quarterback job. Blough was a three-star recruit and ranked as the 26th-ranked pro-style quarterback in his class. He had some struggles before Brohm arrived, as he had 21 interceptions in 2016. Blough split time in 2017, but really emerged as the starter in 2018. He passed for 3,705 yards, 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 66 percent completion for the greatest season of his career. His play helped him be signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent. He played through the 2023 season and is now an assistant coach for the Washington Commanders.
For two seasons following Blough’s departure, Jack Plummer and Aidan O’Connell split time at quarterback. In 2021, O’Connell set himself apart, although Plummer’s story isn’t over. O’Connell was an unranked recruit in his class. In 2021, as more of a full-time starter, he passed for 3,712 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions on 71.8 percent completion. He played well again in 2022, passing for 3,490 yards, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions on 64.1 percent completion. O’Connell was picked in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and has started 17 games in his career, a far cry from being unranked as a recruit.
Brohm took the job at Louisville, his alma mater in 2023. A familiar face, Plummer, started at quarterback for the Cardinals that season. He was a three-star recruit who didn’t rank in the top 500 recruits in his class according to 247 sports. Plummer went to California for a year after his time at Purdue and then joined Brohm with the Cardinals. In his lone season at Louisville, Plummer passed for 3,204 yards, 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on 64.8 percent completion. He signed with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent and was recently waived by the team.
For the 2023 season, Brohm turned to an older transfer in Tyler Shough. Shough was the highest-rated recruit that Brohm had worked with as a four-star recruit. He had fallen on hard times with different injuries and losing jobs at Oregon and Texas Tech. He passed for 3,195 yards, 23 touchdowns and six interceptions on 62.7 percent completion for the best season of his career. Shough would go on to be a second-round pick by the New Orleans Saints in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Brohm has molded several quarterbacks over his head coaching career. He has specialized in taking players who weren’t highly-touted and getting the most out of them. That differs from how Riley has worked with five-star quarterbacks and had success with them. Riley deserves his flowers for getting results with the likes of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams. He is currently going through a search for a quarterback of that caliber and it might just be freshman Husan Longstreet.
Coincidentally, Brohm’s starting quarterback this season is Miller Moss, who transferred to Louisville from USC. While he was benched at USC and had a rough first start for Louisville, don’t put it past Brohm to get the most out of the second-highest-ranked recruit he has ever coached at the position.
While Riley has had the headlines, Brohm’s ability to improve the play of his quarterbacks is worth recognition as well. His quarterbacks have been rated lower, but have all at least gotten a shot in the NFL, if not more.
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