Looks to me if we bring Jeff, we bring his two brothers as well. Sign me up. Another great win vs P.J. Fleck (some people on VQ love this guy), and he has the Boilermakers rolling. If we can't get Kelly, Leach, Gruden... then I am fully all aboard the Jeff Brohm train. Plus, he's from the South. He will 'fit' better, for all all weirdos worried about fit. He will have built in relationships with high school coaches. And even if he doesn't know them he can relate to them because of his father.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Oscar Brohm faced a dilemma.
His two oldest sons – Greg and Jeff – were born one year apart. Both were athletic at a young age and talented in football. It wasn’t the only sport they excelled at. They had skills in basketball and baseball most kids didn’t have.
But the patriarch of the well-known football family entrenched in the Louisville community had to make a decision - which one of his sons would play quarterback?
By now you know Jeff became the quarterback, an icon in high school and college. He played for six NFL teams in seven seasons and is set to embark on his first season as Purdue’s head coach.
Meanwhile, Greg developed into a talented receiver at Trinity High School and Louisville – teaming up with Jeff to create a dynamic combination.
“The thing that makes it hard to answer the question is Greg can really throw the ball well and had a really good motion,” said Oscar, a standout quarterback at Flaget High School and at Louisville. “It was hard to play quarterback when Jeff was already playing quarterback and he was the best quarterback.”
Oscar had no predicament when his youngest son, Brian, was born and started showcasing his football skills.
There was no other competition in the family, which is now together at Purdue in a variety of roles. Greg is the program’s Executive Director of Administration and Operations/Chief of Staff.
“In one sense, I had a lot of advantages,” said Brian, who is Purdue’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “My dad and my two brothers had been there and done that. They coached me up and gave me all the tips and pointers. I got more advice than I knew what to do with sometimes, but I was coached the right way in how to play sports and navigate the whole sports scene.”
Those benefits included Jeff bringing home knowledge he learned during his NFL career. He was executing drop back passing plays from the West Coast offense, learning to read complex defenses and improving his fundamentals with the best information.
He developed a better understanding of the position.
“I knew how to do that stuff where other kids had no idea,” Brian said.
He picked up where his older brothers left off at Trinity.
He led the Shamrocks to three state titles, including a seven-touchdown, 522-yard performance in the 2002 championship game against Louisville Male. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2002 and was named Kentucky’s Mr. Football in 2003.
Back to the state title games. Trinity faced Male in consecutive years. Chris Barclay, now Purdue’s running backs coach, was a standout player at Male. He intercepted Brian during the 2001 championship game.
“He won’t tell you this – but I did pick him off once in the end zone, but he threw quite a few touchdowns,” Barclay said.
Barclay saw all the intangibles in Brian Brohm, calling him a fantastic player, a great leader and a fierce competitor.
“You could tell he had a lot of coaches in his life,” Barclay said. “I felt when we played against him, even though he was a young guy, he thinks fast and plays the game fast from the neck up. He anticipates. He sees coverages, sees rotation and understands where the ball needed to go.”
Brian attended Louisville, following the same college path as Oscar, Greg and Jeff. During his three years as a starter, the Cardinals were 24-9. He was a second-round draft pick by Green Bay in 2008, but was later signed off the practice squad by Buffalo. He moved to the United Football League and the Canadian Football League before being released by Winnipeg in January 2016.
Having the last name of Brohm, living Louisville and playing quarterback brought lofty expectations. Brian embraced the situation, thriving under the pressure and the limelight.
“Being the youngest, having a successful brother and family, the expectations were put upon me before I did anything,” said Brian, who also played basketball and baseball. “I was always a guy that played better in the big games. When the pressure was on, that’s when I had my best games. A lot of quarterbacks thrive in that kind of atmosphere.”
But he also had the pressure of playing for Jeff, who was on Louisville’s staff during Brian’s career. At times, Jeff coached Brian like he was his younger brother, and from a former quarterback’s perspective.
It’s the same approach, at least in the early days at Purdue. At the spring game in April, Jeff criticized Brian from the sidelines when backup quarterback Elijah Sindelar didn’t throw the ball away in time.
This is nothing new in Brian’s world.
“I’ve experienced it a lot,” he said, smiling. “That’s the way he coached me. He ripped me a few times playing and it’s a something I understand, coming from a competitive person like Jeff.
“You get him on game day and he turns that switch on. He’s in ultimate competitive mode – the juices are flowing, the adrenaline is pumping. He can get pretty animated and tell you what he really thinks. He does a good job a few minutes later of bringing it back and calming it back down.”
Coaching was a natural transition once Brian’s playing days ended in Canada. Having a brother as a head coach and another brother as part of Western Kentucky’s staff became the perfect place to launch the next phase of his career.
Similar to playing football as part of the Brohm family, trying to escape from it probably isn’t going to work.
“It would’ve been hard to escape if you wanted,” Brian said. “I loved it since I was a little kid. I always wanted to be a quarterback. I never wanted to escape but I can imagine if I did it would’ve been a little challenging.”
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Oscar Brohm faced a dilemma.
His two oldest sons – Greg and Jeff – were born one year apart. Both were athletic at a young age and talented in football. It wasn’t the only sport they excelled at. They had skills in basketball and baseball most kids didn’t have.
But the patriarch of the well-known football family entrenched in the Louisville community had to make a decision - which one of his sons would play quarterback?
By now you know Jeff became the quarterback, an icon in high school and college. He played for six NFL teams in seven seasons and is set to embark on his first season as Purdue’s head coach.
Meanwhile, Greg developed into a talented receiver at Trinity High School and Louisville – teaming up with Jeff to create a dynamic combination.
“The thing that makes it hard to answer the question is Greg can really throw the ball well and had a really good motion,” said Oscar, a standout quarterback at Flaget High School and at Louisville. “It was hard to play quarterback when Jeff was already playing quarterback and he was the best quarterback.”
Oscar had no predicament when his youngest son, Brian, was born and started showcasing his football skills.
There was no other competition in the family, which is now together at Purdue in a variety of roles. Greg is the program’s Executive Director of Administration and Operations/Chief of Staff.
“In one sense, I had a lot of advantages,” said Brian, who is Purdue’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “My dad and my two brothers had been there and done that. They coached me up and gave me all the tips and pointers. I got more advice than I knew what to do with sometimes, but I was coached the right way in how to play sports and navigate the whole sports scene.”
Those benefits included Jeff bringing home knowledge he learned during his NFL career. He was executing drop back passing plays from the West Coast offense, learning to read complex defenses and improving his fundamentals with the best information.
He developed a better understanding of the position.
“I knew how to do that stuff where other kids had no idea,” Brian said.
He picked up where his older brothers left off at Trinity.
He led the Shamrocks to three state titles, including a seven-touchdown, 522-yard performance in the 2002 championship game against Louisville Male. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2002 and was named Kentucky’s Mr. Football in 2003.
Back to the state title games. Trinity faced Male in consecutive years. Chris Barclay, now Purdue’s running backs coach, was a standout player at Male. He intercepted Brian during the 2001 championship game.
“He won’t tell you this – but I did pick him off once in the end zone, but he threw quite a few touchdowns,” Barclay said.
Barclay saw all the intangibles in Brian Brohm, calling him a fantastic player, a great leader and a fierce competitor.
“You could tell he had a lot of coaches in his life,” Barclay said. “I felt when we played against him, even though he was a young guy, he thinks fast and plays the game fast from the neck up. He anticipates. He sees coverages, sees rotation and understands where the ball needed to go.”
Brian attended Louisville, following the same college path as Oscar, Greg and Jeff. During his three years as a starter, the Cardinals were 24-9. He was a second-round draft pick by Green Bay in 2008, but was later signed off the practice squad by Buffalo. He moved to the United Football League and the Canadian Football League before being released by Winnipeg in January 2016.
Having the last name of Brohm, living Louisville and playing quarterback brought lofty expectations. Brian embraced the situation, thriving under the pressure and the limelight.
“Being the youngest, having a successful brother and family, the expectations were put upon me before I did anything,” said Brian, who also played basketball and baseball. “I was always a guy that played better in the big games. When the pressure was on, that’s when I had my best games. A lot of quarterbacks thrive in that kind of atmosphere.”
But he also had the pressure of playing for Jeff, who was on Louisville’s staff during Brian’s career. At times, Jeff coached Brian like he was his younger brother, and from a former quarterback’s perspective.
It’s the same approach, at least in the early days at Purdue. At the spring game in April, Jeff criticized Brian from the sidelines when backup quarterback Elijah Sindelar didn’t throw the ball away in time.
This is nothing new in Brian’s world.
“I’ve experienced it a lot,” he said, smiling. “That’s the way he coached me. He ripped me a few times playing and it’s a something I understand, coming from a competitive person like Jeff.
“You get him on game day and he turns that switch on. He’s in ultimate competitive mode – the juices are flowing, the adrenaline is pumping. He can get pretty animated and tell you what he really thinks. He does a good job a few minutes later of bringing it back and calming it back down.”
Coaching was a natural transition once Brian’s playing days ended in Canada. Having a brother as a head coach and another brother as part of Western Kentucky’s staff became the perfect place to launch the next phase of his career.
Similar to playing football as part of the Brohm family, trying to escape from it probably isn’t going to work.
“It would’ve been hard to escape if you wanted,” Brian said. “I loved it since I was a little kid. I always wanted to be a quarterback. I never wanted to escape but I can imagine if I did it would’ve been a little challenging.”
