A Winning Legacy

2026 College of Business Alumni Fellow Jeff Brohm Builds Trust and Relationships On and Off the Field

Standing on the sidelines, headset in place, University of Louisville football coach Jeff Brohm watches as the Cardinals line up for the next snap. With the play clock counting down, he watches the defense, checks in with his staff and adjusts the plan, making the kind of quick decisions that can shift the direction of a game. 

Yet the choices Brohm makes on game day are only one part of leading a collegiate sports program. He must build trust with players and staff, listen when the people around him see something he may have missed and make decisions that serve both individuals and the team. The football field may be where those abilities are most visible, but Brohm began developing many of them years earlier as a student in the College of Business. 

Since returning to his alma mater as head coach in December 2022, Brohm has led the Cardinals to three consecutive nine-win seasons, including the program’s first appearance in the ACC Championship Game in 2023. His accomplishments on the field, leadership beyond it and continued impact on UofL and the Louisville community earned him recognition as the 2026 College of Business Alumni Fellow, part of UofL’s Wilson Wyatt Alumni Awards.

Brohm welcomed the recognition as a chance to reflect on his experience in the college. “I learned a lot from a lot of great people, and it was really structured and a good environment that helped me achieve some of my goals,” he said. 

Across decades, teams and changing responsibilities, the foundation Brohm built as a business student has remained constant. It has carried him from student-athlete to professional football player to coach and ultimately back home, where he now guides a new generation of Cardinals as they pursue success on the football field and prepare for the lives they will build beyond the game.

BUILDING THE PLAYBOOK

A Louisville native, Brohm arrived at UofL in 1989 without a clear vision of where his career would lead. While he had not chosen a specific profession, he saw business administration as preparation for the uncertainty ahead. “A lot of things revolve around business and being able to take care of yourself, your family and the people around you and manage that,” he explained. That preparation required more than practical knowledge. It also included what Brohm called “the relationship part [of business],” including how to navigate different personalities, trust people and “allow them freedom to give opinions.” 

At the same time, Brohm was balancing his coursework with the demands of playing football for the Cardinals. “You can get really overwhelmed and lose focus and feel like you can’t achieve something if you’re not able to manage your time and to really put in the effort and work,” he said. “But at the same time, if you’re able to handle that, prepare accordingly [and] put in the work, a lot of times you’ll get to the end, whether it’s in sports or business, and feel more than ready and very confident when you enter into an important game or an important meeting.” That repeated cycle of preparation and performance gave Brohm more than control over a demanding schedule. Each successful outcome strengthened his confidence for the next challenge.  

The relationships Brohm formed within the college also shaped his understanding of what strong leadership could look like. The late Bob Myers left a lasting impression, not only through his teaching but through the personal investment he made in his students. “He developed a relationship and rapport with his students and showed interest in how they were doing in school,” Brohm said. That interest changed how students responded to him. Brohm described him as “almost like a great coach” because “you wanted to perform for him, and you wanted to do well in his class.” His ability to make students feel valued allowed him to inspire their best work while building relationships that endured long after they left his classroom. 

The significance of those lessons became clearer as Brohm’s role in football evolved from player to coach, with his focus expanding beyond his own preparation and performance to include the growth and success of an entire team.

LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE

After earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Louisville in 1994, Brohm spent eight seasons in the National Football League before turning to coaching. His collegiate coaching career included positions at the University of Louisville, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Western Kentucky University and Purdue University. In December 2022, he returned to his alma mater as head coach of the Cardinals.

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Today, Brohm oversees far more than game-day strategy. Each decision must account for the needs of his players, coaching staff and the program as a whole. The College of Business lessons he draws upon include “being able to process information...and how to handle personalities and get the most out of young men, coaches and people that work with you.” For Brohm, strong leadership depends largely on how well someone understands and supports the people around them. “I think to be a successful leader, CEO or entrepreneur, you have to have good people skills as well,” he said. That means using your own abilities while also bringing out the best in others. Brohm believes that work happens continuously, rather than only when a high-stakes situation demands it. “I think it’s an everyday process where...you have to study, you have to learn, you have to organize, you have to prioritize, you have to sometimes grind things out and then you have to be able to present what you know to people,” he said. “Those are just all small things that add up.” 

Each day also brings decisions about when to follow established procedures and when individual circumstances require flexibility. For Brohm, managing a large group effectively means providing consistent direction while remaining responsive to the people and situations in front of him.

LESSONS BEYOND THE FIELD

Brohm’s leadership is reflected not only in how he runs the program, but in what he asks his players to carry from it. College athletes must balance the demands of academics, competition and their everyday responsibilities, but he does not view success in those areas separately. For Brohm, everything ties together. “Trying to excel in the classroom, on the field and off the field in their everyday endeavors are all important,” he said. “You can’t have one without the other.”

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That broader view informs Brohm’s belief in the value of business education for student-athletes. Regardless of the fields they ultimately enter, studying business can deepen their understanding of the interpersonal interactions they will encounter throughout their careers. “It gives you a sense of the whole dynamic of how to work with people in your everyday life,” he explained. Brohm sees the relationship as reciprocal. “I think that’s the best thing about sports that helps you in the business world: how to stick to it [and] deal with people, deal with highs and lows and still do it in a positive way that is able to bring people along with you.”

Those lessons take on greater importance as players look toward futures that may carry them far from the stadium. Some may pursue professional sports, while others will move directly into different industries, but all will eventually face new roles, disappointments and unexpected turns. Brohm hopes their time at UofL prepares them not only to pursue their goals, but to remain steady when the path becomes difficult. “I hope they all have success in what they want to do, and that they handle adversity and are able to fight through setbacks that happen along the way,” he said. Sports, he added, teaches players “how to not get too down and continue to move forward and to pedal on and believe in yourself.”

BRINGING IT HOME

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Each time Cardinal football players take the field, Brohm trusts in the preparation and abilities of his players, listens to his coaching staff beside him and believes in his own ability to meet the challenges placed before him and his team. With skills honed years ago in the College of Business, where Brohm learned that leadership is about more than managing people, he is building a legacy based on knowing his athletes and staff as people, valuing their insights and ideas and helping them recognize what they are capable of achieving. 

That legacy is reflected in Brohm’s selection as the 2026 College of Business Alumni Fellow, an honor that brings his journey at UofL full circle. The business degree he once hoped would serve him wherever his career led now guides the way he prepares a new generation of Cardinals for wherever their own lives may take them. Seasons end and records become part of a program’s history, but the confidence Brohm works to instill in his players will remain with them long after they leave the football field.

About the UofL College of Business:

Founded in 1953, the UofL College of Business fosters intellectual and economic vitality in our city, region and the global business landscape. Our academic programs, research, community outreach initiatives and commitment to student success inspire lives and businesses to flourish through entrepreneurship, innovation, critical thinking, diversity and the power of people.

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