Georgia Tech won’t be able to ease its way into the 2023 season. A crucial league game in front of a national TV audience awaits the Yellow Jackets in five weeks.
The Aflac Kickoff game Sept. 1 pits Tech against Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It’s a matchup that features Jackets coach Brent Key and his Cardinals counterpart Jeff Brohm making their coaching debuts at their respective alma maters.
“We’ve got some really good components to our team, some great experience,” Brohm said this week at the ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina. “They’ve done a lot of really good things. Mixed in with some youth that maybe is right on the cusp of getting that done, we’ve added some new pieces to provide competition and to try to help us win.
“This team wants to win. They can smell it. They’ve worked hard every day to get it done. They understand there’s no shortcuts to success.”
Brohm has a little bit more experience as a head coach than his Week 1 opponent in Key. A former Louisville quarterback, Brohm has won 66 games during stints at Western Kentucky and Purdue, respectively. He won two conference titles at Western Kentucky and took Purdue to the 2022 Big Ten title game.
The Cardinals are coming off an 8-5 season and a win over Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl. Louisville hired Brohm in December after coach Scott Satterfield left for, oddly enough, Cincinnati.
Tech and Louisville last met in 2020, a 46-27 Jackets win, but Louisville most recently has played in Atlanta in 2021. It also opened that season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where it lost 43-24 to Ole Miss.
Louisville offensive lineman Bryan Hudson was on the field for that contest and will be taking the field for the Cardinals on Sept. 1.
“We’re really looking forward to it. They’re a really good team,” he said of the matchup with Tech. “They got a good defense, so we’ve gotten a little bit of a head start on them. It’s a big game being the (Aflac) Kickoff with all the excitement that’s around that. It’s always nice to open up in conference play, so there’s more energy, more focus, and it’s a good way to start off the season.”
Key said that he, Brohm and Miami coach Mario Cristobal recently had the chance to sit down and discuss the unique circumstances each of them faces at their respective alma maters. Key and Brohm also will be seeing plenty of each other as Tech and Louisville are permanent opponents in the ACC’s new scheduling model which begins this season.
As for the the coming matchup between the Jackets and Cardinals, it’s a golden opportunity for each coach to get his tenure off on the right foot.
“We love this crew of guys. It’s a good group,” Brohm said. “We tell them all the time, ‘Everybody is happy now, but how are you going to be able to handle the season once it gets going? Whether there are some ups and downs and wins and losses and how are you going to be able to refocus and get it done?’ That’s going to be the key.”
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