Photo credit: Indy Star

It pains me to say it, but the answer seems clear…Louisville has to hire Brohm.

I mean, it’s obvious -- he’s a Louisville kid with a great resume, and as we all know too well the Brohm family is Louisville royalty. Sure, Louisville is wading through murky, uncertain financial waters, with Chris Mack’s Xavier buyout and new contract, the ongoing Rick Pitino settlement and lawsuit, Bobby Petrino’s buyout, and the implications of the Papa Johns problems are all making cashflow a real problem that the Cardinals have to handle.

The good news for Louisville: Brian Brohm has no buyout to contend with.

Brohm is the son of a coach, the brother of a couple others and simply breathes and eats football. He is a bit more calm than his big brother Jeff, and has been instrumental in helping the development of both Sindelar and Blough. Atop of that, as an assistant OC, he has helped make Purdue one of the most exciting offenses in the nation.

Believe me, your pals at BS don’t want to see any of Jeff Brohm’s staff to change at this point, but Boiled Sports loves to help athletic departments and search committees find the perfect fit. By helping them do their homework, we feel like we make the college football and basketball worlds a bit of a better place.

We hear the cries for Brohm from Louisville graduates and fans. We figure this Brohm checks all of the boxes that any fanbase has:

• Deep ties to the university

• Massive upside

• Great resume

• Strong recruiting record

…and (as I said above)

• Minimal financial risk

Not only would Coach Brian Brohm not have a buyout to deal with, but he also wouldn’t demand a boatload of money. Sure, he deserves to be paid well, but I’m guessing he’d be a $1-1.5 million/year guy in this first contract. But after he leads UL to a few successful seasons, the contract will rightfully get larger.

Brohm seems like a no-brainer to me. But if he isn’t exactly what L’Ville’s looking for, we have some other candidates to look at:

The Rest of the Field:

• Not sure if our friends in Louisville have noticed, but Charlie Strong is doing quite well at the University of South Florida…AND his salary is one of the best bargains in college football. He’d be a good candidate.

• Troy’s Neal Brown is an intriguing guy and a Kentucky native. Great record as a head coach, his teams beat the big boys with some regularity over the last three years, and he’s getting paid less than $1 million/yr. A no-brainer move for Louisville.

• Scott Satterfield at Appalachian State has broken through the AP Top 25 this year, and is the darling of most advanced metric-based rankings. He’d bring offensive firepower and excitement back to Louisville, and his buyout is only $425,000. Easy decision.

• Major Applewhite down in Houston will probably be a superstar in the college football coaching world soon…maybe he would look good in Cardinal red? (Come to think of it, we’ve already seen him in red in Houston. Great fit for the Cardinals.)

• Lane Kiffin isn’t making what his resume demands, has been successful at a ton of different stops, and since his FAU squad isn’t quite up to the standard that many thought they’d be this season he could be ripe for a plucking. If Louisville wants a name-branded coach, they can’t go wrong with Kiffin.

• Other candidates: OSU DC Greg Schiano, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, Brock Spack still quietly kicking ass at Illinois State, Baylor (and former Temple HC) Matt Rhule might want to return to the midwest.