With Jeff Brohm returning to coach his alma mater, Louisville fans are optimistic that the Cards can quickly return to prominence and contend in the ACC. What does Brohm’s initial Louisville coaching staff look like?
Louisville Cardinals Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Jeff Brohm
One of the top quarterbacks in Louisville history, Brohm was named the 24th head coach in school history. His career passing numbers still stand near the top of the Cardinals’ record books. A two-time team MVP, Brohm was inducted into the Louisville Ring of Honor in 2006. He also played eight seasons in the NFL.
Brohm returned to Louisville as an assistant in 2003, coaching quarterbacks from then until 2006 under Bobby Petrino. In fact, he coached his brother, Brian, into a second-round selection after a 4,000-passing-yard- and 40-touchdown-season in 2007. Brohm eventually took over as offensive coordinator in 2008.
He spent the 2009 to 2012 seasons coaching quarterbacks at Florida Atlantic, Illinois, and UAB before becoming the offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky. After just a single season as offensive coordinator, Brohm took over as WKU’s head coach.
Under Brohm’s tutelage, the Hilltopers’ starting quarterbacks completed 69.2 percent of their passes and threw 131 touchdowns and just 25 interceptions. His teams rewrote the WKU record book, breaking more than 75 school offensive records since 2013. Western Kentucky ranked in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense, passing offense, and total offense each of his three seasons as head coach.
Brohm’s success at Western Kentucky earned him a shot in the Power 5 ranks at Purdue in 2017. In his tenure there, he produced nine NFL Draft picks — most notably DE George Karlaftis, a first-round pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022; WR Rondale Moore, a second-round selection in 2021 by the Arizona Cardinals; and WR David Bell, a third-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2022.
Playing in Brohm’s offense, several Boilermakers earned league honors. Moore and Bell won back-to-back Big Ten Freshman of the Year awards and Big Ten Wide Receiver of the Year awards, while Brycen Hopkins was tabbed the Big Ten Tight End of the Year in 2019. Moore was also the 2018 Paul Hornung Award winner as the nation’s most versatile player.
Three Boilermakers were named All-Americans during Brohm’s tenure at Purdue. In nine seasons as a head coach, he boasts a career record of 66-44. He also went 36-34 at Purdue with three wins over top-three teams in his tenure.
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Secondary: Ron English
English has been coaching defense since the 1990s and has a long history of success doing so. He first started in the collegiate ranks as a graduate assistant for Arizona State from 1994-95. After spending a year coaching defensive backs at Northern Arizona, English joined the San Diego State staff in 1996. He returned to Tempe to serve as defensive backs coach in 1998 for the Sun Devils.
After spending four years at Arizona State, English became the defensive backs coach at Michigan under Lloyd Carr in 2003 and eventually worked his way up to defensive coordinator for Michigan in 2006. After the staff was canned, just before the Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan, English took the defensive coordinator job for Louisville in 2008. English spent a year there before becoming the head coach at Eastern Michigan.
He served in that role for four years, winning MAC Coach of the Year in 2011 after guiding them to a 6-6 record. English returned to the West Coast to serve as San Jose State’s defensive coordinator in 2016 before heading to the SEC as Mississippi State’s safeties coach. His safeties helped Mississippi State beat Lamar Jackson’s Louisville squad that season in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
He followed Dan Mullen to Florida in the same role as safeties coach. At Florida, English coached NFL Draft picks S Chauncey Gardner Johnson and S Shawn Davis. After three years there, English joined Brohm’s staff at Purdue before following him to Louisville.
English’s full coaching resume can be found here:
- Pomona Ganesha HS (Assistant, 1992)
- Mt. San Antonio (Defensive Backs, 1993
- Arizona State (Graduate Assistant, 1994-95)
- Northern Arizona (Defensive Backs, 1996)
- San Diego State (Defensive Backs, 1996-97)
- Arizona State (Defensive Backs, 1998-2002)
- Michigan (Defensive Backs, 2003-05; Defensive Coordinator, 2006-07)
- Louisville (Defensive Coordinator, 2008)
- Eastern Michigan (Head Coach, 2009-13)
- San Jose State (Defensive Coordinator, 2016)
- Mississippi State (Safeties, 2017)
- Florida (Safeties, 2018-20)
- Purdue (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs, 2021-22)
- Louisville (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Secondary, 2023-Present)
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line: Mark Hagen
A former standout linebacker at Indiana, Hagen got started as a coach for his alma mater as a graduate assistant in 1992. After spending four years in Bloomington, he took over as defensive tackles coach for Northern Illinois in 1996. Hagen coached there from 1996 to 1999 and joined the Purdue Boilermakers staff in 2000.
Hagen coached defensive tackles, linebackers, and special teams and served as assistant head coach while at Purdue from 2000 to 2010. During that time in West Lafayette, Purdue’s defense saw 18 members selected in the NFL Draft.
He returned to Indiana as defensive tackles/special teams coordinator from 2011-12 before taking over as linebackers coach at Texas A&M. Soon after, he moved over to coach defensive tackles there, as well. Hagen spent three seasons with the Aggies before returning once more to Indiana as co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach.
After that three-year stint at Indiana, Hagen served as associate head coach for the defense and defensive line coach at Texas during the 2020 season. He returned to Purdue in 2021 as co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach before following Brohm to Louisville in the same capacity.
Hagen’s full coaching resume can be found here:
- Indiana (Graduate Assistant, 1992-93; Football Operations, 1993-95)
- Northern Illinois (Defensive Tackles, 1996-99)
- Purdue (Defensive Tackles, 2000-05; Linebackers, 2006-07; Special Teams Coordinator, 2003-08; Assistant Head Coach, 2005-8; Defensive Tackles, 2008; Linebackers, 2009-10)
- Indiana (Defensive Tackles/Special Teams Coordinator, 2011-12)
- Texas A&M (Linebackers, 2013-14; Defensive Tackles, 2015)
- Indiana (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line coach, 2016-18)
- Texas (Associate Head Coach/Defensive Line coach, 2020)
- Purdue (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line coach, 2021-22)
- Louisville (Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line coach, 2023-Present)
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks: Brian Brohm
The brother of head coach Jeff Brohm, Brian Brohm was also an accomplished quarterback for the Louisville Cardinals. His 30 touchdown passes in 2007 are tied for second in school history with 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. He was a second-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 2008 NFL Draft.
After his professional career was over, Brohm joined his brother’s staff at Western Kentucky as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Brohm coached Mike White to a 4,000-yard passing season and 37 touchdowns. He followed his brother to Purdue, where he has mentored David Blough, Elijah Sindelar, Jack Plummer, and Aidan O’Connell to numerous successful seasons as signal-callers for the Boilermakers.
Brohm’s full coaching resume can be found below:
- Western Kentucky (Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks coach, 2016)
- Purdue (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks, 2017-22)
- Louisville (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks, 2023)
Special Teams/Tight Ends Coach: Ryan Wallace
Wallace played tight end at Western Kentucky for two seasons in 2011 and 2012 before becoming a graduate assistant under Brohm in 2013. He worked with the tight ends and offensive line from 2013 to 2015, helping coach Tyler Higbee to all-conference honors and a fourth-round selection in 2016.
Wallace spent the 2016 season as the tight ends coach at Austin Peay before reuniting with Brohm at Purdue. He spent 2017 and 2018 as a quality control coach before taking over as tight ends coach in 2019. He also mentored Brycen Hopkins and Payne Durham, with the former winning Big Ten Tight End of the Year in 2018 and the latter finishing All-Big 10 in 2022. Durham is second all-time among Purdue tight ends in touchdowns.
Running Backs Coach: Chris Barclay
An accomplished running back in the ACC during his playing days, Barclay is Wake Forest’s all-time leading rushing and scorer and was the first player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to lead the league in rushing three consecutive seasons. After spending three seasons in the NFL, Barclay started coaching at his alma mater in 2011.
Barclay spent the 2012 and 2013 seasons on the staff at William & Mary coaching running backs before taking the same job with the Marshall Thundering Herd. He helped Devon Johnson finish as a Doak Walker Award semifinalist in 2014 in his first year playing running back. Barclay then joined Brohm at Western Kentucky in 2016, helping Anthony Wales rush for a school-record 27 touchdowns.
He joined Brohm at Purdue in 2017 and spent five years there, helping Purdue’s running backs, before following him to Louisville.
Wide Receivers Coach: Garrick McGee
Making his second stint at Louisville, McGee followed Brohm from Purdue. A successful player at Oklahoma, McGee transitioned from player to coach in 1996 at Langston. From there, McGee spent the 1999 season coaching receivers at Northern Iowa before serving as a quality control coach for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars in 2000 and 2001.
He coached wide receivers at Toledo, UNLV, and Northwestern from 2002-05 before becoming Northwestern’s offensive coordinator in 2006. After two seasons there, McGee served as the quarterbacks coach for Arkansas in 2008 and 2009 before becoming their offensive coordinator in 2010, coaching QB Ryan Mallett to immense success.
McGee spent 2012 and 2013 as the head coach at UAB but was dismissed following the 2013 season. His first stint at Louisville came here, serving as their offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from 2014 and 2015 under Bobby Petrino. McGee took the same position at Illinois from 2016-17 before heading to Missouri as an analyst in 2018.
He coached wide receivers at Missouri in 2019 before heading to the Florida Gators where he spent 2020 as an analyst and 2021 coaching quarterbacks. After Dan Mullen was fired at Florida, McGee joined Brohm’s staff at Purdue, coaching wide receivers.
Offensive Line Coach: Richard Owens
A Louisville alum, Owens was a three-year starter at tight end for the Cardinals from 2000-2003. Owens went on to play in the NFL, signing as an undrafted free agent with the Minnesota Vikings in 2004. He spent five years in the NFL with the Vikings, then-St. Louis Rams, and New York Jets, before beginning his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Arkansas in 2010.
Like McGee, Owens coached at UAB from 2012-2014. He coached tight ends in 2012 and served as offensive coordinator in 2013 before returning to coach tight ends in 2014 under Bill Clark before the program was dismantled. From there, he spent three years coaching tight ends and the offensive line at South Alabama before going in 2018 to Louisville to coach tight ends.
Owens would reunite with Clark at UAB when the program returned, this time as their offensive line coach. He helped the Blazers win their second C-USA Championship over a three-year span. The Blazers’ offensive line also had tremendous success, led by first-team All-Conference USA selections Sidney Wells and Colby Ragland.
He then spent the 2022 season as the offensive line coach at Georgia Southern, whose offensive line allowed just seven sacks and helped the Eagles finish the year with over 4,200 passing yards and 28 touchdowns to go along with nearly 1,800 yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground.
Linebackers Coach: Mark Ivey
Before coaching in the collegiate ranks, Ivey spent 16 years as a successful high school coach in Florida, including 10 seasons as a head coach. He coached at Appalachian State, serving as their special teams coordinator, outside linebackers, and defensive line coach from 2012-18. Ivey coached Ronald Blair at App State and stayed there until 2018, when he joined the Louisville staff.
Cornerbacks Coach: Steve Ellis
After a three-year all-conference career as a defensive back at Nicholls State, Ellis went straight into coaching there. During his six-year tenure at his alma mater, he coached three FCS All-Americans, seven first-team, all-conference performers, a conference player-of-the-year (third-round Baltimore Ravens draft pick Lardarius Webb), a defensive player-of-the-year (Kareem Moore), and two newcomer-of-the-year award winners.
He was also a two-time participant in the NFL Coaches Fellowship Program, learning from Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin and legendary defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau in 2008.
Ellis then spent ten years at Middle Tennessee State, coaching cornerbacks from 2009-18. There, he also served as defensive coordinator from 2011-14. Ellis coached under Charlie Strong at South Florida in 2019 as his defensive backs coach before coaching cornerbacks with East Carolina from 2020 to 2022.
There, Ellis coached Ja’Quan McMillian to a 2021 Second-Team All-America selection, a semifinalist appearance for the Jim Thorpe Award, and an All-AAC choice for the second straight year.