As recent professional QB, Brian Brohm adds value to Purdue staff
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More: Former WKU QB praises Jeff Brohm ($) | Brohm featured in Gold and Black Illustrated
Brian Brohm may not have had much experience before 2016 spending week days at the head of a position meeting room dropping insight into the quarterback position or spending game days in the press box, watching games with a headset.
Brohm hadn’t coached before 2016 because he was busy playing the position for eight seasons professionally, including three seasons in the NFL.
But because of that experience, he made a seamless transition to the coaching ranks for Western Kentucky under older brother Jeff Brohm this season. Brian Brohm will continue his growth as a coach under Jeff at Purdue, likely as the Boilermakers’ QB coach and co-offensive coordinator, though no designation was released Monday when Purdue announced six additions to the staff.
“The quarterback position is very important. Now that I’m the head coach, I do like to have somebody who knows how to coach that position,” Jeff Brohm said during his appearance on ‘Gold and Black LIVE’ last month. “So any time you can get a guy that just got done playing it in the college and in the NFL and has been there, he kind of knows the reality of how it works. It’s different than what’s in the book and on the chalkboard and what you’re looking at (on) video tape. Have you been in there, under fire when people are coming at you and you’re getting hit? How do you handle that? So he’s been great at that because he’s just fresh out of it. He relates extremely well to players. He’s calmer than me. He’s good. He’s under control. He gives his input. He kind of sees things the way I do a little bit. He’s been very valuable.”
The 31-year-old Brohm helped mold Western Kentucky’s Mike White, who passed for 4,363 yards and 37 touchdowns in his first season as a starter for the Hilltoppers in 2016. Brohm coached in WKU’s bowl game but didn’t call plays — that role was given to the receivers coach in Jeff Brohm’s stead — but he still played an integral role in the offense. WKU interim coach Nick Holt told WBKO before the bowl that Brian Brohm “does a good job of seeing coverages and giving suggestions.” Holt said he didn’t want Brohm calling plays because that would have been too much for a first-year coach. But Holt, who has coached at USC, Washington and Louisville, said he has faith in Brohm.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with him,” Holt told the station. “I think he’s going to be a future star eventually, given more time.”
Brohm was an NFL second-round draft pick in 2008 out of Louisville. As a three-year starter for the Cardinals, he threw for nearly 11,000 yards and 71 touchdowns. He also was one of the best prep quarterbacks Kentucky’s history, winning three state titles at Trinity in Louisville, earning Mr. Football and USA Today’s Offensive Player of the Year and Gatorade Player of the Year. He threw for nearly 11,000 yards and 119 touchdowns.
Those numbers are even more impressive considering the pressure on the youngest Brohm’s shoulders.
He was following father Oscar, who also was a quarterback at Louisville, brother Greg, a receiver at Trinity and Louisville, and Jeff, a quarterback at Trinity and Louisville.
And he’ll continue to be able to learn under his older siblings. Jeff coached Brian at Louisville before hiring him at WKU and Greg worked as support staff at WKU and will have a similar role at Purdue.
“Brian and Jeff have a little bit different demeanors,” Greg Brohm said last month. “Brian is a little bit more reserved and calm. He was very calm as a player. Jeff’s a little more fiery. I’m a little more talkative. For awhile there, Brian was there, but Jeff and I were probably the more vocal ones in the office. But Brian is going to be a great coach because he’s got the perfect calm about him and control and his demeanor is perfect for quarterbacks and coaching offense. When he was a player, he was always under the spotlight. As a kid, he grew up being our little brother, my dad’s son, people talked about, ‘When he gets to high school and college, he’s going to be a great player,’ from the time he was in the crib. It never seemed to faze him. No stage was too big for him.
“It’s just kind of fun we’re all around. Even when he wasn’t on staff, he was always around us talking about the game and talking about team and very involved. It’s been neat, everybody being around. It’s kind of like our living room. We weren’t be doing anything different, if we weren’t on staff together. We’d be talking about the same things.”
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