U of L QB healthy

[SRQ]

Knee healed, now it's time for a hit

Brohm, Petrino both looking forward to it

By Eric Crawford

ecrawford@courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal

Bobby Petrino, ever creative, is looking for a way to help junior quarterback Brian Brohm clear the final hurdle from off-season knee surgery. The University of Louisville football coach's concerns about Brohm's knee strength, mobility and stamina are gone.

"The knee is healed," Petrino said.

But he's still eager to see Brohm take that first hit in a game situation. He's not eager enough to take the protective yellow jersey off of him when practice begins Aug. 4, but he'd like to get him ready for it.

"I'm thinking about asking his dad (former U of L quarterback Oscar Brohm) and brothers (U of L quarterbacks coach Jeff Brohm and director of football operations Greg Brohm) to take him out in the backyard and knock him around a little bit," Petrino quipped.

Said Brian Brohm, in true younger-brother fashion: "I don't know if they can rough me up too much anymore. I think those days are behind them."

His recovery has reached this point: He and Petrino can both joke about it. Watching Brohm under sunny skies in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on Monday afternoon, there were no visible signs of the major surgery he underwent to repair ligament damage in his right knee last December.

In fact, he was running through passing drills -- with no defense present -- without a brace of any kind. He'll wear one through all practices and games this season, but it's a sign of his ability to put the injury out of his mind that he leaves it in the locker for the throwing drills.

 

"I haven't had any problem forgetting about it on the field so far," he said. "… Out here throwing and running it doesn't even enter my mind. I just don't feel it."

Brohm's recovery has been ahead of schedule at every turn. He was moving well enough to have played in the spring game, but the coaches saw no need to take risks. Still, he took part in all seven-on-seven drills and in route drills with receivers. When defensive players came in, Brohm went to the side and worked with trainers on agility and flexibility.

But if the whole summer has been about putting the injury out of his mind, every conversation seems to center around his recovery.

"All the time, everybody wants to know about the knee," Brohm said. "It's 100 percent. I just tell everybody it's going to be OK, but obviously it's a question everybody is going to ask until the season gets here and they see that it's fine."

Petrino and Brohm will be looking for one more thing as the season nears, though it's a question that might not get answered until the Cardinals face Kentucky on Sept. 3.

"I think physically, overall, he's in better shape than he was a year ago right now -- as far as his flexibility and strength," Petrino said. "The thing that you work for right now is to be prepared for that first hit, to be able to handle the focus downfield when there's people moving around you and people falling at your feet. That's the obstacle he has to overcome.

"As a quarterback, your focus downfield and your ability to see the movement of the safeties and linebackers is the key. Whenever you get your eyes down on the defensive front or are feeling things that aren't there, you're not going to throw as accurately as you want to. …

"One thing we have to do is make sure he's understanding what's ahead of him, looking it right in the eye and facing it. And he's certainly, certainly going to do that, because he's mentally a very tough young man."

Brohm said he's not concerned. In fact, he's probably looking forward to that hit -- at least as much as one can look forward to such a thing.

"Once that first hit comes, I'll probably never think about the knee again," he said. "I'm really not thinking about it now, but that'll just be reassuring, I guess."

[bulls96go]

hope he does well except against usf