Preview: Louisville QB Justin Shough has been around for a while

Louisville starting QB Justin Shough, whose college career started at Oregon in 2018, the third year of the six-year Bronco Mendenhall era at Virginia, is, at the age of 25, older than 10 starters in the NFL.

Shough, a four-star who picked Oregon over Alabama, FSU, Georgia, Michigan and, yes, Louisville, backed up five-year NFL veteran Justin Herbert as a redshirt freshman in 2019, was the starter there in 2020, then, after losing the starting job to Boston College transfer Anthony Brown, he transferred to Texas Tech, where his first season, in 2021, ended with a broken collarbone in the Red Raiders’ fourth game.

For those keeping score at home, we’ve already had a redshirt year, the COVID redshirt, and now a medical redshirt.

OK.

Shough was the starter and played seven games in 2022, then had his 2023 season cut short with a broken fibula.

He hit the portal again, and landed at Louisville, where the 6’5” gunslinger is putting up good numbers through five games – 288.6 passing yards per game, 64.5 percent completion rate, 13 TDs, two INTs.

Louisville coach Jeff Brohm has dialed back on Shough’s contributions on the ground. He had 703 yards and 10 TDs in 22 games over four seasons, from 2020-2023, at Oregon and Texas Tech, with 423 yards on 92 designed runs part of that total.

This season, Brohm has only called three designed QB runs for Shough, trying to focus on keeping his guy healthy.

The rest of the Louisville offense

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Shough’s top target is 6’3” senior Ja’Corey Brooks, an Alabama transfer.

Brooks has 25 catches on 35 targets for 489 yards, six TDs and a 129.5 NFL passer rating on throws in his direction.

Watch for him on passes downfield – Brooks has eight catches on 11 targets for 128 yards and two TDs on passes 10-19 yards past the line of scrimmage, and five catches on 11 balls for 238 yards and three TDs on targets 20+ yards downfield.

Freshman tailback Isaac Brown leads the team in rushing (368 yards, 9.3 yards per carry), and has 13 catches out of the backfield (7.0 yards per reception).

The run game slants to the right side of the line. UL has run for 444 yards on 55 attempts (8.1 yards per attempt) behind the right guard (Austin Collins) and right tackle (Jonathan Mendoza and Rasheed Miller).

The unit averages 472.6 yards per game of total offense, ranking fourth in the ACC, and 38.6 points per game, ranking fifth in the ACC.