Tyler Shough hasn’t stopped receiving praise after a successful week of practices leading up to the Senior Bowl.
The former Louisville quarterback impressed NFL scouts and others with his arm strength, mobility and maturity; he was named the National Team’s top quarterback. During the game, he had a touchdown pass and completed a 2-point conversion. Shough, who spoke with all 32 teams, is projected to be selected anywhere from the fourth to the sixth rounds of the NFL draft in April.
If you put him in an offense like Sean McVay’s, like Kyle Shanahan’s, like Kevin Stefanski’s, this kid is going to be the surprise and steal of the draft, in particular, at quarterback,” NFL and college football analyst Louis Riddick said last week on the “Rich Eisen Show.” “… He’s a guy that’s been coached by Jeff and Brian Brohm, who to me, right now, there is nobody better as far as tutoring quarterbacks for the pro game in all of college football. Remember that name, Tyler Shough.”
Besides Shough, wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooksmade the most of his one season at Louisville, becoming the program’s eighth different player to total 1,000 receiving yards in a season. Brooks, who transferred from Alabama, is also projected to be a Day 3 pick.
Jeff Brohm, Louisville’s head coach, has had success bringing in first-year transfer players who became key contributors to the team and, eventually, NFL draft picks.
So far this season, Louisville has added 21 players from the transfer portal. Given the turnover the program had during the offseason, many newcomers have a chance to be immediate contributors. Miller Moss, for one, will carry the quarterback torch at Louisville and likely will be an NFL draft prospect to watch this fall. The former USC signal caller was ranked as the eighth-best quarterback in the portal. Linebackers Kalib Perry and Darius Thomas and safety Corey Gordon were also among the top 25 transfers at their positions.
After Brohm’s last season at Purdue, five of his players were selected in the 2023 NFL Draft — the most during his tenure with the program. The first Boilermaker off the board was wide receiver Charlie Jones, a first-year transfer from Iowa who set the program’s single-season record for receiving yards (1,361) and led the nation with 110 catches.
In Brohm’s first year at Louisville, he signed 25 portal players, and the Cardinals had the program’s seventh 10-win season. The spring after, the Cardinals had four players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, all of whom came to Louisville via the transfer portal.
Running back Isaac Guerendo, who was only at Louisville for a year, was the first Cardinal off the board in the fourth round. He went from 385 yards and five touchdowns on 64 carries in his final year at Wisconsin to 810 yards and 11 TDs on 132 carries at Louisville in 2023. In Guerendo’s first NFL season with the San Francisco 49ers, he averaged 5 yards per carry and totaled four scores as the team’s second-leading rusher.
Cornerback Jarvis Brownlee, who spent his final three years at U of L, and wide receiver Jamari Thrash (one year) were fifth-round picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. Louisville running back Jawhar Jordan (three years) rounded out the selections in the sixth round.
Louisville’s four draftees tied with Miami for third most in the ACC. That included two first-year transfers for both squads. Only 2023 ACC champion Florida State, which had 10 players drafted, had more first-year, draft-eligible transfers selected with three.
That kind of short-term success is part of what drew Shough to Louisville. He was teammates with Jordan in high school and was part of a talented recruiting class of Arizona high school quarterbacks with Jack Plummer, who was the Cards’ quarterback for the 2023 season and signed with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent.
“I think the standard that they create is we’re trying to go out there and accomplish a championship, and everybody’s in the same mindset,” Shough told The Courier Journal. “Everyone’s trying to get to the next level. But you’ve got to come and work together. But everybody’s success is going to be their own individual success. I think with that mindset and then this offense and how they prepare you and what you’re being asked to do definitely equips you for (the NFL).”
Had it not been for his year at Louisville, Shough doesn’t think he would’ve been ready for the NFL. Not only did he play a full seasonas a starter for the first time in his career but Shough also joined an elite group of Louisville quarterbacks to have passed for 3,000 yards in a season.
I think being able to just get under center, do different footwork, … running a lot of volume of plays,” he said. “I felt like I had a really good general understanding and football knowledge prior to and was able to come in and operate the offense and understand the run game and the checks and really kind of make it my own, but just the volume of plays, what we were asked to do (with) their style of coaching. It was all kind of contributing to that success.”
Shough aims to be the seventh Louisville quarterback to get drafted since 2000, a list that includes current quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm. It would tie an ACC best with Stanford, which has had seven quarterbacks drafted in the last 25 years.
“To represent them (Louisville quarterbacks), just credit to all my past coaches and especially both coach Brian Brohm and Jeff Brohm,” Shough said. “I love those guys. What they’ve done for me has been tremendous. I think it’d just be cool just because of how much we love Louisville and the fans and the whole school in general.”