Catching up with Brian Brohm

The recruiting game is starting to heat up for one of the nation’s top quarterbacks, Louisville (Ky.) Trinity standout Brian Brohm.

The early favorite for the Bluegrass State’s “Mr. Football” award in 2004, Brohm has reeled in six scholarship offers to date and has three other major programs indicating they are close to making it official.

“Louisville, Kentucky, Purdue, Illinois, Iowa and Tennessee have all made official offers,” he said. “Notre Dame and Ohio State are saying they will sometime soon, and Georgia is showing heavy interest.”

Brohm noted that those nine schools are the main choices on his early list. The only team he has significant interest in but hasn’t received much in return is Oklahoma.

“I’d have to take a good look at them if they recruited me,” he said of the Sooners.

All of those programs are chasing the player who put up almost obscene passing numbers as a junior. In leading Trinity to the Class 4A state championship, Brohm threw for 3,777 yards, 47 touchdowns and only one interception. He’s tossed 86 TD passes and a scant six interceptions in the last two years.

How has the 6-foot-3, 200-pound phenom dealt with all the national attention, including an appearance as Sports Illustrated cover boy for a high school feature story in the Nov. 18, 2002 edition?

“My dad and my brother have helped me a lot because they’ve been through this stuff before,” said Brohm, whose father, Oscar, and brother, Jeff, are former college players. “They’ve just told me to keep things simple, don’t get carried away with it, and keep doing the things that made you successful in the first place.”

Rumors always seem to circle the top players, even early in the process, and Brohm has just about heard them all.

He’s always wanted to play for Notre Dame.

He’s a lock for Louisville, where his father and brother were quarterbacks, and the latter was named quarterbacks coach under Bob Petrino this winter.

He wants to establish his own identity and likes the idea of playing close to home and in the SEC spotlight, i.e. Kentucky or Tennessee.

He wants to be in a conference assured of playing for a BCS bowl or national championship.

“There’s a little bit of truth to all of them,” Brohm admitted. “All of those things have entered my mind at one point or another. I can’t say any of them are more important than the others right now. But I’ll be considering that kind of stuff when it gets closer to the time for me to make a decision.”

Brohm said he’d likely wait until the end of his senior season to make that commitment.

Are there leaders at this point?

“Louisville and Kentucky are definitely up there at the top,” he said. “I want to see how those teams do this year with the new coaches and offenses.

“The next two are probably Notre Dame and Tennessee. But it’s so early, I really can’t say for sure. I’d like to make some visits before I get too deep into that.”

What will be the key factors in his decision-making process?

“I want to go someplace where I’m comfortable with the coaches and the offense, mainly, and where they can get me to my ultimate goal, the NFL,” Brohm said.

Brohm has made two unofficial visits to Louisville’s spring practice this year. His baseball schedule has prevented him from making any other trips.

“I wanted to go to Kentucky’s spring game this weekend, but we have a tournament with three games on Saturday,” he said.

Brohm’s summer camp schedule isn’t finalized, but he hopes to visit Notre Dame. He’ll also be in 7-on-7 passing tournaments at Louisville and Illinois.