Brown: Jeff Brohm leading Louisville football to first ACC title game is worth celebration

This moment needs to be savored.

Take a minute, Louisville.

Enjoy it, Jeff Brohm.

This needs to be celebrated even with Kentucky and the Governor’s Cup looming next week.

It’s not every season that the Cardinals earn a berth in the ACC championship game. It hadn’t been any season, actually.

Until Saturday.

U of L’s 38-31 win at Miami, where it had never won in seven previous games, clinched second place in the ACC and a spot across from Florida State in the conference's title game.

The feat likely solidified Brohm as the league’s Coach of the Year in his first season leading his alma mater.

He took a team not many expected much from — the Cards were picked eighth in the ACC’s preseason media poll — and molded it into a team that played to its strengths and did as good a job as any at covering for its weaknesses.

Louisville has been prone to have its flaws exposed away from home this season. That was the case against Miami.

Kicker Brock Travelstead missed a field goal and had a lowly kicked extra point blocked in the first half. (He was replaced by Nick Lopez who made a 40-yard field goal, his first attempt all season, in the third quarter.)

Quarterback Jack Plummer continued his streak of throwing an interception in every road game, where seven of his 10 picks have occurred.

Reserve defensive back Trey Franklin was called for targeting just before the half in what could have been a costly penalty.

Flaws and all, Louisville earned its way to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Dec. 2 showdown. That’s all that matters.

There will be plenty of naysayers who criticize how the Cards arrived there.

Some will say it was the schedule in the first year the ACC did away with divisions that did not include Florida State or North Carolina or Clemson but did include all of the schools that did not make a bowl game last season.

The Cards are undefeated at home this season, winning by an average of 20.4 points against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents. It surely couldn’t be assumed that FSU or UNC or Clemson would have won at L&N Stadium.

That’s why scheduling arguments are fruitless.

Louisville positioned itself for second place with seven league wins. And for good measure, did something no one else in the ACC could do in 30 previous regular season tries, which was beat Notre Dame.

There have probably been better teams at U of L that did not reach the title game. The Lamar Jackson-led team in 2016 that finished 7-1 in league play immediately comes to mind.

Its lone loss was a showdown at Clemson in which a Jackson pass to James Quick was stopped an antagonizing yard short of a first down and three-yards shy of the end zone. There was no chance of a rematch with the Tigers because the ACC was still split into divisions then.

This is clearly not that team.

Obviously the Cards don’t have a player like Jackson, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2016, who can singlehandedly erase a mistake or change the game on one play.

The playmakers U of L has have been injured the last half of the season and have struggled to play. Top cornerback Jarvis Brownlee hasn’t started since Pitt and hasn’t played since Duke.

Leading receiver Jamari Thrash has been playing with a hand injury that has limited his effectiveness.

Leading rusher Jawhar Jordan has been slowed by a hamstring, although he continues to play through it.

Knowing all it took to get to Charlotte, that's reason enough to celebrate. Louisville deserves to be there and now it has a shot to be crowned champions.

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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football, Jeff Brohm should enjoy all they've accomplished