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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 3 18 Brohm still was looking to find new ways to separate himself. It wouldn't be unusual for a coach to spend offseasons watching film of other teams, but Brohm watched teams not on WKU's upcoming schedule. "He continues to study," said brother Greg Brohm, who was on Jeff's staff at WKU as director of football operations and will join him at Purdue. "But offenses he likes, he'll study them. He wants to know what they do. He watches a lot of NFL film, seeing what the lat- est trends are, what teams are doing. He doesn't want to be left behind. He wants to be innovative himself, but if someone else is doing something he likes, he's going to borrow it. So he watches a lot of film, does a lot of research in the offseason. He encouraged our defensive staff to do the same and get what is working out there in the world of football. "He really wants to be ahead of the curve. He doesn't want to be trailing and following. He wants to be right there at the front edge of whatever is happening in football. It pays off. I think our players know that. They know what they're doing is innovative. That inspires them a little bit. It's just not your regular 'ol football that you were used to growing up. This is a new-age game and hopefully we continue to do that, continue to tweak our package but also if someone else does something good, we're going to use it." A DYNAMIC BRAND Jeff Brohm has a hearty list of influences to pull from. From Dennis Lampley at Trinity High School to Schnellenberger at Louisville to Bobby Ross, Pete Carroll, Marc Trestman, Mike Shanahan, Steve Mariucci, among many others, in the NFL to Bobby Petrino, who gave Brohm his first col- lege coaching job as a QB coach and, soon after, offen- sive coordinator. Brohm has pulled from all of them, crafting not just coaching philosophies and ways to motivate players but, just as importantly, a dynamic offense. In his three seasons as Western Kentucky's head coach, the Hilltoppers averaged 526 yards and near- ly 45 points per game. In each season, he had a 3,000-yard-plus passer, a 1,000-yard-plus rusher and at least one 1,000-yard-plus receiver. Success has been attained because Brohm's offens- es aren't easily defined. Some call it a spread because he often utilizes three receivers in no-huddle, shotgun, wide-open forma- tions. But he'll also tighten up formations, add anoth- er tight end or back, run jet sweeps, vary route com- binations, install power run schemes and look very much like a pro-style offense. "We do it all. Run, pass, run-pass option, throw it deep, run screens. So it does take a little while to get comfortable in it. But I think our offense is such that we're always trying to give ourselves as many options as possible," Greg Brohm said. "At Purdue, I think our players will buy into the system pretty quickly and they'll like playing it. It's fun. It's exciting. I think with the success that two different quarterbacks had in this offense (at Western), I think it gives us as coaches more confidence that what we're doing is the right thing. We continue to always tweak it, but I think it validates the system that we run." There's also a tempo element, too, an ability to speed up games to run as many plays as possible, when it best suits personnel. This season, WKU didn't crank up the tempo as often, though, and there was a reason. There's always a reason. "He plays to his players. I think that's a big key that a lot of coaches don't have," said Brandon Doughty, who passed for nearly 10,000 yards and 100 touchdowns in Brohm's two seasons as his head coach. "A lot of coaches have egos, and they're going to run their sys- tem no matter what personnel they have. But Coach adapts. He ran a different offense this year than he ran last year. He ran the ball a little bit more. It was kind of cool. He will adapt to his players, and I think that's what makes Coach special and one of the best coaches in the country for sure. "Wherever the playmakers are, he's going to find the matchup. He's going to find somewhat of a mis- match and get him the ball quickly or over the top. That's what makes Coach Brohm so good, man. He's so creative." In every sense. A significant part of Brohm's offense is his willing- ness to be aggressive — the 2016 team he left before its bowl game had more than 20 passing plays of at