Louisville football position preview: Quarterback
This will be the first rendition of our “position preview” series leading up to the 2025 Louisville football season.
Filling Tyler Shough’s shoes will be a tall task.
But if there was one coach in the country who was capable of replacing a second-round NFL draft pick at the quarterback position, it would be Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm. Now entering his third season, Brohm has guided Louisville to back-to-back nine-win seasons, and his quarterbacks, Shough and 2023’s Jack Plummer, have been key reasons why. Plummer had an inconsistent season with high highs and low lows, while Shough was one of the most NFL-ready quarterbacks in the country.
Last season, Shough, the seventh-year transfer quarterback from Chandler, Arizona, was one of the best passers in the ACC as he threw for 3,195 yards, 23 touchdowns, and just six interceptions. The 25-year-old led Louisville to an 8-4 regular-season record, including a program-defining win against No. 11 Clemson.
The Cardinals also lost Harrison Bailey, last season’s backup, who transferred to spend his final season of eligibility at Florida. Bailey shined in the Sun Bowl win over Washington, throwing for three touchdowns. Third-string Pierce Clarkson ended up with UCLA.
To replace Shough’s production, the Cardinals have brought in another veteran presence out of the transfer portal, Miller Moss. The senior from Los Angeles was one of the best quarterback prospects in the class of 2021, but after an up-and-down four years at USC, Moss has high expectations holding the reins to the Brohm offense.
The portal’s No. 11 ranked quarterback started nine games in the Big Ten last season, going 4-5, but was benched by the Trojans for the remaining four games by head coach Lincoln Riley and never saw the field again. Moss finished the season completing 64.4 percent of his passes for 2,555 yards, 18 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound signal caller has flashed his talent throughout his college career, but has yet to put it together for a full string of games and a season. One of the best performances of Moss’s career actually came against Louisville when he filled in for the No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams in the 2023 Holiday Bowl for his first career start. In Louisville’s 42-28 loss, Moss torched the Cardinals’ secondary for 372 yards on 23 completions and six touchdowns.
His 2024 benching wasn’t necessarily a product of Moss’s poor play, but rather a struggling Southern California program that couldn’t seem to find ways to help its quarterback.
As the expected starter in the Ville this fall, Moss shined in spring training camp. He’s mentally tough, has experience running a complex pro-style offense, and has seen the game through multiple perspectives — coming from being a star in high school, a three-year backup to a benched starter, and a highly sought-after transfer. Moss can make pre-snap reads and playcalling decisions, and shows little to no timidness or nervousness with the football. In the spring, Moss showed poise, his high football IQ, and game management as well as a keen ability to hit on the short to intermediate throws with good timing.
Moss’s problems arise on the deep throws, something Louisville fans were lucky to have Shough for, as well as late-game aggression. When it comes down to it, Moss is about as inexperienced as it comes for a fifth-year quarterback with his talent. He’s only started 10 career games, going 5-5, and all five of those losses have been decided by a touchdown or fewer. Moss had some ugly moments down the stretch against Washington, Minnesota, and Penn State. In terms of his deep ball accuracy, there’s just a lot of inconsistency. At Louisville, Moss will have to work long drives, utilize the run game, and get chunk plays on short to medium throws.
He’s athletic enough to be mobile in the pocket, but like Shough, he doesn’t like to use his legs to create yards past the line of scrimmage often. In his career, Moss has rushed for four touchdowns and nine total yards.
Backing up the USC transfer, we’ll likely see Deuce Adams and Brady Allen. Adams, the redshirt freshman from Austin, Texas, took snaps against Austin Peay last season but has yet to throw a pass. He was the No. 38 quarterback in the country coming out of high school at 6-foot-2, 190 pounds. Adams is still physically a year or two away from competing for a starting role at the power-four level. Allen, who was a high-rated prospect out of Gibson Southern (Indiana), came with Brohm from Purdue three years ago and played in two games as a junior last season with the Cards. He was the second-highest-rated quarterback prospect in Purdue history. History suggests that Allen will be the backup this fall, but he’s yet to show enough consistency in practice to make him anything but that.
Also filling the room is Mason Mims, Louisville’s second-best recruit in the 2025 class, who is somewhere in the mix but likely won’t see playing time this year. The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder out of Oxford (Alabama) was the No. 47 quarterback in the nation coming out of high school. Adams, Allen, and Mims will need to be developed as potential starters of the future throughout this fall while getting occasional live-game reps.
The bottom line: Miller Moss will be the starter and will have the opportunity to shine in the Jeff Brohm QB-friendly offense. But, with limited experience and inconsistencies in the games he’s started, there is no guarantee of the same kind of production Louisville had at the position last season. However, it’s not like Tyler Shough came into the season with no doubts. Moss will have the chance to prove himself, and with the run game to lean on, he should be due for a solid season. Behind him in the depth chart, it’s a bit of a mixed bag full of unknowns.
Expected depth chart:
- Miller Moss — 6-foot-2, 210 lbs, R-Sr.
- Brady Allen — 6-foot-6, 220 lbs, R-Jr.
- Deuce Adams — 6-foot-2, 190 lbs, R-Fr.
- Mason Mims — 6-foot-3, 210 lbs, Fr.
