Western Kentucky will announce Jeff Brohm as the 19th head football coach of the Hilltoppers Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the Jack and Jackie Harbaugh Club at Smith Stadium. The press conference is open to the public. 

Brohm will become a first-time head coach entering his second season with WKU after serving as offensive coordinator in 2013 under former coach Bobby Petrino, who returns to coach at Louisville after only one season with the Hilltoppers.

Brohm will lead WKU into its first season as a member of Conference USA, effective July 1. 

“I believe he is ready,” Petrino said during his press conference in Louisville Thursday. “That was one of the things when Jeff came to Western frm UAB that we talked about. My recruiting process of him was getting ready to be a head coach. He had said to me, ‘I now know I want to be, and that I’m going to be, a head coach. I would appreciate you helping me with everything you can do to get ready for that’. We’ve been working hard at it, and he’s extremely ready for it.”

In Brohm’s first year at WKU, the offense flourished with a school record 5,502 yards of offense to compliment a school record eight-win (8-4) season.

Brohm also helped to polish quarterback Brandon Doughty, who broke the school record for passing yards in a single season with 2,857.

Brohm has spent his entire football career either playing quarterback, or coaching them. Brohm made stops coaching quarterbacks at Alabama-Birmingham, Illinois and Florida Atlantic in between working with Petrino at WKU and his alma mater, Louisville.

The Louisville native coached at his hometown university from 2004-08, obtaining the offensive coordinator position in his final year with the Cardinals. It was there he coached his younger brother Brian Brohm, who finished second in the nation in passing efficiency (68.8 percent) and threw for 4,024 yards and 30 touchdowns.

Before coaching, Brohm served as a back-up quarterback for five NFL teams, including a 2001 stint with the XFL’s Orlando Rage, owning the league’s highest QB rating at 99.9.

Brohm’s decorated career as a quarterback at Louisville from 1989-93 includes multiple team MVP honors. 

Brohm will become WKU’s third football coach in as many years, and the fourth in six years.