Jeff Brohm resisted the urge to come home the first time his alma mater called.

This time, Louisville’s prodigal son has returned.

The former Cardinals quarterback, who in 2018 turned down a similar opportunity to coach the team that made him famous, fulfilled what Louisville fans had hoped would be his destiny on Wednesday by agreeing to a reported 6-year, $35 million deal.

His name has been the only one mentioned seriously as a candidate for the job since Scott Satterfield left for Cincinnati in a surprise move earlier this week.

Brohm inherits a program that has produced a Heisman Trophy winner and flirted with national relevance but is still trying to recover from the mess left behind by Satterfield’s predecessor, Bobby Petrino, and other external factors that have plagued the school’s athletic department in recent years.

If there’s anyone capable of overcoming those obstacles and teaching the Cardinals how to fly high again, Brohm is the one.

He doesn’t just have a proven record of success at both Western Kentucky, where his teams won 10-plus games in each of his last 2 seasons, and his most recent stop Purdue, where he led the Boilermakers to the Big Ten West title and a date with LSU in the Citrus Bowl this season. He’s also uniquely familiar with the specifics of the challenge he just accepted.

Brohm became a Louisville legend on a chilly, drizzly night in Memphis on Dec. 28, 1993.

Playing with a broken index finger on his throwing hand that prevented him from practicing until a few days before his final college game, he led a stirring 4th quarter comeback to beat Michigan State in the Liberty Bowl.

Now the conquering hero is being asked to recreate that glory.

Here’s the thing about storybook endings, though. They only happen in storybooks.

For every Roy Williams, who came home to North Carolina in its time of need and won 3 national championships in basketball, there’s a Mike Shula or Mark Richt – neither of whom lasted long at Alabama and Miami, respectively.

Like Williams, Brohm balked at his first opportunity at his dream job. But it wasn’t because he was reluctant to take it.

He was just finishing Year 2 at Purdue; the timing simply wasn’t right.

“To be quite honest, through my schooling and how I was raised, I believe in at least trying to do the right thing and having morals and values,” he told the Indianapolis Star in 2018. “It just was too early to leave. It just wasn’t right.”

After 6 seasons at Purdue, where his record is 36-34, Brohm’s circumstances have changed. So have those of the program he’s about to take over.

Louisville was a proverbial train wreck at the time of its initial flirtation with Brohm. The basketball program was under investigation by the NCAA and FBI while the football team was in the midst of a crash that cost Petrino his job before the season ended.

At least this crash was the kind that took place on the field, rather than a motorcycle.

The Cardinals were 2-8 overall (0-7 in the ACC) and had been outscored 291-125 in their previous 5 losses when Petrino was fired with 2 games remaining in the season.

With Brohm unavailable, Satterfield was brought in from his own alma mater, Appalachian State. And despite an administrative situation that only got worse before it finally started getting better, he left the program in better shape than he found it.

Now it’s Brohm’s job to raise the bar higher.

He won’t be starting over from scratch. This year’s team is 7-5 heading into its Fenway Bowl matchup against, ironically enough, Satterfield’s new team, Cincinnati. It features a defense that ranks among the top 3 nationally in sacks and takeaways while its rushing attack is among the best in the ACC.

Brohm’s effort to build on that foundation should be aided by the elimination of the ACC’s 2-division format next year. Without the burden of an Atlantic Division schedule and its annual date with Clemson, the Cardinals stand a better chance of climbing up the conference standings.

And they figure to have some fun while they’re doing it.

Brohm’s preferred style of play is what you’d expect from a former quarterback who liked to throw the ball all around the yard. The high-powered, air-raid attack is designed to put up big numbers on both the stat sheet and the scoreboard.

It’s a brand of football that should be as attractive to recruits as is to a fan base that’s spent the past 4 years staying away from Cardinal Stadium while pining for its prodigal son to return.

Brohm’s hiring has ignited an energy in Louisville’s program that hasn’t been felt since Lamar Jackson stopped leaping opposing defenders in a single bound.

Now comes the hard part. Fulfilling the promise by turning that energy into results.