The Louisville Cardinals eked out a 35-34 win over the Washington Huskies in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl on Tuesday by stopping a 2-point conversion in the final seconds. The victory capped off a 9-4 season for Louisville football, which just won nine-plus games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a decade.

Jeff Brohm is now 19-8 in two seasons at the helm as Louisville football's head coach. Brohm left Purdue to took over for Scott Satterfield after an uneven four-year run during which the Cardinals went 26-24. Brohm went to Louisville and was a Cardinals assistant coach in the 2000s.

Louisville football enjoyed sustained success in the 2010s, first under Charlie Strong and then Bobby Petrino. From 2012-14, the Cardinals went 11-2, 12-1 and 9-4, with Petrino taking over for that 2014 season after Strong left for Texas. Petrino wasn't able to make it four nine-win seasons in a row for the program in 2015, but they still won eight games that year, nine in 2016 and eight in 2017 before a disastrous 2-10 campaign in 2018. Petrino was fired after a 2-8 start that season.

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Brohm's Louisville football team secured their ninth win of this season behind three touchdown passes from quarterback Harrison Bailey, who stepped in for Tyler Shough after the star senior opted out of the Sun Bowl. Bailey had big shoes to fill given Shough threw for 3,195 yards and 23 touchdowns this season, and the quarterback delivered.

Bailey was helped by a strong running game, with Isaac Brown and Duke Watson combining for 180 yards on the ground. The Cardinals racked up 207 total rushing yards in the win.

Louisville football almost let this bowl victory and nine-win season get away, though. The Cardinals entered the fourth quarter up 35-21 before allowing a 97-yard touchdown drive to make ithe score 35-28. Washington got the ball back and marched down the field again for the potential game-winning score, only to miss the 2-point conversion.

That last stop means Brohm and Louisville football get to end the season happy. Brohm will look to continue to build on what he has done already and make it three years in a row with nine-plus wins.