BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Jeff Brohm's belief in taking chances and having a creative offense helped Western Kentucky pile up yardage, points and victories last season.
It also helped him become the Hilltoppers' new coach.
WKU athletic director Todd Stewart announced Friday that it was promoting the offensive coordinator, naming Brohm as its coach. Brohm is replacing Bobby Petrino, who Thursday was named the Louisville head coach.
Brohm vowed to maintain WKU's offensive proficiency as the Hilltoppers move into Conference USA next season.
"We're going to try to stay cutting edge, be ahead of the curve and be creative," he said during a press conference Friday afternoon after becoming WKU's 19th coach.
"That's one thing as a coach that I take pride in -- not just studying ourselves but the best teams in the country, making sure we're not missing out on anything other teams do," he said. "And making sure we're giving our players the best chance to succeed."
Brohm, 42, takes control of a Hilltoppers squad that went 8-4 in their final year as a member of the Sun Belt Conference and just missed a second straight bowl appearance as an FBS school.
A Louisville native who played quarterback for the Cardinals and was an assistant coach at the school under Petrino, Brohm built the Hilltoppers into the Sun Belt's second-ranked offense (458.5 yards per game) in his first season as coordinator. Running back Antonio Andrews was named conference player of the year.
The former NFL quarterback has sent 20 players including four QBs to the pros. Brohm's coaching resume' includes stops at Florida Atlantic, Illinois and UAB.
Stewart said the Hilltoppers' offensive success last season made searching for Petrino's replacement a no-brainer.
"Jeff earned this over the past 12 months and was a big reason we won eight games," the AD said, adding that it would have been a waste of time to interview anyone else for the job.
Brohm said Petrino was very supportive of him being a head coach while he was a coordinator and told him the "best thing" was to do it at WKU. Now that he has the job, the next step is trying to win the C-USA title.
"I think it's a quality conference and we're excited to be in it," Brohm said. "It will bring a lot of energy to our fans and team to play new teams and experiment with going to different places and I think we fit in great.
"In our first year our goal is to win the conference championship."