Game log · Week-by-week
2026 season · 3 games
| Wk | Opp | CAR | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 38-41@ Ole Miss | 16 | 36 | 2.3 | 0 | 9 | |
| Wk 2 | W 59-13vs Villanova | 13 | 61 | 4.7 | 0 | 26 | |
| Wk 3 | W 41-31vs SMU | 10 | 67 | 6.7 | 1 | 27 | Season-high 67 yds |
| Total | 39 | 164 | 4.6 | 1 | 27 |
#1
Isaac Brown
Isaac Brown was the No. 1 running back in the transfer portal. Texas, Notre Dame, and Miami all called. He stayed at Louisville -- because he's the offense, and he has a statement to make.
5′9″ · 190 lb · Homestead, FL · Homestead
CFB Index 72 · #35 of 326 RBsHigh confidenceIn transfer portal — destination TBD (from Louisville)
CFB Index
A single number blending on-field production (an EPA-based value lane) with box-score output for this player's position.
0-100, scaled within each position's own cohort — not directly comparable across positions.
The numbers
164
rushing yards · 2026 · through week 3
3 games into 2026 so far -- Backed by 14 car · 205 yds · 1 TD -- top 1% rushing yards game. -- Best game: 67 rush yds, 1 TD, -2 rec yds, vs SMU
Swing playSwung Louisville from 47% to 74% to win.Louisville at Virginia Tech · 28-16
His career numbers, season by seasonThe story
Isaac Brown was the No. 1 running back in the transfer portal. Texas, Notre Dame, and Miami all called. He stayed at Louisville -- because he's the offense, and he has a statement to make.
- Signed as a 3-star recruit to Louisville in 2024.
Buzz vs Tape
Country hotter than the fans
The wider college football conversation reads him warmer than his own fans do — a gap of 16.1 points in belief.
22.2own fans
38.3national conversation
The Louisville Cardinals will enter the 2026 season with their deepest and most talented running backs room yet in the Jeff Brohm era—can Isaac Brown emerge as a legitimate Heisman candidate? Dalton Pence spotlights Brown’s explosive…
Also worth knowing:
In Their Words
303 windows · 2026 fan posts
isaac×261.0louisville×47.3sammy×116.5duce×73.9jennings×51.9robinson×18.8clemson×16.6smu×19.2
“[Highlight] #16 SMU @ #23 Louisville: Isaac Brown gets loos for a 27-yd touchdown and a 2-score lead”
reddit/CFB · fan post, verbatim
The story
Two seasons, 2,057 rushing yards, 18 touchdowns -- and in 2025, 884 yards on 8.75 yards a carry in just nine games, one of the most explosive per-carry marks in the country (our explosiveness metric grades it in the 98th percentile). When he entered the portal in January he became its No. 1 back overnight; then he negotiated a new deal and came home, telling Louisville he wanted to "make a statement." Now the Freshman All-American turned third-team All-ACC pick is the undisputed centerpiece of Jeff Brohm's offense for his junior year. The forward stakes are an All-America case and a draft climb: a back who turns the corner and is gone needs only volume and health to be the ACC's premier home-run hitter. For Brown, 2026 is the year the highlight reel becomes a résumé.
His career
He was winning awards before he was old enough to be a story.
The week the volume broke through — stacked 1 td at Notre Dame.Notre Dame · L 24-312024
Brown is a home-run hitter in a 5-9, 190 frame -- built low, built to disappear around the edge. The explosiveness is the headline and it's real: 8.75 yards per carry in 2025 (up from 7.1 as a freshman), which our play-by-play grades in the 98th percentile, paired with an 77th-percentile success rate that says the booms don't come at the cost of steady gains. The earliest scouting read (an SI breakdown, from his recruiting days) flagged exactly what the tape now shows -- "elusive" and "very good at avoiding contact," with a specialty "running to the boundary and turning the corner" off an "above-average first cut" -- plus real value as a receiver "out of the backfield, especially on swing passes." The honest note is the frame: at 190 pounds he's a speed-and-space back, not a between-the-tackles grinder. Give him the edge and a crease, and he's one of the fastest players to the perimeter in the sport.
Written by our staff.
202413 games
- Signed with Louisville3-star out of Homestead
- All-ACCsecond
20259 games
- All-ACCthird
20263 games
- Entered the portal
- Entered the portal
- Entered the portal
- Entered the portal
Career arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
Louisville
NFL
NFL Draft
—
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
🎖
ALL-ACC
All-ACC mention (2025)
Coaching lineage · 2024–2026
1 coach2024–2026
Louisville
Played his entire career under Jeff Brohm.
In Portal · 2026
In transfer portal
2025Louisville
DestinationTBD
Career stats
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Louisville | 39 | 164 | 4.2 | 1 | -- |
| 2025 | Louisville | 101 | 884 | 8.8 | 7 | -- |
| 2024 | Louisville | 165 | 1,173 | 7.1 | 11 | -- |
| Career | 305 | 2,221 | 7.3 | 19 | -- |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Louisville | 4 | 30 | 7.5 | 0 | -- |
| 2025 | Louisville | 13 | 48 | 3.7 | 0 | -- |
| 2024 | Louisville | 30 | 152 | 5.1 | 1 | -- |
| Career | 47 | 230 | 4.9 | 1 | -- |
Game log
Game by game
Isaac Brown's 2026 production
Point color shows the opponent's defensive strength that week (red = weaker defense, blue = stronger) — dashed line is this player's own season average.
Signature game
SIGNATURE GAME · Week 3 · 2026
W 41–31
vs SMU
67 rush yds (10 car) · 1 TD
Edged out SMU at home in a shootout.
With L. Kienholz — 177 yds · 2 TD · 0 INT · QBR 64.8 · 42 rush yds (12 car) · 1 TD · N. Hayes — 37.2 yards per punt · 6 punts · 1 inside the 20
Signature plays
Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|
The plays that mattered most
- Week 3 · SMU · 2&7 · Q4 · EPA +2.99I. Brown run for 27 yds, for a TD (C. Hilbert KICK) (C. Hilbert PAT MISSED)
- Week 2 · Villanova · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA +1.58(00:16) Shotgun #1 I.Brown rush middle for 26 yards gain to the LOU35 (#21 J.Williams), 1ST DOWN
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 2&1 · Q3 · EPA -1.55Shotgun #1 I.Brown rush middle for 2 yards loss to the Lou30 (#49 T.Butler)
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 3&3 · Q2 · EPA +1.51Shotgun #3 L.Kienholz pass complete short middle to #1 I.Brown caught at Lou34, for 6 yards to the Lou38 (#49 T.Butler), 1ST DOWN
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 2&10 · Q2 · EPA -1.49#3 L.Kienholz pass complete short left to #1 I.Brown caught at Lou36, for 6 yards loss to the Lou38 (#4 S.Perkins; #11 K.Thomas)
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 3&3 · Q1 · EPA +1.47Shotgun #1 I.Brown rush right for 5 yards gain to the Miss42 (#14 E.Joseph; #11 K.Thomas), 1ST DOWN
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA -1.43#1 I.Brown rush middle for 2 yards loss to the Lou36 (#4 S.Perkins; #2 J.Braxton)
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 1&10 · Q3 · EPA -1.28Shotgun #1 I.Brown rush middle for 2 yards loss to the Lou32, End Of Play
- Week 1 · Ole Miss · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA -1.16#1 I.Brown rush left for 0 yards to the Lou44 (#5 K.Franklin; #96 J.Brown)
- Week 2 · Villanova · 3&1 · Q3 · EPA -1.14(12:52) No Huddle-Shotgun #1 I.Brown rush right for 1 yard loss to the LOU42 (#96 U.Nwotite)
2026 snapshot
Since week 2: +67 rushing yards, +1 rushing TD, +1 catch.
Season context · Team result + system
3 seasons under Jeff Brohm — 20-9 over that span.
2024Louisville9-4HC: Jeff Brohm · Balanced
2025Louisville9-4HC: Jeff Brohm · Balanced
2026Louisville2-1HC: Jeff Brohm · Run-leaning
Where this profile ranks vs the RB cohort
Box-score percentiles
High confidence
Concern: carries (0th percentile).
Box-score rates (8)
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Splits & context
Splits · Per-game
2026 season · 3 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | YPC | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home2g | 64.0 | 5.7 | 0.5 |
| Road1g | 36.0 | 2.3 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | YPC | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-73g | 54.7 | 4.6 | 0.3 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Jeff Brohm
Pass share
42.0%
79 pass / 109 run
Plays / game
62.7
3 games
Team sack rate
4.4%
90 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Awards
Player standing · 2026
Backup
On the two-deep and pushing for snaps.
Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
How he plays
Play style
Brown is a home-run hitter in a 5-9, 190 frame -- built low, built to disappear around the edge. The explosiveness is the headline and it's real: 8.75 yards per carry in 2025 (up from 7.1 as a freshman), which our play-by-play grades in the 98th percentile, paired with an 77th-percentile success rate that says the booms don't come at the cost of steady gains. The earliest scouting read (an SI breakdown, from his recruiting days) flagged exactly what the tape now shows -- "elusive" and "very good at avoiding contact," with a specialty "running to the boundary and turning the corner" off an "above-average first cut" -- plus real value as a receiver "out of the backfield, especially on swing passes." The honest note is the frame: at 190 pounds he's a speed-and-space back, not a between-the-tackles grinder. Give him the edge and a crease, and he's one of the fastest players to the perimeter in the sport.
Our classifier reads him the same way: hits the crease and outruns the angle.
Starter
Returning starter at running back for a 9-4 Louisville team that went -7 in the portal.
DNA match
Player DNA
Speed Merchant
Cuts upfield fast. Designed to find the crease, not run through the line.
RB
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Carlinos Acie’s 2021 season.
51%match
Differs from Carlinos on
Recruiting rating (higher)
EPA / carry (adj) (lower)
Rush TD rate (higher)
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Jay Haynes's sophomore season at Clemson (2024).
67%match
Matches Jay on
Weight
Yards / carry
Receiving share
Differs from Jay on
Height (lower)
Total rush EPA (college ability) (higher)
Player DNA
Players who play like Isaac Brown
Heisman trajectory
Heisman Trajectory · 2026
Peak #191
Peaked at #191 this season.
Background
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The backfield · Louisville
- #1Isaac Brown884 rushing yards · 2025
- #5Keyjuan Brown704 rushing yards · 2025
- #32Braxton Jennings200 rushing yards · 2025
- #24Marquise Davis200 rushing yards · 2025
- #22Lekhy Thompkins1 game · 2026
Stats from CFBD · ESPN · fan discourse. Every figure computed from source tables — not invented. Methodology