LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — 2025 record: 9-4
Tight losses turned an impressive start into yet another good but not great season for the Louisville Cardinals, and that's something coach Jeff Brohm intends to fix.
The Cardinals appeared primed to contend for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship with a 7-1 start highlighted by an upset at Miami, the eventual College Football Playoff championship runner-up. Mistakes and injuries contributed to a three-game skid, and three losses came by a combined seven points.
Still, Louisville won the Boca Raton Bowl to finish with nine wins for a third straight season and mid-pack in the 17-team ACC at 4-4.
That earned Brohm a contract extension through 2033 last spring. He hit the transfer portal hard again and landed another quarterback he hopes to develop into a productive starter. Lincoln Kienholz transferred after three years at Ohio State after completing just 11 of 14 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown last season.
Louisville has a mostly favorable schedule without a game with Miami, nemesis Clemson or Virginia. The 24th-ranked Cardinals will have to prove themselves immediately with the opener against CFP semifinalist Ole Miss on Sept. 6 followed by a visit from SMU two games later.
The Cardinals were picked to finish third behind Miami and SMU in a preseason poll of ACC media. They will play a nine-game conference schedule and 11 overall against Power Four teams.
Louisville has running back Isaac Brown back after gaining 884 yards and seven touchdowns despite missing three games with injuries. He has 2,057 yards and 18 TDs career yards in two seasons, and Brohm stresses that keeping him healthy is key for their prospects.
Keyjuan Brown (no relation) also returns after rushing for 704 yards rushing and six scores in 10 games. Both backs averaged at least 7.3 yards per carry last season and anchored the ACC’s fifth-ranked rushing attack (163.9 yards).
Former South Alabama offensive coordinator Paul Petrino is back for a third stint at Louisville, this time coaching tight ends after previously serving as coordinator (2003-06) and wide receivers coach (1998-99).
DL Clev Lubin (61 tackles, team-high 8.5 sacks) passed on the NFL draft to come back for a defense that ranked second in the ACC last season (303.1 yards per game). But as the only returnee among their top five tacklers last fall, he’ll need other veterans and transfers to raise their games.
DB Antonio Watts is back. He had a team-high three interceptions over four games early including one at Miami.
WR Tre Richardson (transfer from Vanderbilt); K Garth White (transfer from Rhode Island); TE Brady Foley (transfer from Tulsa).
TE Nate Kurisky (Duke); QB Miller Moss (NFL), WR Chris Bell (third-round NFL draft pick by Miami), WR/KR Caullin Lacy (free agent, New York Jets).
Vs. Mississippi (Sept. 6 in Nashville), vs. SMU (Sept. 19); vs. Florida State (Oct. 9), at Kentucky (Nov. 28).
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FILE - Louisville Cardinals running back Isaac Brown (1) stiff arms Pittsburgh linebacker Rasheem Biles (3) on a carry during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Pittsburgh, Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced Wednesday that they are investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, a day after the country’s recently fired defense minister called for national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion.
The political drama was an unwelcome distraction for Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s war with its bigger neighbor stretches into its fifth year.
Investigators are conducting an operation to expose a criminal organization allegedly led by a sitting and a former lawmaker, involving senior officials from the presidential office and other individuals, according to a joint statement from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Further details would be released later, the agencies said in a joint statement.
The revelation brought another test of Zelenskyy’s political resilience as he remains dogged by high-level graft investigations.
Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and was later named as a suspect in a major graft probe involving a luxury construction project in the biggest threat to Zelenskyy’s government since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Also last year, a major embezzlement and kickbacks scandal involving the state-owned nuclear power company brought the resignations of Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers.
The European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major hurdles to Ukraine's desired membership of the block.
Zelenskyy is already under pressure over his firing last month of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and a close ally since he helped Zelenskyy win the 2019 presidential election.
Zelenskyy, seeking to reconcile tensions between the defense ministry's young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine's seasoned, Soviet-trained battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The move sparked days of street protests in support of Fedorov. For Zelenskyy, it was the second time in a year that a wartime decision triggered a strong public backlash, after he moved in mid-2025 to curb the powers of anti-corruption agencies.
Fedorov, in a video address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, called for elections to be held in Ukraine in a bombshell statement that appeared to directly confront Zelenskyy, who says a ballot can't be held under the martial law that is currently in place due to the war.
“We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war,” Fedorov said.
He said Ukraine is facing a systemic crisis in how it is governed, arguing that the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting change. He also condemned corruption among officials without naming anyone, saying it had weakened Ukraine’s ability to fight the war.
Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately comment on Fedorov’s address. It was not immediately clear whether Fedorov's appeal for a ballot would resonate with Ukrainians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has balked at negotiating a peace deal directly with Zelenskyy, says the Ukrainian president is an illegitimate leader because his term expired in 2024.
Fedorov published his speech hours after Ukraine’s Parliament received Zelenskyy's formal nomination of Yevhenii Khmara as the new defense minister, a move that effectively closes the door to Fedorov's return to the post, which he has sought, any time soon.
Lawmakers were due to debate the president's candidate on Wednesday.
The political disarray comes after recent successes in the war for Ukraine. Using its innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has also shocked the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, and stalled front-line advances by Russia's bigger army.
But Zelenskyy has been unable to get traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic missiles because more U.S.-made Patriot interceptors aren't available due to low international stockpiles.
In its latest strike on oil facilities, a drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa in Russia's Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The city of Ufa is located roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) east of the border with Ukraine. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all three have been attacked before.
Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces on Tuesday evening hit a bulk carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it said were fuel and lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of Chornomorsk.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Kherson region on Wednesday morning, killing four people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Four women were also wounded in the strike and were hospitalized, he said.
Also, a Russian drone struck a civilian car in Kherson city, the region's capital, on Wednesday, killing a woman, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration.
Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine each sent home 103 prisoners of war Wednesday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
People sing and hold up their cell phone flashlights during a rally to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, late Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People stand still for a minute of silence during a rally to protest against the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People march during a rally to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, late Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
FILE - Ukraine's Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov speaks to journalists during a joint press conference with Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)
