Louisville coach Scott Satterfield was supposedly on the hot seat going into last week’s game at UVA, which his Cardinals would go on to win, 34-17, rallying from an early 10-0 deficit.
I can see it, and also can’t see it, why there’d be speculation about his job status.
Satterfield was the guy who took Appalachian State from FCS to FBS, and went 51-24 in six seasons there, averaging 10 wins a year over the last four after spending the first two years rebuilding.
He faced a rebuilding job at Louisville when he took over from Bobby Petrino, who after going 41-9 from 2003-2006 in his first stint was let go before the end of Year 5 in his second go-around, which ended with the Cardinals going 2-10 that year.
Satterfield seemed to have it turned around quickly, going 8-5 in Year 1, in 2019, ending the year with a win in the Music City Bowl.
But back-to-back losing seasons – 4-7 in 2020, 6-7 in 2021 – followed, and the 2-3 start ahead of the UVA game had some tongues wagging about his future.
That he had to play that game without his starting quarterback, Malik Cunningham, who suffered a concussion in Louisville’s 34-33 loss to Boston College in Week 5, seemed to foretell that change would be in order, with the program going into its bye week.
The backup, Brock Domann, in his first career start, threw an INT on his first pass, but settled in, and finished with 275 yards passing, a passing TD, and a nifty 44-yard run on a fourth-and-1 for a rushing touchdown.
The win, for the moment, at least, cleared up the questions about Satterfield’s future.
“No matter what happens to me anytime this year or five years from now, the relationship we establish with the players as people is what’s most important,” Satterfield told reporters after the game. “I think when you coach that way, I’ve been coaching that way my whole career, then they can never take that away from you. That’s why I told them, you face adversity, we have faced a ton, but be who you are. Your character is going to get revealed whenever you get this negativity on you. I just want them to know I still care about them no matter what.”
There might be some lessons in what he said there for the coaches and players in the opposite locker room on Saturday.
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Chris Graham
