Louisville football: Malik Cunningham sings praises of new coaching staff

Spring practice is underway for Louisville football and redshirt sophomore QB Malik Cunningham is already praising the habits and methods of his new coaching staff.

It’s a new era of Louisville football under Scott Satterfield and the players are already noticing a huge difference in the program.

New vibes, excited to be here, fun to be around, the program has changed, the list goes on and on when it comes to what the current Louisville players are saying just a few months into the new regimes tenure, and all of it is pointing to the culture change that Scott Satterfield talked about when he took over the job as head coach, leaving his alma mater Appalachian State after five seasons.

One of the biggest tasks facing Satterfield is the development of the quarterback position, one that struggled mightily during the 2018 season – the first year without Lamar Jackson at the helm.

Malik Cunningham, Jawon Pass, Jordan Travis, and even walk-on Scott McCormack saw time at some point during Louisville’s disastrous 2-10 season, and not one player had a QBR of more than 43.6 – which ranked 100th nationally according to ESPN.com. There was no plan in place at the quarterback position, and just about everything that happened on the offensive end, mostly negative, flowed out of the poor play and poor coaching by Bobby and Nick Petrino.

With new QB coach Frank Ponce at Louisville, one of the quarterbacks he will be coaching this season and for the next few seasons is Malik Cunningham, a player who showed flashes of potential when given the chance but still had major deficiencies as a player and as a QB.

During his redshirt freshman season Cunningham started as a backup to Jawon Pass, and with the hype surrounding for the former high school all-american, Cunningham was never expected to see much playing time. But after just one and a half games, Cunningham was inserted into the lineup against Indiana State, then again Western, eventually playing in 10 games and starting three.

Now Cunningham will be competing with Pass and true freshman and early enrollee Evan Conley for the starting position.

Yesterday Cunningham spoke to the media after the team’s second practice of the spring and didn’t hold back on praising his new coaches, and showing the ineptitude of the previous regime in the process.

"“It’s a big difference. Coach Satterfield is bringing nothing but positivity to the program and around here and we love it here… It’s nothing but fun, it’s different – we all just love being here, it hasn’t been like that in a long time.”"

On the new scheme:

"“It’s kind of similar to what I ran in high school so it’s a lot easier for me. This scheme fits me perfect, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here.”"

On Coach Ponce:

"“I love Coach Ponce. He’s a very good coach, I did my research on him and he knows what he’s talking about and he’s going to get us right. I talked to Zac (Appalachian State QB Zac Thomas) and coach is always dialed in on the little things, which is something the previous coaches didn’t do with us, we go over the same things every day, nothing is going to change.”"

When it comes to the play of Cunningham last season, as well as the other three UofL QB’s who saw the field, taking care of the little things was something that was absolutely missing. Hell even taking care of the big things like not throwing interceptions or touchdowns was missing.

This season Cunningham will have a QB Coach, offensive coordinator, and Head Coach who know about player development, something the last staff was sorely missing. In each of the last four seasons Appalachian State QB’s have ranked in the top 5 of just about every major passing related statistical category within the Sun Belt Conference, an achievement that points directly back to the coaching of Satterfield and Ponce.

If Cunningham is as natural as a fit in Satterfield’s RPO scheme, he very well could take the next step in becoming a solid Louisville quarterback.

Without question the QB battle will be one of the most important story lines for Louisville as spring practice progresses.