Dwayne Ledford and Stu Holt both joining Louisville football staff officially

It’s official, Dwayne Ledford and Stu Holt will join Scott Satterfield on the 2019-20 Louisville football staff.

Typically no news is bad news, but for Louisville football and new head coach Scott Satterfield that’s not the case for his growing staff. With bowl season finally arriving and Appalachian State taking place in one of the earlier games, it meant that Louisville was likely going to have to wait a bit to make a few staffing hires official.

Dwayne Ledford, the current offensive line coach for ACC foe, North Carolina State, was a name that was rumored to be apart of the new Scott Satterfield staff at Louisville. We heard last week that-that was moving toward becoming official, but time was the only variable.

After NC State offensive coordinator, Eli Drinkwitz, was named the new head coach at App State late last week (in a very surprising move)  there was some fear that maybe Dwayne Ledford could be in line for a promotion and may actually elect to stay at NC State. However, on Friday we learned that NC State would be promoting Des Kitchings and George McDonald to co-offensive coordinators, in a move that all but finalized the move for Ledford to Louisville.

Well today, that news became official.

From the UofL Press release, Coach Scott Satterfield announced the hiring saying:

"“Adding a coach with the experience of Dwayne Ledford is a key addition to our offensive staff,” Satterfield said. “Dwayne’s one of the top offensive line coaches in the nation and has produced some of the best offensive line in the country during his career. His units are technically sound and his players play with great passion. This is an excellent hire in the development of our program.”"

Landing Ledford was probably the biggest staff acquisition for Scott Satterfield, and it should pay huge dividends right away. Many wondered why an experienced coach would move from one ACC school to another in a “lateral” move, but with the news being reported today about Ledford – we now know that’s not the case.

Dwayne Ledford will serve as both the offensive line coach for Louisville and will also be the team’s offensive coordinator.

Our own Presley Meyer wrote about Ledford joining the Louisville staff a few days ago and how important this move is to the future of the Cards offense, saying:

"It can’t be understated how great of a hire Ledford is for the Cards. Over the course of the last three years, Ledford’s NC State squad has allowed less sacks than Louisville did just this year alone. It is safe to say that keeping the quarterback upright will be a strongsuit of this coaching staff. Appalachian State ranked 25th in the country in 2018 in sacks allowed, while NC State ranked 3rd. For comparison’s sake, Louisville ranked 128th."

Dwayne Ledford wasn’t the only coaching addition who was announced. Stu Holt, who served as the running backs coach at App State under Scott Satterfield, was another name that many believed would eventually end up on staff at Louisville. However, with App State taking on Middle Tennessee State in the R&L Carrier Bowl on Saturday it was going to take some time before we knew 100% for sure.

We now know that Holt will join UofL as the Special Teams and Tight Ends coach. It was expected that Holt was to be the running backs coach at Louisville, a role in which he served in since 2015. Before being named the RB’s coach at App State Holt served as Director of Player Personnel, Special Teams Coordinator and Tight Ends coach.

Coach Satterfield said via UofL’s press release:

"“I’m excited that Stu will be joining our staff at Louisville. The success that Stu has had throughout his career leading the special teams units at Appalachian State and South Florida, in addition to his experience on the offensive side of the football, will serve us well as we build our program at Louisville."

Holt is a huge hire to the staff mostly due to his coaching experience working for South Florida, App State, and Western Kentucky as well as coaching at the high school level in Florida. But what could and should pay more dividens is his recruiting ties in North Carolina and the Florida area, two pipelines that Louisville will likely develop even stronger over the few years.

It’s no secret that the Cardinals have gotten very little production out of their tight ends over the past several years under Bobby Petrino. While Cole Hikutini was the by far the best of the group and had a few big seasons, guys like Keith Towbridge, Micky Crum, Kemari Averett, Charles Standberry and several others have all underachieved in a Cardinals uniform. Holt’s expertise will be greatly needed as only one scholarship TE is on the roster for Louisville at the moment (Jordan Davis).

As mentioned before, we should hear these moves being officially announced by Head Coach Scott Satterfield tomorrow during his 1:30 press conference.

As it stands now, Coach Satterfield has hired both his offensive and defensive coordinator (Bryan Brown – App State) along with his QB coach (Frank Ponce – App State), TE coach (Stu Holt), safeties coach (ShaDon Brown), and the strength/conditioning coach (Mike Sirignano) as well as a Football Operations Director (Josh Thompson).