According to a report, Scott Satterfield has hired former Louisville football assistants and two of the best recruiters in the country in Oregon’s Cort Dennison and Stephen Field.
It’s been quiet on the Louisville football side of things the last week or so between the recruiting dead period and Holiday Break. Until today when a report surfaced that Scott Satterfield reportedly made two big hires for his first staff.
If you are a message board type of person, something I am not, you’ve probably heard rumors that former Louisville assistants, Cort Dennison and Stephen Field – both of whom were on staff during the Bobby 2..0 era, could be coming back.
Both left the program after the completion of the 2017-18 season, heading out west together to Oregon, where they proceeded to help the Ducks put together the 7th best recruiting class in the country, according to Rivals, which included the #1 player in the country – DE, Kayvon Thibodeaux.
After one year away from the Cards in Eugene, it seems like both coaches are on their way back to the Ville.
A report published by FootballScoop.com, a site known for breaking coaching news, indicated that Scott Satterfield has hired away Oregon’s top recruiters. The report said:
"Louisville: Source tells FootballScoop Scott Satterfield is bringing two strong recruiters back to Louisville, hiring both Cort Dennison and Steve Field away from Oregon. Sources tell us Dennison is expected to coach outside linebackers at Louisville while Field is expected to oversee recruiting. Before being hired by Mario Cristobal, Dennison was Louisville’s inside linebackers / recruiting coordinator. Field spent 2017 as Louisville’s director of high school relations."
Shortly after that report was released, Yahoo Sports reporter Pete Thamel sent out the following tweet:
Source: Oregon assistant Cort Dennison is leaving to become Louisville’s co-defensive coordinator.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 3, 2019
If you asked Louisville fans one coach that they wanted Scott Satterfield to hire for his first Louisville staff, I no doubt believe that at least 50% would say Cort Dennison. Dennison started as a graduate assistant on the defensive side of the ball for Louisville back in 2014, and worked as the director of on-campus recruiting in 2015 before being promoted to coach the secondary and then the inside linebackers.
During his time at Louisville, Dennison quickly developed into one of the country’s top recruiters, and helped the Cards put together two of the programs top recruiting classes before heading to Oregon. He was named one of the 247Sports’ 30 under 30 coaches in the country.
Stephen Field joined the Louisville staff prior to the 2017 season, after serving one year as the tight ends coach at Florida A&M. What he lacked in collegiate coaching experience, Field made up for it with connections and deep roots in the South Florida area, where he was one of the most successful coaches in the state.
We don’t have official word just yet on what role Field will play on the Satterfield coaching staff, especially with Pete Nochta remaining on staff, but regardless Louisville recruiting is ready to take off again.
The Cards currently have just four players signed in the class of 2019 and will have room to take in about 10-12 more players when it’s all said and done.
Dennison will join Bryan Brown, who was recently named the FootballScoop defensive backs coach of the year, as co-defensive coordinator.
While Scott Satterfield and company have yet to step onto the field as a coaching staff for Louisville, the staff that has been assembled could quite possibly be the best in program history.
Satterfield already has brought in several extremely successful coaches from Appalachian State in Bryan Brown, Frank Ponce, Stu Holt, Mark Ivey who know him and his system/culture extremely well, while also landing one of the best offensive line coaches in the country, Dwayne Ledford, from NC State.
This isn’t the last of the hires, as Satterfield still has to fill the WR and RB coaching spots. Stay tuned and we’ll update this piece as more information becomes available.