Louisville football: Scott Satterfield is delivering on his promise

Louisville Football failed to capitalize on one of the greatest in-state recruiting classes in recent memory. The Cards reputation amongst local high schools was tarnished, but now Scott Satterfield is delivering on his promise to restore that trust. 

Scott Satterfield walked into a mess of a situation when he took over as the head coach of Louisville football. A broken program, broken locker room, mismanaged roster, left major work cut out for them. But where does one start? Perhaps the most problematic of issues for Louisville was the football program’s relationships within it’s own community.

The old cliche, “recruiting is the life-blood of college sports” has never been more true than it is today. The state of Kentucky not known for being a hot bed for division one football talent arguably produces the least amount of D1 prospects in the southeast region of the country every year. That puts UofL at a greater disadvantage amongst it’s peers.

When you don’t have the luxury of a crop of homegrown prospects in your backyard year in and year out, you have to be sure to get all the homegrown talent you can. It helps lessen the burden of trying to land out-of-state talent in the backyards of other programs. A scenario easier said than done when going up against the likes of Clemson, ‘Bama, Auburn, Georgia, FSU, Florida and other perennial recruiting powerhouses.

So when the state of Kentucky has it’s best pool of football talent in well over a decade like it did this past recruiting cycle, you have to capitalize. Unfortunately Bobby Petrino didn’t seem to make it a priority to want to recruit the local schools and it’s talent. With names like Jared Casey, Stephon Herron, and JJ Weaver getting out of the city, fans began to wonder, “what the hell is happening?” One local coach put it like this for the Courier Journal:

"“Bobby Petrino never came to our school and we have a four-star defensive end that everybody in the country was after. He never took the time to drive 10 miles to our school. To hear the new coach opening that back up and being willing to share and build bridges and fix that PR is great. I’m excited for it.”"

Close to 20 prospects in Kentucky got offered and accepted high D1 scholarships. Of those that chose UofL?

One player, dupont Manual HS RB Aidan Robbins

The facts are little effort by the previous staff to maintain relationships and recruit the local talent resulted in the university burning a lot of bridges and hard feelings at the hands of Bobby Petrino. It’s unfathomable to think why this was the approach taken by the former Louisville head coach. Nonetheless, it was a problem Coach Satterfield and his staff knew they would have to fix in a hurry.

In his opening press conference as the new head coach of the Cards, Satterfield was asked rather bluntly how he would fix the mangled relationships with local high school coaches left behind by Petrino. Satterfield response began to heal the issues that lingered with the program and the community:

"“High school coaches, the region right here, right here in Louisville, come watch our practices,” Satterfield said. “Our doors are open. The closed doors are no longer. We’re going to open it up.”"

Promising to open doors and make the local high schools feel welcomed and a priority once again, Coach Satterfield confidently committed to that promise. In multiple addresses to the media, he and his staff would be welcoming to all local schools. A simple, yet effective way to rekindle relations amongst the local schools, it appears to be a gesture that has been heard and embraced.

Fern Creek Head Coach Josh Abell is just one of the many coaches locally who has shared his encouraging comments about Louisville’s new football staff. Hosting a coaching clinic this past weekend, Abell accepted UofL Football’s invitation to attend the coaches clinic.

"“We were sent an email from UofL’s High School Relations Director Pete Nochta asking us to RSVP if we were interested. Coaches clinics are always hit or miss, but this one seemed to be a hit! There were plenty of (local) HS guys present from Southern, Moore, Male, Manual, DeSales, St. X and Central” Abell stated."

With positive signs that Satterfield and his staff are repairing the relationships and lines of communication between the university and the local schools, naturally one wonders how so much progress can been achieved so quickly.

“Their commitment to changing the culture. Coach Satterfield was approachable. He introduced himself at the beginning of each day (then conducted practice), but it wasn’t like he was standoffish or disappeared. Many guys still went and introduced themselves (afterwards)” Abell said.

When talking, or reading about the many players, recruits, parents and coaches who have gotten the opportunity to be around Coach Satterfield and this staff, there’s reoccurring themes that consistently get uttered; “the change in culture” and “positive energy and vibe.”

“The vibe/energy was real positive” Abell said. “They (UofL staff) were all accommodating, open to questions and gave us relatively free range for watching practice.”

An ideology that all the coaches on this staff seem to have adopted, many of the coaches have already proven to be welcoming and some are becoming favorites.

“We got to speak to coaches during chalk talk sessions and some before practice. (As coaches) we all know how sacred practice time is. As a quasi fan, I loved new Defensive Coordinator/DBs Coach Bryan Brown! He brought energy and his guys seemed to practice hard for him. There’s A LOT of pride at the DB spot. As a coach and OL guy, I loved Offensive Line Coach Dwayne Ledford.  He was knowledgeable and honest with you on his talent and what his expectations were from a coach perspective. It was just real positive energy overall” Abell would say.

With so many comments from local coaches, players and parents there’s reason to have optimism and hope. The culture change isn’t just in the locker room amongst the current team and players, but rather an overhaul of the entire Louisville Football program.

One of Coach Satterfield’s beliefs is the ‘Little Things Make The Big Things Happen. This simple, yet effective ideology is aiding the culture change  around the UofL football program. It’s the culture change that Coach Satterfield promised he would deliver.   – GO CARDS!