The best thing you’ve seen from Louisville football in a long time

There’s nothing in college sports quite as cool as watching walk-ons find out they’ve been granted a scholarship. That’s why this is the best thing you’ve seen from the Louisville football program in quite a while.

Changing the culture. A new culture. Establishing a culture. Building a program. Being the best people and players we can be. All of these are the things we’ve heard from new head coach Scott Satterfield and his Louisville football staff since they took over for Bobby Petrino’s regime in December of 2018.

Whether it’s taking the team out to eat, competing on the diamond in home run derby, or going to war on the field with your brothers, Satterfield has pulled out all the stops over the last five months and it’s beginning to show.

The players have been beyond praiseful of their coaches and it’s not hard to see why. Between the season that they went through last year and the way things were under Petrino in general, made the players receptive to a new way of doing things to improve.

We continue to see things happen that the previous staff wouldn’t do under any circumstance. Posing for pictures with four-star recruits, playing basketball with the team, or I don’t know, having meals together, has brought this Louisville football team closer than we’ve seen in years.

But on Friday things went to a whole new level, at least for me.

I am a college football connoisseur and if there’s content out there that’s entertaining, I’m enjoying it.

Over the years the 60 to 90-second clips of college football walk-ons, go from just that to a full-ride scholarship athlete is awe-inspiring.

Each and every year there’s a new way of this great news being communicated to a walk-on, and each time it gets me. But never do I remember this happening at my school.

Until today. Just watch.

Jack Fagot, Maurice Burkley, and Marshon Ford were given t-shirts during a meeting for what seems like an impressive spring camp and summer workout performance. These guys grinded day-in-and-day-out, some for a few years now, knowing that the likelihood of them playing was less than Michael Scott getting a job from David Wallace at the corporate office in New York. Yet they competed, doing their part to help the team improve.

Fagot a defensive back out of Lexington Catholic and Ford a local tight end who attended Ballard High School in Louisville, have yet to see the field in their career at Louisville, while Burkley, a running back from Illinois, played a bit throughout the last season (mostly on special teams) carrying the ball one time, for one yard.

Out of the group Ford is the most likely to see the field this season for any type of significant snaps, outside of blowouts, due to the lack of tight ends on the roster.

Regardless of how much they actually play, the way this was handled by the staff and the reaction of the players shows how meaningful the moment was.

Part of the next several months leading up to the September 1st kickoff is about getting better on the field and showing it when the season starts, but a part that was is almost equally as important is learning to fight for the guy next to you. Behind Satterfield and his staff, that is what’s happening each and every day.

Congrats to Jack, Maurice, and Marshon.