Louisville Cardinals continue to make best hires across the board

Louisville Cardinals head coach Scott Satterfield was named the No. 1 offseason college football hire by Athlon Sports.

Vince Tyra is doing a monster job as the Louisville Cardinals athletic director.

After reeling in the biggest fish of the 2018 college basketball offseason in Chris Mack, Tyra may have done the same by hiring new football head coach Scott Satterfield in December.

By now, most know Satterfield’s credentials. He took an Appalachian State team to four straight 10-win seasons and only suffered four conference losses, and he was one of the more intruguing names surfacing over the last few coaching cycles.

Initially, Louisville saw some backlash. It seemed like all but a done deal that Louisville’s native son and no-brainer choice as the incumbent head coach for the Cards, Jeff Brohm, would return to save the day for his hometown team.

Anyone that the Cards hired, even the biggest name left out there, would pale in comparison to the Brohm hype train. However, Tyra is a consummate professional. The swing and miss in luring Brohm away from Purdue wasn’t met with an emotional decision, and after a good deal of time interviewing and looking over coaching candidates, he settled on a rational decision with Satterfield.

Although the sting of missing on Brohm was felt across the city of Louisville for the weeks during the coaching search, it was apparent from the moment that Satterfield set foot on campus that this was an incredibly underrated hire by most close to the program.

Nationally though, many think that the hiring of Satterfield was not only a home run but the best decision that could have been made in the offseason.

"“Satterfield seemed to be a perfect fit at North Carolina, but the Tar Heels opted to bring back Mack Brown. That was great news for Louisville, which hired Satterfield to pick up the pieces after the program imploded at the end of the Bobby Petrino era. Satterfield did a masterful job at his alma mater as it transitioned from the FCS ranks into the Sun Belt Conference. Over the last four seasons, the Mountaineers averaged 10 wins and went a combined 28-4 in league play. They finished first or second in the Sun Belt in total defense each season since joining the league in 2014 and ranked no worse than fourth in total offense in that span. The only knock (and it’s a stretch): He has no previous Power 5 experience.”"

So far, it looks like Satterfield being a fall-back option for the Cards could have been a blessing in disguise. The first-year head coach quickly assembled one of the best staffs in school history and making a noticeable difference in overall attitude and team culture.

Since taking the AD role less than two years ago, Tyra has been laser-focused on restoring the school’s image and rebranding to create a unified Louisville Cardinals athletics program.

Tyra was able to keep baseball coach Dan McDonnell and women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz- both of whom have had other schools calling every offseason.

Louisville also went out and secured new softball coach Holly Aprille, and reeled in new men’s soccer coach John Michael Hayden.

Overall, this is the strongest top-to-bottom the leadership in Louisville athletics has been in some time, and that is a testament to the leadership and trust between Tyra and school president Neeli Bendapudi.

Only time will tell how good of a hire Scott Satterfield truly is. But, for now, the Cards grabbe the biggest up-and-coming name at the right time.