Scott Satterfield will take over a 2-10 Louisville football program looking to win and win now. Which games are the most winnable for the Cards in 2019?
Scott Satterfield won’t have anything easy in his first season as head coach of the Louisville football program. He’ll inherit the pieces (broken albeit) of a team that went 2-10, with deep-rooted issues that go way beyond football.
With a brand new culture change to the program that already seems to be paying off, a new scheme, new staff, and an eager fan base who wants to get back to their winnings ways, Satterfield will have a lot of things going for him. But one of those things won’t be an easy schedule.
Louisville football will get the 2019 campaign kicked-off with a much-anticipated matchup with Notre Dame, a team that went undefeated through the regular season in 2018 making the College Football Playoff before being knocked off by Clemson.
Notre Dame will likely roll in as a top-five team and the Cards could be looking at a two steps back, one step forward type of situation with a big loss to the Irish week one.
While the Cards will have two non-conference matchups against in-state foes Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky (will play in Nashville), teams that Louisville should be able to defeat, the rest of their schedule is unforgiving.
CBS Sports ranked the Louisville schedule as the third hardest in the ACC, and it features road games against some of the conferences top schools including Florida State, Miami, North Carolina State as well as Wake Forest and arch rival Kentucky, who will be coming off their first 10 win season since 1977.
The home schedule won’t be any easier. The Cards will get matchups at Cardinal Stadium against two top five programs in Clemson and Notre Dame, as well as games against Eastern Kentucky, Boston College, Virginia, and Syracuse.
Things could change drastically over the next two-three months for Louisville football and the 12 programs on the schedule, but with what we know now (which is very little) let’s take a look at the five most winnable games in 2019.