A creative recruiting solution for both Louisville basketball and Louisville football

Louisville football has a need for a quarterback in the class of 2020, while Louisville basketball needs a high-level scoring combo guard. Here’s a creative solution that would satisfy both needs.

As of late, both Louisville football and Louisville basketball have been making big things happen on the recruiting trail.

We heard for what seemed like forever that Chris Mack was going to struggle to recruit and build back up the program at Louisville after everything that happened with the scandals and the former coaching staff.

In just his first season on campus, Mack pulled a top 10 recruiting class, now known as the “Super Six” all of which are set to enroll (or have already enrolled) at the University of Louisville in the coming weeks, While in the class of 2020, Mack is already off to a hot start.

Though there are no commitments as of yet, Mack has already received visits from the likes of Jaemyn Brakefield (unofficial), Hunter Dickinson, Jay Scrubb, amongst others, and looks to be setting the Cards up for another top class in 2020.

For Scott Satterfield, things are a little different.

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The program he took over went 2-10 and had more issues related to culture, effort, recruiting, roster mismanagement, and so much more. The coaching staff has been grinding for months now building relationships with recruits, hosting coaching clinics, mending fences with local high school coaches, all in an effort to restore the Louisville football program.

In the last few weeks, we’ve begun to see the fruit of the staff’s recruiting labor.

Both coaches are operating under extremely different sets of circumstances, and both are getting the job done.

What they also both have in common is a need at important positions. For Scott Satterfield, it’s at the quarterback spot. For Coach Mack, it’s at the point guard or “combo guard” spot.

Enter the solution. Jalen Suggs.

A quick search of Jalen Suggs turns up two sets of recruiting profiles and highlight videos galore.

In 2019 it’s rare to see two-sport athletes anymore, especially ones who are ranked highly in one sport. In fact, according to research presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon, 55 percent of parents push kids into specializing in one sport.

That is what makes four-star dual-threat QB and five-star combo guard Jalen Suggs such a rare talent.

Before we dive any deeper, let me start with this. There have been no offers to Suggs from either Chris Mack or Scott Satterfield. At this point in time, there have not even been official reports linking the programs to Suggs at all. This is all pure speculatory

(You’ve been warned.)

To say that Suggs is a once in a decade type of talent would be an understatement.

https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1045371370882945024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1045371370882945024&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fusatodayhss.com%2F2018%2Fvideo-chosen-25-pg-jalen-suggs-is-also-a-4-star-qb-recruit-and-he-could-play-either-sport-in-college

When it comes to the interest in Suggs, he’s hearing from major schools in both sports. In football, he already holds offers from Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa, Georgia, and his hometown program, Minnesota.

On the hardwood, where he’s actually considered a top 15 player in the class of 2020, Suggs has offers from Gonzaga, Baylor, Arkansas, Clemson, Creighton, Florida, Kansas, amongst plenty of others.

What’s even crazier, is with only one more year to decide what he’s going to do, Suggs hasn’t decided whether he’ll play basketball only, football only, or both. Rivals basketball recruiting writer Eric Bossi wrote,

"“I don’t know which is better, right now, for me. That is going to be something me and my family will have to decide when that time comes. For right now I am just enjoying them both, continuing to get better each day and putting myself in the best situation for when I have to make that decision.”"

Why not Louisville? Whether it be basketball only or even football only, or hell, BOTH.

As mentioned before, Louisville basketball put together a top 10 class in 2019 that featured one five star in Samuell Williamson, who could be a one-and-done type player this season. At 6’5, 185 pounds, Suggs fits the mold of the type of guards that Chris Mack likes to use in his system. He has insane quickness, elite level athleticism, and can score in just about every way possible.

On the football side of things, though they have a lot of rebuilding to do, the football program has something a lot of schools don’t; playing time right away.

I’ve been saying it for quite some time now. I believe that come the 2020 season, Scott Satterfield will roll out a freshman QB as his starter from day one. Even with guys like Jawon Pass and Malik Cunningham on the roster, both of which are still competing for the job this season, they aren’t Satterfield’s guys and they don’t necessarily fit the mold of what he wants to do.

As a junior this past season, Suggs was incredible on the field throwing for nearly 1,600 yards and 12 touchdowns as well as running for another 605 yards and 8 scores. The kid has shown that he can be elite level QB without doing much football training in the summer, choosing instead to focus on AAU and basketball.

We’ve seen in the class of 2020, Satterfield has been targeting primarily dual-threat quarterbacks who can both throw and run at a very high level, something Suggs can do. With a very talented offense set to return in 2020 after Satterfield’s first season, maybe a QB can make a big enough difference to take Louisville from a 4,5, or 6 win team to maybe back to a 7+ win team.

It’s not impossible for a star player to both football and basketball. Just look to the class of 2019, where three-star guard and four-star wide receiver Drake London will suit up for USC in both sports.

It doesn’t happen often, and it may not even happen with Suggs, but who says Louisville couldn’t present a new and unique situation for the talented athlete out of Minneapolis.