Louisville football: What Scott Satterfield had to say at ACC Media Day

New Louisville football head coach Scott Satterfield spoke to local and national media about the 2019 season on Wednesday at the ACC Football Kick-Off.

The 2019 ACC Football Kick-Off, formerly known as ACC Media Day, was the first time that we got to see new head coach Scott Satterfield represent the Louisville football program on a national level since he was hired back in December of 2018.

We didn’t expect to hear a lot that we haven’t already heard about the state of the program, x’s and o’s, or the individual players on the roster – but it was still a great opportunity to hear from Scott Satterfield as the September 2nd kickoff with Notre dame inches closer.

Louisville will kick off fall camp in just a matter of a few weeks and that’s where we’ll really get to know, as will the staff, what the 2019 season holds for the Cards. However, what we heard from coach Satterfield today was another reminder that the program is headed in the right direction both short-term and long-term.

Satterfield spoke with local media and national media on multiple occasions and his message stayed the same. Play hard, control what you can control, give 100 percent effort all the time, and let the rest fall into place.

Speaking with ESPN Louisville’s morning host Drew Deener and co-host Mark Blankenbaker on Wednesday morning, Satterfield said:

“My expectation is to go out and play as hard as we can possibly play. To go out and give maximum effort, giving great attitude while were doing that, and we’ll see what happens after that.”

Throughout the remainder of the day, Satterfield continued to harp on what he believes is a team hungry to show redemption. Going 2-10, regardless of circumstances, isn’t anything that any athlete wants to go through and the turnaround led by the staff hasn’t been met with much trepidation.

He said:

"“I think the first impression was that when I first saw these guys, they were obviously very hungry. Had a bad taste in their mouth of what happened last year. They want to be good. So they were very welcoming for myself and our staff to coming in. They were like, Coach, we’re ready to work. What do we need to do?Our first thing we did, put our arm around them, loving them a little bit. (Say) ‘here is the plan, here is what we have to do.’We have a great core of leaders on our team, great guys that want to be good. They’ve worked extremely hard this off-season. I’m excited about getting them on the field and let’s see what we can do.”"

While turnarounds, especially ones of this magnitude, are never easy, this coaching staff is in a perfect place to do it. Many forget that Satterfield was tasked with moving a football program from the FBS to FCS level, only taking one season to go from four wins to 10 plus and begin competing and winning conference titles.

Moving from the Sun Belt to the ACC is certainly just as big of an undertaking, but winning is winning, and understanding what has to be done for Louisville’s players and the program to be successful is something Satterfield believes he can do.

"“When I took over at App, we were going from the Southern Conference to the Sunbelt Conference, which is a step up. There’s a lot of things we had to do. We went from 63 scholarships to 85 scholarships. You had to build that team out to be competitive.We’re kind of doing that here. The fact that Louisville has already been in the ACC for five years, had some really good success there, with Lamar Jackson, Teddy Bridgewater, has had some great players. It’s a town that is yearning I think to put a great product on the field.I’m going to draw from that experience that I had at App of how we want to build our team out as we move forward. It takes a little bit of time. Obviously, people throw the word “culture” around a lot. We’re changing the way we do things, which is culture. But you have to be consistent on a daily basis. I think that’s what we’re trying to be.”"

To do that, it’ll take not only talent, which the Cards certainly have but the entire roster buying in from top to bottom. It may seem like coach speak, and we often get tired of hearing it, but when Scott Satterfield says that the priority is playing hard, focusing on consistency, and doing it with the right attitude and effort – he means it. He also knows that doing so will ultimately lead to winning.

“I think the way we’ll end up doing it (winning) is through our players, though,” Satterfield said. “They got to take ownership of the team. They got to be prideful about what they put on the field. Those are the things we’re working on, that we’re doing now. That’s how we’ll have success. If you’re doing that, we’re doing those kinds of things, we will end up winning games, we will end up having a very successful program. But it starts on a daily basis of how you carry yourself, what kind of attitude and effort do you have.”

Tempering expectations isn’t something that Satterfield or the players who attended media day did, but the message was certainly implied. The roster that was handed over to the new staff was mismanaged and lopsided, leaving positions like tight end and offensive line without the necessary bodies to compete right away and making the rebuilding more long-term.

When asked about success and what that will look like in 2019, Satterfield said:

"“People talk about, How are you going to measure success next fall? It’s not in terms of wins and losses for me, it’s in terms of attitude and effort on a daily basis. That’s going to be how we determine success.”"

Louisville football is in good hands with Scott Satterfield, a coach who, without question, has the ability to help the Louisville football program get back on track. It will be a complete 180 from Petrino and Satterfield and playing for a coach who cares about the person more than the football player will be the difference-maker in getting the Louisville football program back on track.

What we can take away more than anything from 2019 Media Day is that effort, consistency, and attitude have been preached all summer long and the players are ready to show the world that last season was an anomaly.