For Louisville football it’s time to close the door on last season

The 2018 Louisville football season will go down as one of the most frustrating and hard to swallow years in program history but it’s time to turn the page.. For good.

In the words of former Louisville football star Ibn Green, who was the starting tight end for the last Cardinal team to finish a season with 10 losses, “We went 1-10. Everything will be fine. You look up, and we made it through.”

The hot topic at the 2019 ACC Kick-Off yesterday for Scott Satterfield and his two player representatives, Dorian Etheridge and Seth Dawkins, was last season which saw the Cardinals finish with their worst record since 1997 at 2-10.

It wasn’t just that the program went 2-10, it’s how they did it. Seemingly quitting every game and getting beat by 50 plus points, which ultimately led to the dismissal of Bobby Petrino after five seasons as head coach.

Details have come out left and right this offseason about the treatment of players, lack of interpersonal relationships, roster mismanagement, recruiting failures, and much more, which has only compounded the growing list of questions.

We knew the questions would come on Wednesday for Scott Satterfield and company, but seeing how they were answered and how the program is moving forward is something every Cardinal fan was anticipating.

Satterfield, Etheridge, and Dawkins didn’t disappoint. They provided thoughtful, transparent answers that gave a lot of people a true insight into how bad things were.

In a breakout session with local and national reporters, Satterfield said:

"“You take a job, you don’t have a lot of time for research, I didn’t know they’d given up 50 points five straight games. I wouldn’t even think to look. I saw their record. I knew something wasn’t right…We had eight scholarship linemen. That blows my mind. Some of the talent at App probably would start in front of these guys… I just anticipated these guys would be a lot better, and it wasn’t the case.”"

He went on to talk about the state of the team and how he and his new staff were received, considering that players weren’t even allowed to visit the offices of the previous regime or never spent time with them outside of football practice. Satterfield said:

"“That blows my mind. The fact that we’re having them over to our houses, and they’re hanging out in our offices, that means a lot to them and to us. We want them to be able to trust us, and we want to be able to trust them and you do that by having relationships. That’s what it’s all about.”"

The players were in the same boat.

“It was like transferring schools almost,” Dorian Etheridge said during his breakout session when asked about the difference between 2018 and 2019. “Coach P recruited me out of high school, and me and Coach Satt are probably closer already, even though it’s only been six months.”

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The players and coaches have been working out together now since December, but have only officially had a handful of practices on the field getting to play football. But even with that being the case, the program has already made a complete 180.

Seth Dawkins, a senior receiver, shared that same testament saying:

“Coach Satt invited us a few times, just within the first couple of months after he was hired. He opened his home to us, his family to us. That meant a lot. He may not realize that, but it means a lot, especially to us older players. We just realized that we never had that sort of compassion from a coach before.”

Competition, work ethic, attitude, caring for one another – those are the things that are being instilled in the players day in and day out and the guys are buying in – just like Cort Dennison told Mark Ennis of 93.9 The Ville a few months back. While the program will be scarred for a few seasons due to the ineptitude of the former coaching staff and decisions that were made, Louisville already has moved on, carrying with it the new look approach to every day and every person.

For fans, you’re 2-10 until your not and it’s a lot easier to think about how bad things are rather than where they could be in a few seasons, starting in 2019. But it’s time to close the door on last season and really the last few.

Yes, the roster is mismanaged as it was pointed out to me several times on Thursday on Twitter and the repercussions of that will hurt Scott Satterfield and his staff for the next few seasons until they are able to get players on campus – which we already see them doing at a high rate.

The players and coaches have moved on, and we should we too.

“We’re all bought in, Dorian Etheridge said. Some of the guys were kind of on the edge about it, but the other players really helped them come in. Once that happened, a lot of the feelings toward each other changed. Once we all knew we wanted the same common goal, it made everything so much easier.”

The new era of Louisville football will be defined in a completely different way, and the culture change taking place is just the small, but ultra-important, stepping stones needed to get the program back on track. After years of feeling neglected, on-edge, lost, or whatever words you want to toss around, the players finally know they have a full staff who cares about them and it’s going to make all the difference.  As Dorian Etheridge said, “Everybody matters. Everybody matters.”

Early on Scott Satterfield set the tone for his new team. He told the media,

"“Guys, I cleaned the slate. Whatever you did in the past, forget about it. Only from now on are we judging you on. How hard are you working? It doesn’t matter your talent.’ I want great attitude and work ethic. Attitude and effort, we’ve got to have in every meeting room in our building. Because that’s what it takes on a daily basis: being consistent. So we just kind of loved on them and put our arm around them and said, ‘Listen, it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but who is willing to do that?’ Some left. But the ones that are here, they’ve done everything we’ve asked, and they’ve worked very hard and been consistent.”"

The bad man is gone and a new day of Louisville football is here. 2-10 will live in the record books for the sake of the program’s future and the bright days (some might call it a collision course) the 2018 chapter needs to close.