ACC media believes it will be a rough year for Louisville football

Louisville football will enter a new era under Scott Satterfield with hopes of a bright future, but the ACC media doesn’t have much faith in a quick turnaround for 2019.

The 2019 edition of the ACC Kick-Off has come and gone, and the voting results have found their way to the public as of this morning. To no one’s surprise, Clemson sits atop as king once again in the ACC Coastal, while our beloved Louisville football was picked to finish where they ultimately ended up last season – dead last.

It should come as no surprise to any of us, regardless of how we feel or think the season may play out that the new look Louisville Cardinal football program under the tutelage of Scott Satterfield was picked to finish last, receiving an ACC low 253 total points.

The next lowest points received were by Georgia Tech (302) and Wake Forest (462), who were picked to finish last in the Coastal and second to last in the Atlantic respectively.

Only two programs received first-place votes in the Atlantic, with Clemson receiving 171 and Syracuse receiving two.

On the Coastal side of the things, Louisville’s week nine opponent Virginia received 82 total first-place votes, which would give Bronco Mendenhall his first title since coming over from BYU, with Miami (55), Virginia Tech (20), and Pittsburgh (8) closing out the top four.

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Let’s be candid for a second here. You’re 2-10 until you’re not anymore.

Seeing Louisville picked to finish last for the first time since joining the ACC sucks. It sucks really bad. The way that last season ended with the Cards allowing upwards of 50 and 60 points while getting beat by record-setting margins clearly left a mark on voters – enough for them to not put much faith in a turnaround.

It’s extremely unfortunate that the new coaching staff inherits a roster that has spots where “some of the talent at App probably would start in front of these guys,” or a toxic locker room that was filled with players who had “personal agendas” and didn’t believe in the coaching staff.

Satterfield took the job knowing that 2018 wasn’t a “fluke” season or that a quick fix to prevent a multi-year rebuild existed.

He knew that the culture was toxic, maybe not to the extent that he would soon find out, but enough to know that it was likely going to be a few years before the Cards were ready to compete for much of anything.

It can also be looked at as unfortunate that the new staff comes into a scenario where Louisville has one of their toughest schedules in years. With an opening matchup against Notre Dame on primetime television looming, and head-to-head battles with likely number one ranked Clemson and other possible ranked teams in Syracuse, Boston College, and Virginia – the odds are stacked against the Cards in every way.

However, I believe the staff and players know what others don’t.

The Cards may not be a juggernaut in the ACC in 2019, but as the players have been saying over and over again, they are hungry and ready to shock the world. There is still plenty of talent on the roster and bringing in proper coaching, a new scheme that simplifies things for the players on both sides of the ball, and most importantly a group of coaches who care about the players and want to see them succeed for more than personal gain, could play a bigger role than even we know.

As I laid out earlier this summer, there are a few winnable ACC games this season, including Wake Forest, Boston College, and North Carolina State to name a few. If Louisville can grow from the lumps they’ll take from Notre Dame in week one and apply them in weeks two and three against Eastern and Western Kentucky, they could use momentum to carry them into some early wins against opponents who could be trending downward in Florida State, Boston College, and Wake Forest.

There’s a lot of hope in year one that things can get turned around and the possibility of winning more than two games exists, and if anything, this will be the motivation needed for Satterfield, the new staff, and the players who are bought into the new culture and ready to prove people wrong.