Ranking the 25 most important players for Louisville football in 2019

You may or may not be surprised to see the projected started running back at the top of this list, and honestly, I don’t care either way.

Since the day Satterfield was hired, Louisville fans have known this will not be the same offense we grew accustomed to under Petrino. The new Louisville coach is consistently adamant about his offensive philosophy: establish the run first.

And the man has receipts to back it up.

During the 2018 season, App State ran the ball nearly 42 times per game and finished 34th in the country in the number of total carries at 540. They ran for 3,125 yards total in 13 games, which was 14th best in the nation and did so at the clip of 240.4 yards per carry which was also ranked 14th in the country.

Satterfield’s leading rushers have had at least 1,050 yards over the course of the last five seasons, establishing a trend that should carry over to Louisville with Hassan Hall. The last 1,000 yard running back in a single season for Louisville was back in 2010 when Bilal Powell went for over 1,400 yards in a crucial season for Charlie Strong and the trajectory of the Louisville football program.

This season, Satterfield will be hoping to replicate that same outcome from nine years ago with the new “face of the running back position.”

Hall brings

It will also be absolutely critical for Louisville’s starting back to hit that mark if we want to sniff anything over the projected three-four wins this season.

Enter Hassan Hall –

As a freshman only playing heavy snaps in the back half of the season once things were already too far gone for the Cards, Hall still managed to finish as the team’s leading running back. He carried the ball 70 times for 304 yards and three touchdowns, ripping off a couple of really nice runs in the process – leaving Louisville fans with hope for the running game in 2019.

This season as Satterfield’s workhorse back, Hall has dedicated himself to becoming the next great Louisville runner.

Running backs coach Norval McKenzie told the media, “Hassan took coaching well in the weight room. He has developed more stature-wise with his physique. It’s been a total commitment to nutrition, hydration and just taking care of his body.”

His experience and growth during spring practice, along with the role he is expected to play in the new-look offense, have helped him to emerge as the most important player in 2019.

Right outside of playing together with effort on every down, running the football is the next most important part of a Satterfield-led team. With the ball in his hands upwards of 150 or even more times this season, he’ll have every single opportunity to become a great player.

“He has a little bit of a mix of everything,” McKenzie went on to say. He’s deceptively fast. He doesn’t look like he’s covering ground but he can actually really run and he’s hard-nosed too. Hassan is one of the better guys picking up blitzes and pass protection. He’s not afraid of contact.”

Hall is the future and the present for the new era of Louisville football and this season he’ll have his chance to set the tone for both sides of the ball and launch the program back towards its collision course with a National Championship.