Louisville football game balls: Who shined against Notre Dame?

Game ball: Scott Satterfield and the entire coaching staff

How refreshing is it to watch a well-coached football team? Dorian Etheridge said at the 2019 ACC Kickoff that the changes in the program under new leadership was like “transferring to a new school.” Watching from the stands on Monday night was almost like being a fan of a new program.

That’s how noticeable the difference in coaching was as the Cards battled with a top 10 team with real College Football Playoff aspirations.

I’ve said it all offseason and I really do believe it. There is a lot of talent on this football team. They may be top-heavy, and it may be concentrated to certain positions – but regardless the talent is there.

What was missing last year was clearly a lack of trust in staff, and a staff not made up of family members in general.

Now with Scott Satterfield at the helm and a myriad of quality assistants, including three young up-and-coming coordinators, Louisville quickly showed how much of a difference a good coach who cares about his players can do.

On Monday night what we saw should encourage everyone that a turnaround isn’t as far away as we thought. Every guy who touched the field last night, whether on offense, defense, or special teams, looked much improved than what we saw a year ago – both individually and collectively.

They played faster. They played smarter. They played stronger. They played harder.

Even the team on the broadcast for ESPN recognized it.

All of this is a result of Satterfield’s new culture and ability to build a winning program. The players have been bought in and we saw that play out with our own eyes last evening.

The defense was clearly the most overall improved, but no one impressed me more than the offensive line.

Even with Dwayne Ledford, one of the nation’s top offensive line coaches, at the helm, there was still concern about how good this group could be. But last night we saw the guys who played violent at the point of attack, going head-to-head with one of the biggest, strongest front seven’s in all of college football – and doing so with a lot of success.

While Pass didn’t always have the cleanest pocket to throw from, he did have time to throw unlike last year and he had an offensive line who was having their way for the most part in run blocking. The five starters that we saw proved that under the leadership and coaching of Ledford they are going to be able to improve mightily and hold their own with some of the toughest defenses in the country.

I also loved the way Scott Satterfield praised his team in the post-game press conference for working hard and playing with toughness all the way to the end. He let the players know that even in a loss, they played extremely hard and gave it their all while playing what he called “winning football.”

He continued that into the locker room.

It’s been just one week into the season and Louisville fans have fallen head over heels for Satterfield. He proved in a very short amount of time that his culture and program building works, but it requires players to buy in and give him all they have.

Monday night proved that while this team may not be the most talented team from top to bottom, their fight and competitive spirit along with some good, sound football is going to give them every opportunity to win games.

The question now is can they carry that attitude over to week two with just five days to prepare?