Louisville football win over Boston College confirms complete cultural transformation

Louisville football finished off an exciting back-and-forth contest against Boston College on Saturday by pulling off a program-defining victory.

For the first time since November of 2017, Louisville football has won an ACC game.

Under the direction of first-year head coach Scott Satterfield, the Cardinals capped off a thrilling game with a last-minute drive under a third-string true freshman quarterback with a game-sealing field goal from Blanton “Cold-Blooded” Creque.

On the BRL podcast, I joked with Card Chronicle Deputy Editor Keith Wynne that the Cardinals and Eagles might finish a game in under two and a half hours because of how effective each team was at running the ball. However, the first half alone lasted nearly two hours and featured 50 points and over 750 total yards of offense.

Instead of a rushing clinic, we saw two secondaries picked apart by four different quarterbacks.

In the end, it was Louisville who came out victorious. And regardless of circumstance, it is one of the bigger wins in the program’s recent history, as well as one of the biggest of Satterfield’s career.

Forget for a moment the good fortune that befell the Cardinals for once. Forget the AJ Dillon fumble early in the game at the goal line. Forget BC’s starting quarterback Anthony Brown went out with a gruesome injury midway through the game. Forget a Louisville fumble that would have sealed the game for the Eagles late that offensive lineman Tyler Haycraft fell on.

There were plenty of balls that bounced Louisville’s way that made the difference between a win and loss.

Instead, remember how resilient this Louisville team was. Remember that the Cards answered the bell every single time when a well-seasoned Boston College team punched back. Remember that Louisville was bouncing between an injured second-string quarterback and third-string true freshman and didn’t skip a beat.

Remember that Louisville fought through a penalty that somehow moved them 80 yards backward, and two fumble recoveries that were inexplicably and incorrectly not ruled the Cardinals’ ball.

Remember that the Cardinals overcame a touchdown called back for a personal foul when an offensive lineman pushed a defender out of the back of the endzone.

Louisville comes away from this game with a lot to work on, but the Cards also secured a victory in a situation where they would not have won under the previous regime.

If Louisville was in the same situation last year, the Cardinals would have wilted under the pressure of a fundamentally sound team on the opposing sideline. In fact, the Eagles entered Cardinal Stadium just two years ago as heavy underdogs and beat a Louisville football team with superior talent.

The Cardinals did no such thing this time around. Louisville led or was tied for the first 56 minutes of the contest. After four of Boston College’s six scoring drives, Louisville answered with a score of its own.

When BC finally took its first lead of the game, the Cardinals didn’t flinch, sending their true freshman back onto the field to execute the game-winning drive.

And though Louisville allowed more scoring drives than they forced punts, when the game was on the line, the Cardinals defense made a stand to end the game.

Say what you will about the obvious mistakes and flaws that the Cards have to fix, to overcome all of that and get its first conference victory in nearly 700 days is a testament to what the new coaching staff is building.

“I told our guys in the locker room, we’ll be defined by how we finish,” Satterfield said to begin his postgame press conference.

For now, at least, Louisville football can be defined by a program-changing win.