Louisville football: 5 important things to watch for in December

Will another program make a run at any members of the coaching staff?

I don’t need an award to tell me that Scott Satterfield and his coaching staff did the best job coaching their team out of any other coach and staff in the country. Luckily, in just a matter of days, there’s a very good chance Coach Satterfield could be awarded the ACC Coach of the Year trophy.

With Satterfield and his staff already essentially turning the Louisville football program around in one year, getting them back to a place that will allow them to compete for wins and players for years to come, the next part will be keeping continuity – something previous year’s teams haven’t experienced.

When Satterfield was hired at Louisville, he very quickly was able to surround himself with an incredible coaching staff that included a young up-and-coming defensive coordinator in Bryan Brown, a quarterback whisperer in Franke Ponce, a recruiting guru and former staff member in Cort Dennison, experienced positional coaches like Stu Holt, Dale Jones, Gunter Brewer, and Mark Ivey, as well as one of the top offensive line coaches in the entire country in Dwayne Ledford and countless other really good quality control and graduate assistant coaches.

Now the question becomes will anyone else try and make a run at the coaching staff?

The odds of one of Louisville’s top assistants becoming a head coaching candidate after a 7-5 season seems like a stretch, but it wouldn’t be shocking.  However, there are plenty of young guys who could be in line for raises and promotions as Satterfield hired easily one of the top coaching staff’s in all of college football that should attract attention from other programs.

Frank Ponce and Cort Dennison could both be elevated into bigger roles within a team, while Dwayne Ledford could attract attention from smaller schools to be a head coach. Heck, even some of the younger QC coaches like Nic Cardwell or Pete Thomas, who was named one of the top 30 coaches under 30 by 247 Sports, could be in line to take a big step up in the coaching ranks.

This staff is made up of like-minded, family first guys who are all on the same page when it comes to schemes, goals and developing players into great football players and men, and there is no doubt someone else wouldn’t want to take a coach and replicate that at their school.

Of course, the majority of the staff will be back next season, but there’s always going to be other people wanting to take the top talent from winning programs. That’s exactly what Scott Satterfield and Vince Tyra will have to be prepared for over the next four to six weeks.