Louisville football: 3 ways Scott Satterfield & Chris Mack are similar

High expectations

Lastly, both coaches are forced to deal with the high expectations at programs where the last two decades have seen great success.

For Mack, the high expectations were kept on hold for about a year after he took over a team that didn’t fit his system well and was full of players with little experience.

Mack was given some time in year one, but saw no such grace in a second season where his team began with final four expectations.

Losses only escalated the pressure for Mack from a fan base clamoring for a high seed and a postseason run.

Those expectations will have to be something Mack embraces. On the heels of a five-year period that saw the Cards miss on the NCAA Tournament three times to a postseason ban, an NIT trip, and a shortened season, a city acclimated to making runs into late March and April won’t take kindly to anything less.

Similarly to Mack, year two expectations will be sky high for Satterfield. Is it fair? Probably not, but that’s what happens when you turn literally the worst team in power five football into a team that finished second in the ACC and broke numerous school records on offense.

Goals like making a New Years bowl game and ending a two year skid to rival Kentucky will loom large for a staff still in the middle of a rebuild, but facing top 25 hype anyways.

Times are changing in Louisville, and for the two new faces for the Cards’ two biggest programs, the expectations only stand to grow from here.