Louisville football: Why Scott Satterfield is Dabo Swinney’s biggest threat

Culture

If there’s one thing we know about Scott Satterfield, it’s that culture matters.

It wasn’t a secret that there were some issues in the locker room and at practice during Bobby Petrino’s tenure as head coach. Football wasn’t enjoyable for many of the players and that was one of the first things that Satterfield had to change. He came in and changed the culture of this program and did it quickly. In his introductory press conference Satterfield shared what change would be coming to the program. He said:

"“I told them, we’re going to love on them. We want to love on these guys. We’re going to put our arms around them and we’re just going to pull them up and bring them to win football games and championships. But it starts with our culture, so that’s what we’re going to work on.”"

“I think from where the emotion is around the program certainly if you share a lunch with a team when I’m around on road trips or in the locker room post-game, even the losses they’ve taken them to heart. … We made a lot of mistakes in those games, but they are responding differently to mistakes this year than the last,” Athletic Director Vince Tyra said.

Locker room parties, among other post-game shenanigans, have become much more popular since the arrival of Satterfield. Players are entering games with confidence, and that showed early on. In the game against Notre Dame, there was definitely a different charisma on the field than fans have seen in a while.

Tiger fans are also taking note of this culture change. Shawn Spencer over at Rubbing the Rock discussed the appearance of Satterfield in the ACC.

“Clemson football fans should keep their eyes on Scott Satterfield and Louisville over the next few years. He has the Cardinals trending in the right direction and they certainly could become a solid team in the ACC Atlantic within a few years of the rebuild, perhaps even sooner.”

We’re just going into year two, so there’s plenty of time for Satterfield’s culture to continue to grow and take hold of the program. Clemson didn’t always bring in top five recruiting classes, but over time as the Tigers won more and more games, including a few Championships, the recruiting began to do itself.

Satterfield has had much of this success with the talent that Petrino left. He has had some receivers and defenders with plenty of skill. But as years go by, he will be filling his roster with players that fit his system. His 2021 class has the third-highest rating for teams with six commits or less and has the fifth-highest average recruitment rating in the ACC.