Louisville football staff chasing major commitment.
I’m not sure how many times it needs to be mentioned, but Scott Satterfield and the Louisville football staff might be pretty decent at this whole recruiting thing.
Gone are the voices of concern with the recruiting challenges a tenured mid-major coach might face in the big bad power five landscape. Satterfield’s wildly successful first season turning around Louisville Football has continued off the field, even in the midst of an extremely challenging offseason. In the last few weeks, Louisville has landed multiple commitments, including cornerbacks Kani Walker & Derrick Edwards along with athletic offensive lineman, Michael Gonzalez, to add to an already impressive haul.
Even with the Cards 2021 recruiting class currently sitting fourth in ACC and 18th nationally, they are still on the hunt for one class-changing commitment. However, that might not be as far off as we think.
Simply put, the Director of Football Recruiting for 247sports, Steve Wiltfong, doesn’t miss. What do I mean exactly? Out of 274 predictions on commitments, Steve has only missed two. That 99.27 percent accuracy should give Louisville fans plenty of optimism considering he recently put in a crystal ball for highly sought after three-star QB Shedeur Saunders.
Big Red Louie Podcast: Discussing Louisville football’s top target
The 6’2” 200-pound pro-style Texas QB has a treasure trove of offers from likes of LSU, Georgia, Oregon, FSU, and many other high-level schools. Although the natural notoriety and connections stemming from his father, Deion Sanders, certainly help make teams aware of him; it’s his talent and play on the field that has solidified Sanders as one of the top pro-style QB’s in the country for 2021.
Not only is the coaching staff going hard after Sanders, but the current 2021 recruiting class is putting in work as well. We have seen an awesome bond take hold of the current group of Louisville commits, as they have been extremely active and engaged in assisting the coaching staff with finishing their recruiting class strong. However, even with all signs pointing in a promising direction, there is still no official set date on when Sanders is making his commitment.
On our latest podcast, we discussed Shedeur’s unknown timeline and what would benefit the Cards the most – committing now or committing much closer to signing day. A decent hypothetical.
Personally, I said that it would benefit Louisville more if Sanders committed sooner rather than later for a few reasons. One, the notoriety and splash that would be created from Sanders’ commitment would undoubtedly help the staff’s efforts in closing the other elite-recruits they are in the mix for. Adding that marquee recruit to an already strong class would give Satterfield insane momentum and a strong chance for Louisville to finish in the top 25 nationally for the first time ever.
If you look at the schools after Sanders, the name brand recognition (including working out with Tom Brady), the talent, and the ability to win, you’ll quickly see why his commitment is so important for Louisville.
247 Sports’ Greg Biggins describes Sanders game by saying:
"“Highly productive and a winner with a pair of state championships to his name. Athletic frame, moves well and can extend plays. Does a nice job making that initial pass rusher miss, doesn’t panic and shows poise and calmness in the pocket. Has dual-threat ability and can pick up bug chunks of yards with his legs but doesn’t take off and run as much as you would expect. Has enough arm strength to get the ball down the field and shows nice touch on his deep ball. Can tighten his release a bit but has some solid tools that project well to college. Upside is an impact upper tier Power 5 starter and potential NFL draft pick”"
Even with Tee Webb in the fold for the next four to five years, Sanders is a needle-mover. In fact, he has the potential to be for Scott Satterfield what Teddy Bridgewater was for Charlie Strong and Lamar Jackson for Bobby Petrino.
Even if Sanders chooses to go elsewhere, one thing is still very clear: Satterfield put the ACC and college football on notice after his first full season at Louisville, and now recruits are taking notice as well.