Louisville football adds young, rising RB coach

It was reported on Wednesday afternoon that Scott Satterfield had made his first necessary hire of the offseason for Louisville football as he addressed the running backs coach position.

The hiring of De’Rail Sims from East Carolina University comes just a couple of weeks after former Louisville running backs coach Norval McKenzie left for the same position with Vanderbilt in the SEC.

Sims is just 35 years old and has already done impressive work at each of his stops. He joined East Carolina of the American Athletic Conference in 2019 after spending three seasons at James Madison from 2016-18.

In 2019, Sims helped lead a Pirates rushing attack in his first season that accounted for 1,696 yards (the most at ECU since 2014). Sims has led a dominant running game wherever he has been and has served as a lifer as a running backs coach since he was at Western Carolina in 2013.

He was also a very good recruiter for the Pirates in his two years where he recruited well for his position hitting areas of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama in his time.

The hire makes sense for Satterfield who is a North Carolina native with a ton of ties to the Carolinas and has made hot-bed Georgia a recruiting priority as well.

Sims should fit as a young, heady recruiter that will have the opportunity to grow in Louisville as a very young position coach.

Sims should be a key recruiting cog

The running backs coach is typically a crucial recruiter. This hire makes so much sense for Satterfield’s plan in recruiting and where he wants his focus to be located. In the Class of 2021, Louisville signed 11 players from either the Carolinas or Georgia. That’s over half of the signees.

The strengths and pipelines of where Sims brings it in recruiting should set up rather nicely for hitting those key areas of the country that had already been the coaching staff’s bread and butter.

Overall

This is a great hire for Satterfield based on what he wants to do and the simple fact that Sims has been a very good coach and recruiter for East Carolina in just two years. He is a fast riser in the industry and he will be making a huge impact on the running backs room sooner rather than later.

You may not recognize the name, but Satterfield just hit a home run.