Louisville football injecting youth into offensive coaching

Less than 48 hours after it was reported that East Carolina running backs coach would be taking the same position with Louisville football, Scott Satterfield has hired his quarterbacks coach for 2021 to fill another vacant spot.

According to a report from Football Scoop, Pete Thomas will be the new quarterbacks coach at the University of Louisville.

In three seasons of coaching, Thomas has served as an offensive quality control coach under Satterfield at Appalachian State and Louisville. The 29-year old is going into just his fourth year of coaching and will now have a tall task as a position coach.

Before coaching, Thomas was a Division I college quarterback from 2010-14 for Colorado State, NC State, and Louisiana Monroe where he passed for over 9,000 yards and 36 touchdowns in his career.

Frank Ponce had formerly been the quarterbacks coach under Satterfield since 2013 dating back to his Appalachian State days. But earlier this month, Ponce was announced as the offensive coordinator with the Mountaineers once again.

He had been a big recruiter in the state of Florida and Georgia recruiting the likes of Renato Brown and most recent signee TJ Lewis.

A youth movement is coming to the offensive staff

Already this offseason, Louisville has gotten even younger at the quarterbacks and running backs coaching positions. The group was already young to begin with, but a 35-year old De’Rail Sims coaching running backs and a 29-year old Thomas coaching up the quarterbacks is incredible youth on the staff.

Sims was a very good recruiter in the Carolinas and Georgia while Thomas will get his first taste of hitting the road and recruiting young talent out of high school. It remains to be seen where his focus will be on the trail.

Thomas will have a lot to prove in his first year as a position coach. Starting quarterback Malik Cunningham just came off of a season in which his play took a step back from the level he was playing at in 2019. Can Pete Thomas be the man to help revive the fifth year redshirt junior?

Satterfield’s willingness to promote Thomas from within the program shows a lot of confidence in a guy still under the age of 30.

It was announced earlier Friday that Dwayne Ledford will be departing for the NFL which leaves the offensive line coaching position vacant. Will Satterfield will look to get younger there as well or will he add a veteran presence?

Sims and Thomas are a start of a youth movement to coaching on the offensive side. Could another be coming soon?