Louisville football reportedly tabs new offensive line coach

Scott Satterfield has reportedly filled the last position coaching role for Louisville football

It’s been a tumultuous offseason for Louisville football as they attempt to rebuild an offensive coaching staff from near-scratch as Stu Holt (tight ends coach) and Gunter Brewer (receivers coach) were the only two position coaches on offense that were held onto this offseason.

Quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce became the offensive coordinator at Appalachian State; running backs coach Norval McKenzie darted for the same role with alma mater Vanderbilt; Dwayne Ledford became the offensive line coach for the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL.

While Scott Satterfield had hired two of the three departures in his place, the offensive line coaching role had remained vacant until Wednesday.

Bicknell Jr. has a ton of accolades but none may be more awesome than him being the center that snapped to ball to Doug Flutie for a Hail Mary game-winner against Miami that went down as one of the most legendary plays in college football history.

Since then, he has put together 35 years of coaching experience including seven seasons in the NFL and seven seasons as a head coach at Louisiana Tech in the early 2000s.

He was not retained by Auburn this offseason after former head coach Gus Malzahn was fired this offseason so he was essentially a “free agent” in coaching ranks. He was only at Auburn for one season.

Bicknell Jr. brings veteran experience

After Louisville hired two young position coaches in running backs coach De’Rail Sims (35) and quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas (29), the 57-year old Bicknell brings a coaching presence that has been around longer than Sims and Thomas have been alive.

Bicknell Jr. is now the oldest coach that Louisville has on staff and edges Gunter Brewer out by just one year.

While he went to college at Boston College, Bicknell Jr. has some major pipelines in Louisiana which is where he did some damage for Ole Miss as a recruiter in 2018 and 2019. He also was an active recruiter in the state of Arkansas for the Rebels.

For Auburn, his lone commitment was a 3-star offensive lineman from Florida, according to 247 Sports.

He will NOT be the offensive coordinator

Bicknell Jr. is the 10th and final assistant coach that Scott Satterfield can hire. But – unlike Dwayne Ledford – it does not appear that he will be named a co-offensive coordinator with the team per reports.

This could possibly mean that Satterfield will handle all of the offensive duties. He was already the man calling plays for the Cardinals so this would not be overly shocking. But this is a development to keep an eye on. It’s not too common for a program to not have an offensive coordinator. However, that could be the exact predicament that Louisville finds themselves in for 2021.

This was an important hire for Louisville to make in advance of spring practices. Now, Louisville has a complete assistant staff. The one question that looms is if there will be a potential co-offensive coordinator promoted within the staff.

Ledford was great and that is exactly why his jump to the NFL was such a harsh sting to the program. If Bicknell can be three-quarters of what Ledford was as a coach, Louisville football will be in fine shape.