Louisville football: Satterfield hints at three future stars

Louisville football head coach Scott Satterfield spoke to the media on Wednesday night to discuss the state of his team and how things are progressing as they make their way through spring practices.

These kinds of media meetings when nobody outside of the program is seeing practices hold a lot of significance and can give fans and the media alike something to grasp onto longing for their football fix.

During the multi-month practice cycle that is spring football, the coaching staff will bring up plenty of names that have impressed through the course of the “pre” preseason. While the explicit nature of mentioning these players specifically by name is important, the most notable ones are the players mentioned a multitude of times.

In Satterfield’s appearance with the media on Wednesday, a few select players were mentioned for a second time.

Two defensive players standing out in a big way early on

Kenderick Duncan and Yaya Diaby are the two names to focus on. Satterfield is a head coach that naturally gravitates to offense because of his mind for that side of the football. So for him to be mentioning two defensive players here is a great sign.

It’s not the first time either has been mentioned by name in the first few weeks of practices either. Here’s praise for Duncan from defensive coordinator Bryan Brown from two weeks ago.

Duncan, a first-year safety transfer from Georgia Southern, only played in five games as a junior. In those five games, he racked up 20 tackles, two interceptions, and four passes defended. Louisville was willing to take the shot on him coming in despite those limited reps. it seems to be paying off very well.

And this quote from defensive line coach Mark Ivey heaps praise on Diaby.

Diaby was a consistent starter in 2020 for Louisville at defensive end in his first year with the program. He didn’t register a sack last season, but the high praise coming from the coaching staff seems to indicate that the junior has taken the next step in his development.

One name on offense gets another mention

The Cardinals poached two transfers from the Georgia Southern roster this offseason. We already mentioned Duncan. The other is quarterback-turned-receiver Shai Werts.

Satterfield did something very interesting here. He put the statement out there that Werts “is going to play a lot.” His transition to a new position after four years of playing quarterback in the Sun Belt sounds like it’s going swimmingly. He had previously been mentioned very early on as another player that was flashing.

These three players have been mentioned on more than one occasion which seems to signal that they are separating themselves from the rest of the roster. Duncan’s production in limited time at Georgia Southern was uber-productive and impactful in his conference.

Diaby looked like the most explosive defensive linemen Louisville had in 2020 despite a lack of statistical output.

Werts does come as a relative amount of surprise given how quickly he has adjusted to his new position. But, clearly he has shown the coaches what he has to offer at receiver and it’s extremely encouraging to see.

As spring goes along, keep an eye on who is mentioned in multitude. There’s probably a good chance those guys will be fairly impactful pieces on the roster in 2021.

Duncan, Diaby, and Werts could be breakout stars come September.