The Ripple Effects of Cincinnati’s New Hire Extend Past Its Bowl Matchup

The Bearcats’ hiring of Louisville’s Scott Satterfield came right as the two teams were planning for their Fenway Bowl matchup, and the move is already making waves across the Power 5 world.

In a collision of circumstances that college sports somehow excels at creating, officials from Louisville and Cincinnati met in Boston on Monday to plan promotions for their Dec. 17 meeting in the Fenway Bowl. Meanwhile, back home, the Bearcats were busy swiping the very same guy who was supposed to coach the Cardinals in that game, Scott Satterfield. No awkwardness there at all.

Satterfield’s out-of-nowhere hire rippled elsewhere, too. News broke two hours before Purdue coach Jeff Brohm (a Louisville native) had a 10 a.m. press conference to discuss the Boilermakers’ Citrus Bowl game against LSU. By 10:04, athletic director Mike Bobinski had launched a preemptive statement that the opening at Brohm’s alma mater is “not today’s focus of conversation.”

At 10:09, an undeterred reporter asked about Louisville, a job Brohm turned down in 2018.

Brohm said he just found out about it this morning and had “no more information,” later adding that there had been no contact from the school. What wasn’t said—I have no interest, I’m staying at Purdue—resonated.

Daytime drama script writers, take notes.

Surprising as this hire was, it spurred some rejoicing in the Louisville fan base. Satterfield cleaned up the stink left behind at the end of Bobby Petrino 2.0, but he still wasn’t terribly popular. His résumé at the school: a 25–24 record, a resentment-inducing flirtation with South Carolina in 2020 and an 0–3 record against archrival Kentucky. He was on the hot seat heading into this season and seemed like a goner after a 2–3 start, only to turn things around with five wins in a six-game span.

With two years remaining on his contract, Satterfield and his agent wanted an extension. Athletic director Josh Heird met with Satterfield on Nov. 27, a day after Louisville lost by 13 points to Kentucky. The plan was to retain him for a fifth season, and discussions were had about what needed to be done to take the next step up the college football ladder—but in the end, an appreciably sweetened deal was not forthcoming.

“You can’t keep losing to Kentucky and get extended,” said one Louisville source.

The presumption was that Satterfield had no real alternatives to relocate. But then Cincinnati lost the hugely successful Luke Fickell to Wisconsin, and an intriguing job just 100 miles up Interstate 71 from Louisville opened. (At the time, most of the names being bandied about for the Bearcats job were from the mid-major level.)

Former Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez called the move to bring in Fickell as “a home run hire” for the Badgers :: The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar/USA TODAY NETWORK

A day after Louisville and Cincinnati were formally announced as competitors in the Fenway Bowl, Satterfield switched sides—and did so gracelessly, via a Zoom call Monday morning with blindsided players and staff. It was a sound exit strategy for a coach who needed one, and a solid score for a school upgrading to the Big 12 next year as Cincy showed it could pluck a coach from another Power 5 program.

Of course, Cincy’s track record has been better when hiring up-and-comers (Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, Butch Jones, Fickell) than those looking for an escape hatch. The last time Cincy made a similar move was in 2013, when it hired Tommy Tuberville from Texas Tech—only to watch Tubs basically retire on the job. It took Fickell’s yeoman work to get Cincinnati back to a prominent place in the Group of 5 world.

For Louisville, it might not be Brohm or bust, but this is a second chance to land the guy fans have pined for. Brohm raised eyebrows last spring when he made a speaking appearance in Louisville and was asked about turning down the Cardinals’ job four years ago.

His answer, according to WDRB’s Rick Bozich:

“You know what ... after being at Purdue two years when it came open, that was a tough call. Tough call.

“To be quite honest, through my schooling and how I was raised, I believe in at least trying to do the right thing and having morals and values. It just was too early to leave [Purdue for U of L then]. It just wasn’t right.

“You build relationships. People treat you right. The people there have treated me great. You talk to recruits, and they asked me things. Just a lot of things went into it.

“But, obviously, now we’re on Year 6. I love this town, this area. I’m an alumnus of Louisville. So anything can happen in the future.”

Year 6 has been completed, with an 8–5 record and Purdue’s first Big Ten West Division championship. Last year was 9–4, the Boilermakers’ best mark since 2003. If Brohm wants to go home, he’s done his work in elevating Purdue to its strongest standing since the Joe Tiller era.

Brohm’s career coaching record is 58–39 (a .598 winning percentage), with half of those wins coming while at Purdue :: Marc Lebryk/USA TODAY Sports

Know this much: if it’s happening, it should happen fast. There isn’t a lot of fact-finding either Louisville or Brohm need to do about each other. His agent lives in Louisville and could be at Heird’s office in 20 minutes.

And if it isn’t happening, it should happen fast, too. Then Louisville can get on with a fully formed search.

But even then, there is another need for speed: Satterfield was a few weeks away from landing a shockingly good recruiting class, one currently ranked No. 21 nationally by rivals.com and featuring highly rated players from California, Texas and Florida. If Louisville wants to keep that class together with something other than NIL/collective/Adidas backing, it has to hire a coach quickly.

(Also needed: a new hire for downtrodden Louisville fans to get excited about. The men’s basketball team is quite likely the worst in the school’s proud history, currently 0–8 and absolutely hopeless against fellow Power 5 competition. First-year coach Kenny Payne is presiding over an absolute dumpster fire, and so far has done little other than warm his hands over the conflagration. It’s bad.)

So it’s just another Monday in college football, where one team raided its bowl opponent for its coach 12 days before the game. And the ripple effect was felt immediately at a third school. When you don’t think developments on the coaching carousel could get stranger, they usually do.