Satterfield: Louisville Has 'A Lot to Prove,' Wants to 'Earn Respect'

The Cardinals are coming off of a 6-7 campaign that was marred by several close losses.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following a hot start to his tenure, the Scott Satterfield era of the Louisville football program has been a little rocky at times over the past couple seasons. After guiding the Cardinals to an 8-5 record in his first year at the helm back in 2019, Satterfield then proceeded to post to back-to-back losing seasons, going 4-7 in 2020 and 6-7 in 2021.

At one point last season, he was on a bit of a hot seat after getting blasted by Kentucky to end the regular season and falling to Air Force in the First Responder Bowl. An unprecedented recruiting run in the Class of 2023 has cooled that seat considerably over the last several months, but make no mistake: Louisville is entering a crucial year four under Satterfield. The pressure for him to win is as great as it has been in his time as the Cardinals' head coach.

Satterfield is far from blind to this. In fact, it seems that his desire to win and succeed at Louisville has only grown over the last several months because of how the 2021 season unfolded and ultimately ended. It lit a fire under Satterfield and Louisville, and has motivated them to rebound, get over the hump, and leap into the tier of elite teams in the ACC.

"You look at the season coming up, there's a lot of certain teams getting a lot of hype. Certain teams getting voted this, voted that," he said at the program's annual Media Day. "I think for us, our whole thing this summer is we got a lot to prove, this football team, and we want to earn respect.

"I think for us to be able to go out and do that, you have to do it each and every day, and then we're gonna have to prove and all those those 12 opportunities that we get in the fall."

It's no surprise as to what Louisville's Achilles heel was last season: an inability to finish games down the stretch. The drive that died at the goal line against Clemson, the complete collapse vs. Virginia, the loss of momentum against Wake Forest and the lack of execution at NC State. In all four games, Louisville led or was tied in the fourth quarter, only to lose all of them.

Satterfield has repeated many times over the course of the offseason at how close Louisville was to turning a losing season into potentially a 10-win one, to the point where many in the fan base almost see it as excuse making. But both him and the players are using those close losses as motivation to never replicate those results.

"All these things are just resonating in front of our heads," he said. "So every day when they come to train, that's what they're thinking about: to know that we are close.

"At the same time, I think it gave our guys a little bit of confidence. Confidence to know that we can compete with anybody in this league. We saw last year that Pittsburgh won won the league, and so it's wide open. It's wide open for somebody to go take, why not us? But it's going to take that daily commitment to go out there with a chip on your shoulder."

Louisville was recently projected to finish fourth  in the Atlantic Division, but they certainly have the pieces to potentially punch their ticket to Charlotte, N.C. for the ACC Championship Game. The Cardinals return 17 players who started at least one game last year, including  playmakers like Malik Cunningham and Yasir Abdullah. Not to mention that haul of impacts guys they landed out of the transfer portal in positions of need.

It won't be easy to pull off with a loaded schedule, but if it all comes together, the Cardinals could very well find themselves flirting with a 10-win season and making themselves a true force in the ACC. But only if every player buys in to what the staff is preaching.

"In order to gain respect, you got to go out and prove it each and every day," Satterfield said. "You just can't talk about it, you have to go out there and actually do it.

"We talk about earning everything. Our guys have to earn their scholarship, they have to earn their playing time, you have to earn to be a starter, and you have to earn your respect. When you start doing all these things, then your teammates are gonna respect you and your coaching staff is gonna respect you. Then you go out you can perform on a Saturday afternoon or Friday night, then your opponent's gonna have to respect you."

Fall camp for the Cardinals gets underway on Wednesday, Aug 3, with their 2022 season opener scheduled for a month later on Saturday, Sept. 3 at Syracuse.

(Photo of Scott Satterfield: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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