Scott Satterfield Recaps Wake Forest, Previews Virginia

Louisville football head coach Scott Satterfield met with the media to discuss their recent loss at Wake Forest, as well as their upcoming matchup at Virginia.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With control of the Atlantic Division on the line, the Louisville (3-2, 1-1 ACC) could not extend their three-game win streak, falling 37-34 to No. 24 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Next up, Louisville will return home to host Virginia (3-2, 1-2 ACC) at Cardinal Stadium. Kickoff against the Cavaliers is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9 at either 3:00 p.m. EST.

Prior to their upcoming matchup, head coach Scott Satterfield took time to meet with the media. He discussed the previous game against Wake Forest, previewed the upcoming game against Virginia, and more.

Below is the transcript from Satterfield's press conference, as well as the video:

(Opening Statement)

Good afternoon, to recap last week, number one, it was good college football game. It was a good environment down at Wake Forest and we understood that we were going in there to play a good football team; a veteran team, a team that has been playing at a high level this year. They were very balanced in all aspects, but I thought that our guys went in and played hard. They continued to put good things on film there; we got down 10 in the fourth quarter, and it would have been easy to fold the tent and pack it up, but we didn't. We battled back, got back into the game, and it was unfortunate there at the very end. We did not get off the field in the last two drives, looking at third downs, Wake had four third downs and converted on all four, then kicked the field goal at the end to win it. It hurt to lose that type of game. We have to bounce back and we have a great opponent this weekend so we're looking forward to playing Virginia this weekend. Coach Mendenhall, I have a lot of respect for him, how he runs his program, the kids play hard for his staff. They do things in all three aspects that are unique: offense, defense, and special teams. They really make you think with a lot of different sets. Offensively, their quarterback is playing at a high level. He can throw the football well; he is a very accurate passer with a great catchable ball. They have some guys to throw it to as well; really good wide receivers, a big tight end that is about 6’ 7”, and a little slot receiver that can run all over the place. Their running back came back last week and played well against Miami. They do some good things offensively; they are putting up a lot of big numbers as one of the top passing teams in the country with 400 yards or more per game. Defensively, they have done a lot different things on defense these last few games, against Wake Forest they ran a lot of four-down, but with everyone else it has been a lot of three down technique. They have multiple defensive looks so it will be a big challenge for us. We are looking forward to hosting them this weekend and coming back and trying to get back on track in this ACC race because it is wide open. If you look at it, every team has a loss except for four teams and we just started ACC play. There is a lot of ball left and it is very competitive in this league as we have seen. All these games are going to be tough, you got to fight down to the end and try to win. That is what we told our guys and we got to figure out a way to win it.

(On responses on officiating)

Each week we have an ability to be able to send plays in. For me, to send plays in it is either I got a question on a play, like “What do we need to tell our player in this sense if we got called for something” or a penalty that could have been called. I'll say this, it is tough. It is hard to be an official, I understand that you're not going get them all right. I think the biggest thing that I've always wanted as a coach is consistency in officiating. I think that's all we ever want, if we're going to let them play, then let everyone play, and not pick and choose when you going to call fouls. We can dissect any play and find something wrong, you can find a holding on most plays, but it’s when you call it and sometimes you get called in inopportune times when it when you get a big play, that is most frustrating. I do know it's a tough task for those officials, but when you do not get the common sense ones right then everyone has a problem with that. I think that's some of the things that come into play. Last week, we sent a bunch of plays in and we received some good responses on those, but this week I didn't want to send plays in because I think it speaks for itself. Everybody saw the game and really the biggest controversy is right before half. I think that's probably the biggest one and it was unfortunate. The thing that I did not like about it is the fact that our defense played their butts off in that scenario, held them out of the endzone, and they still get an opportunity to kick a field goal. That is the thing that really aggravated me because of how hard our guys played to be able to keep them out of the endzone. As a coach you, and we have seen this over the years in college football, you get the ball down inside the three, four-yard line, and the time is down to about three or four seconds left on the clock, you got to make a decision, “do I want to run a play?” and if I do run this play then you are willing to risk the fact that you will not get another play. I am pretty sure Coach Clawson thought the same thing if we run this play with four seconds left then we think we are going to score, but if we don't score, then there's probably going to be halftime. I am pretty sure he thought that because that's what I was thought if I was if I'm making that decision to go for it. We've seen that happen in many games over the years. He doesn’t get it and the ball is down on the one-yard line and then the half is over, the clock says zero and we are getting ready to head to the locker rooms, and then we get called back out and they get another play. So, that's unfortunate, because normally you would not have that much time to run another play.

(On sending plays to the ACC and block in the back call)

“You go back and look at the plays, Isaac (Martin) was outside of the box when he started that play, had he been inside the box, it's not even an issue, but he was outside of the box, when he comes in and blocks into the box, but on that play if you go back and watch it, his hands are up the whole time. He gets called for blocking the back, so I don't know, I didn't. I don't know the interpretation with our rules, but I did know his hands were up the whole time.”

(On what the team is learning from close games)

“Well, I know our guys are obviously fighting to win the game and we've come out on top the last few times, and I just know our guys are going to keep playing. You have to have a ‘this play’ mentality, this is the play we're going to make to win this game no matter what the scenario is, we're going to make the play right here to win this game. It's just like the last game, we just had to make a play somewhere along that last drive. It's unfortunate we didn't but I think our guys continue to play, we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to make more plays so it doesn’t come down to that, but that's the game of football, we're going to have a lot more of those this year, and it's going to be a lot of tight games and we're going to have to deal with it.”

(On injuries and status of those injuries heading into Virginia game)

“We did lose our best pass rusher the second play of the game Ashton (Gillotte), he hurt his toe and he was out for the rest of the game. We lost Renato (Brown), he played five snaps, our starting right tackle so we’ve got some guys dinged up and that was unfortunate for us to lose those guys because you’re starting to play some guys that haven’t played too many reps and those guys got to step up and make plays and that's kind of where we are, we're at the midpoint of the season and there's a lot of teams that have got some guys dinged up and so we got to continue to develop more depth. Kam (Wilson) is out, he's going to be out for probably six to eight weeks, which is unfortunate because we really thought he was coming on strong, he's in some packages for defense. Renato (Brown) and Ashton (Gillotte) will be day to day, we'll check on those guys, they're coming around, but they're listed right now is day to day and whether they play this week remains to be seen. I feel for certain they will be able to play after that, we’ve got a bye week coming up after that so they will be certainly available the following week, but we'll have to find out this coming week whether they'll be available or not. Shai (Werts) will probably be back this week; he was close last week we put him out in warmups, and I thought he looked pretty good last week and hopefully this week he’ll get a full practice throughout the whole week and be available.”

(On keeping the team focused despite tough calls)

“Well, we always talk about worry about what you can control. We can't control some of those things that are happening. We can't control if you're going to get hurt or not, you’ve got to go hard, and injuries are just a part of the game. I promise you, everybody that’s playing has got something wrong with them but you're going have to play with that and if it's a significant injury, then you're going to be out sometime. We can't control what gets called and what doesn't get called, we have to get to continue to play the next play and move forward. It is frustrating at times, obviously, we're all human. You know that creeps in, we have to guard against it, because that doesn't do us any good because you get frustrated and you get upset and you can’t play the next play, so we’ve got we just got to continue to fight and do the best we can.”

(On Malik Cunningham having to exit the game for one play)

“I think they said it was an injury, and he had to come out we couldn’t buy him back in there with a timeout. The reason we call timeout to get him back in, but then they came and said that he couldn't come back in and that was a big play, it's 3rd and 3 and to be able to have him back in and plus I was trying to buy him some time because he got hit pretty hard on that play.”

(On the play of the wide receivers)

“We talked about it last week how we’re going have to count on some more guys. We knew Ahmari (Huggins-Bruce) was going be one of those guys we can move more in the slot to where Braden (Smith) was at, utilize that speed that he has, and we hit him on a reverse as well and he got around the edge for about 12 yard and nice route catch on the touchdown. It's just about picking and choosing when to put him in because he's still learning the offense and he's getting better, and I thought he blocked a lot better in the game. I thought our receivers played well, the absence of Braden (Smith) I thought they played really well. Jordan (Watkins) made some great plays, of course Marshon (Ford) continues to play well, but those guys are going have to step up. Tyler (Harrell) is such a fast player I mean, once he caught his balance like that, it’s a touchdown, they're not going to catch him. He's incredibly fast and it was a great catch too, it was a ball across the middle and the umpire is kind of in the way and the umpire jumps out of the way and he catches it, what a great play and if we find ways to get those guys the ball in space, it’s going to put pressure on the defense because of how fast they are, they're two of our faster guys that we have outside.”

(On what he thinks has been the biggest offensive improvement)

“Saturday, I felt really good about the running game. It opened back up a little bit more. We were able to hand the ball off to (Trevion) Cooley and to (Jalen) Mitchell, and they really help take the pressure off (Malik) Cunningham and running the football, albeit (Malik) Cunningham still threatens the defense with the with his legs. He threw the ball very well Saturday, missed a couple of touchdowns but other than that he played outstanding. Some of those throws he made to Dez (Melton) down the sideline, he made another crossing route to (Jordan) Watkins. I mean the guys are right on their hip, incredible throws. He was very efficient. We want to continue to get the running game going, I think that really helps her offense. When you think about being able to hand the ball to a running back and now you've opened up your play action stuff, we can use to get the ball down the field, but I thought our office played well, we had 500 yards of offense and 34 points. We really, probably left some more points out there that we could have been a 600-yard offense that day and more but that's encouraging. That's what I was telling our team, we're playing pretty well, but we can be so much better, we have to continue to fight to get better and better and it has to happen throughout the week in practice, coming up with a great game plan and then executing that game plan and I think we can continue to get better. (Trevion) Cooley didn't play the week before but he was able to come back and make some big plays for us in the pass game and in the run game.”

(On Louisville transfer Anthony Johnson)

“He's pretty smart too. AJ was a well-liked player here. He wanted an opportunity to play more and kudos to him, he did that. He went in there and earned a starting role at corner. He's played well for them. He's got great length, primarily putting him in the boundary at corner and he's had a good year so far. We know who he is, we know we're just looking at the scheme and figuring out what are they trying to do and how do we attack it, it's not just looking at one player. But he's done well this year and I think that was the reason why he wanted to transfer, maybe try to get some more playing time and he's done that for himself. I know he'll be fired up to come back here after spending some time here in this building and to be able to come play in Cardinal Stadium.”

(On if an injured player has to sit out a play even if a timeout is called)

“I'm not 100% sure on that, but that's what I was told, that you couldn't have them back in. So, we called a timeout and that was the explanation so I'm not 100% sure but apparently that's the rule.”

(On Wake’s ability to convert third downs)

“I don't know if it was a common theme. I think we had 20 third downs, that's a lot. I think we had 10 throughout the day. Obviously, it's going to be hard to be right on every one of those but a couple of them we we're in a coverage where the corners were a little bit too tight into the line of scrimmage and they got behind us on the outside, that happened two or three times, and so that was probably the biggest thing that we have to fix. I give credit to their quarterback, he's a good player. I'm watching him play Virginia right now, he just finds ways to get the ball out. He throws an accurate football. I thought 83 (Tyler Morin) played outstanding, he made some incredible catches. The catch he made on the sideline when they originally ruled him out, that was an incredible play. It was unbelievable. We were in cover two and he fits it on the sideline, he catches it, we hit him, and he barely drags his foot in, sometimes those guys, they win. Another play that was incredible, Jack Fagot is in the backfield sacking the quarterback, he is halfway on the ground and throws into the running back. That was a third down, they got a first down and they scored a touchdown, those are incredible plays, and you just have to give them credit for making those plays. Our guys made some good plays but that's tough. The ones that I specifically think of, is when the corners are too inside and we need to be a little bit further out and be on top of those hitches, but I thought Wake did some good things and made some of those plays.”

(On how he plans to keep filling Monty Montgomery’s role)

“Yeah, K.J. (Cloyd) got dinged on his hand and we're still evaluating that. K.J. had a really good week of practice last week. He's starting to understand what we're doing. He can really run and hit and tackle. We're going to play the guy we think gives us the best chance and so maybe all three guys have to play. We still love (Jaylin) Alderman, we think he's a great player, going to be a great player, very smart, but he's still young and he's still growing and trying to get better. Dorian Jones is the same way, he's a good young player. It's wide open really, but we're going to practice and we're going to put the guy who we think can make plays in the game. This week is a different challenge because these guys throw the football all over the place so now who gives you the best chance in the pass game to stop the pass so that'll be interesting to see how that unfolds this week in our game plan to see who's the best person to put out there for that scenario.”

(On Jack Fagot)

“Jack has played really really well. He's got a great understanding of what we're trying to get done out there at that position because that position is hard for us. You can do a lot of different things. You're dropping him off in coverage, he's really blitzing, he's getting involved in the run game. The thing that makes him so valuable is he's smart. He understands. He can look at the offense and figure out what they're going to be doing and how to attack it. He understands leverage. He plays hard. He's a little undersized, but he makes up for it with all that stuff that I just mentioned. I think he'll continue to get better; he's getting more and more comfortable.”

(Photo of Scott Satterfield: Matthew McGavic - Louisville Report)

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