Satterfield 'Proud' of Louisville's Effort at Clemson, Confidence Still High Despite Loss
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program had a golden opportunity on Saturday. Winners of four games in a row, the Cardinals marched into Death Valley as one of the hottest teams in the ACC, and were set to face a Clemson team that was very much on the ropes. The Tigers had shown vulnerability all season long, and it finally came to fruition the weekend before with a decisive loss at Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals were not able to capitalize on that momentum, falling to the No. 12 Tigers 31-16 to snap their longest winning streak since 2016. Clemson also extended their home winning streak to 39, the longest active streak in the FBS.
Louisville might be coming back home empty-handed, but head coach Scott Satterfield was extremely pleased with the fight that his team showed in such a hostile environment.
"I'm proud of our guys," he said. "That's what I told them in the locker room. I'm really proud of how to continued to fight. When things are down and out, they have not given up, and they didn't lay down. They didn't tonight, all the way to the last play when we threw a touchdown pass."
After Clemson scored a touchdown on their opening possession, Louisville would play from behind for the rest of the night. However, the Cardinals gave the Tigers everything they had, and the game didn't truly get out of reach until Clemson scored a touchdown with 2:13 left in the game to go up by three scores. Even then, Louisville still didn't give up, battling on their final possession and ending the night with a touchdown as time expired.
The primary catalyst for Louisville's fighting effort undoubtedly came from the defensive side of the ball. While Clemson did rack up 439 yards of offense, the Cardinals held them to just 4-of-13 on third down conversions for the game and 1-of-6 in the second half, while also forcing four fumbles and recovering three of them in the process.
"I still think we did some really good things tonight," Satterfield said. "We created some turnovers, and almost had a couple more as well. ... There's a lot of positives to take from this game."
Even the offense, which struggled to string together plays for most of the afternoon and didn't capitalize on any of the defense's takeaways, showed flashes of resiliency. After starting quarterback Malik Cunningham went down after suffering a right shoulder injury on the final play of the first half, backup Brock Domann once again stepped into action.
While he did throw an interception in his half of work, it also came with 175 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-23 passing, and the offense posted 240 second half yards compared to 160 in the first half. Wide receiver Tyler Hudson was the brightest star on that side of the ball that night, catching 11 reception for 163 receiving yards, both of which were highs at Louisville for the Central Arkansas transfer.
"I told our guys, 'the outcome is not what we wanted tonight.' But we came out, and we played as hard as you can possibly play, and we didn't quit," Satterfield said. "When you can keep doing that, you're gonna give yourself a great opportunity to win football games. That's what I'm proud of the most with our guys."
Louisville might have seen their winning streak broken, but their confidence is anything but. After firing off four win in a row when they started 2-3 overall and 0-3 in ACC play, and showing that they can go toe-to-toe with the top team in the conference, their confidence is just as high as ever.
"This team is resilient," inside linebacker MoMo Sanogo said. "That's something that (strength coach Ben) Sowders has worked on since he got here. Honestly, we've played some of our best football after a loss. We're gonna come back from this hard. We're gonna attack next week in practice, and perform on Saturday."
"We got heart, I'll probably say that," Hudson added. "0-3, no conference wins, we're only beating G5's, it's kind of like, 'what are we doing?'. But we had that (players-only) meeting after that Boston College game, and just let our hearts out, were real with each other. Ever since then, the whole team just turned this page."
Louisville returns to action this weekend when they host NC State in their final home game of the 2022 season. Kickoff against the Wolfpack is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19 at 3:30 p.m. EST.
(Photo of Malik Cunningham: Ken Ruinard - USA TODAY Sports)
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