UC Head Coach Scott Satterfield: 'I Like To Challenge Myself'

The Bearcats new head coach introduced himself to the team on Monday as he faces a whirlwind few weeks in Clifton.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Dec 5, 2022 5:39 PM EST

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats pulled off the surprising hiring of Scott Satterfield to be their new head football coach this past weekend. The timeline came together quickly.

Satterfield had been at Louisville since 2019 but decided to jump at the opportunity for growth with UC's infrastructure.

"The opportunity to take a program going into a new conference," Satterfield said about what drove him to pursue the position. "I like to challenge myself and the opportunity to be in a great city. I mean, there are so many things here that aligned with what I want, and our family wants and once I had an opportunity to meet with the leadership here, I was like, ‘Man, this is the place I want to be.’. Then it was up to them to see if they wanted me and then when that happened, it was go time. I am just excited about the future. I am excited about moving forward with it and the opportunity that we have.”

Athletic director John Cunningham has notoriously kept his hires very under wraps. It's an impressive attribute he's displayed in making the two biggest hires possible at a Power Five athletics program: Head basketball and football coach.

Wes Miller wasn't an easy target to point out last year, and Satterfield fits the same bill. It was hard to find any prediction last week that he'd ride up the highway to take this job.

Now he's here, ready to focus on recruiting and staff building during bowl season (Satterfield confirmed he is not coaching Louisville or UC).

Satterfield stayed mum on his timeline for how this came together as the transfer portal opens and players flock to different schools. Not to mention the looming signing date at the end of the month.

“It came together quickly and it happened very fast," Satterfield said when asked about the timeline for his hiring. "I think this time of year is always crazy for football coaches, and the timing's never good. You guys just went through it with Coach [Luke] Fickell, it's not good for the team that you're leaving. It's a lot of apprehension with the team you're going, and it's this time of year that bowls are happening. We're trying to recruit, it's so many things that are going on, and that part I don't like, it'd be awesome if we said, ‘Listen everybody finishes your season, everybody finish your bowls, and then all right, now we can start any kind of coaching carousel that's out there.’, but it doesn't work that way.

"Last season, there was coaches that were fired three games into the season, which I think is ridiculous. That's just my opinion. I do think that you should finish your season and then let's see what happens after that, but again, we are in this coaching landscape that is ever-changing, where we’re going, who knows, but I do know this, We have to do the very best job we can and put the best product on the field to go compete in the Big 12 so that we can be a part of those 12 teams that are going to be in that playoff and that's our goal. That's our mission. Let’s go get it done.”

Satterfield is ready to move forward—now the question is how quickly can UC scramble to retain talent and keep building the Big 12 infrastructure?

The university is planning to break ground on a new athletic facility in 2023. Structured NIL money and facilities will go a long way toward maintaining the winning culture.

"It’s awesome what we are getting ready to partake in," Satterfield said about how much the new facilities drew him to UC. "As you think about recruiting and bringing student-athletes on campus and seeing what you have to offer. They’re going to a lot of other universities that have a lot of things that are really nice. For example, the new football complex, that's where they’re going to be spending most of their time. They want it to be state-of-the-art. They want it to be extremely nice. We're competing with schools now in this new conference that have a lot of those things. So, it's extremely important.

"It also speaks to the vision of where we want to go and where we want to be, which is very exciting for me. So, it certainly played a big part in that and, and so again, I'm excited to put a shovel in the ground and get that thing going so we can start using it.”

A new era started in Clifton, a year to the day that UC make the top four of the final 2021 College Football Playoff Rankings. Things change quickly in the world of college sports.

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