Behind Enemy Lines: The Louisville Cardinals
Gone is Bobby Petrino, who parted ways with the Cardinals following the 2018 season, and the job of resurrecting a program that went 2-10 in 2018 has fallen to Scott Satterfield.
Satterfield compiled a remarkable 51-24 record at Appalachian State, including a 38-10 conference mark in six seasons. With 34-6 in five Sun Belt seasons, that is the best record in the league during that span. Notably, Satterfield became the first coach to lead a school from the Football Championship Subdivision level to Football Bowl Subdivision and immediately earn three-consecutive bowl wins.
Prior to taking over as the head coach of the Mountaineers, Satterfield served as offensive coordinator at Florida International, passing game coordinator at Toledo and wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks coach with the Mountaineers.
The Cardinals improved to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in ACC play with a win last weekend against Wake Forest, but according to Satterfield there is no time for celebrating..
"You can't celebrate too long because you have the Tigers coming into town this weekend," he said. "We put that game to bed on Sunday and we moved on to the Tigers. Looking forward to a great environment this weekend hosting Clemson."
Cardinals on offense
The job of coordinating the Cardinals' offense falls to 2014 and 2017 Broyles Award Nominee (given to the nation's top assistant coach) Dwayne Ledford.
A familiar face in the ACC, Ledford joined the Louisville staff after three seasons as the offensive line coach and running game coordinator at N.C. State, where he helped make the Wolfpack’s offensive lines one of the best units in the ACC.
The Wolfpack had a 1,000-yard rusher in each season of Ledford’s tenure. N.C. State went from 2002-2015 without a 1,000-yard rusher, which was the longest drought in the country. In three seasons directing the offensive line, the Wolfpack saw their sacks total decrease, ranking among the top 20 in the country.
In 2019, after averaging just 19.8 points per game last season, the Cardinals are on a scoring explosion this season, averaging 37.3 points per game — ranking 24th in the country and third in the ACC. 9 Louisville has scored over 24 points in five of the six games this season and have tallied 38 or points in four games.
Louisville has scored 40 or more in consecutive games for the first time since tallying 56 against Syracuse and 44 at Kentucky in 2017. The 62 points Louisville scored versus Wake Forest were the most since Louisville tallied 63 over No. 2 Florida State in 2016.
The Cardinals are on pace to score 448 points this season. However, they fully understand that they are about to make a huge jump in their level of competition.
"Here’s what’s going to happen to us these next six games: we’re playing some of the top defenses in our league coming up," Satterfield saidl. "You have Clemson, Virginia, Miami, NC State – all these guys have really good defenses. You’re probably not going to be able to score 62 points, 45 points. It’s hard to outscore these top teams that we’re getting ready to play because of how well their defense plays."
Cardinals on defense
Maybe the toughest task for the new Cardinal staff falls on defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, who takes over a defense that allowed 277.2 rushing yards per game, 211.1 passing yards per game and allowed 44.1 yards per game.
Brown orchestrated one of the top defenses in the nation in 2017. In his only season as defensive coordinator, alongside Satterfied at Appalachian State, Brown's defense ranked sixth nationally in scoring defense at 15.7 points per game, holding the opposition to 10 or fewer points in seven. Brown's defense also ranked third in the nation in passing defense, allowing 148.1 yards per game, and sixth in total defense, allowing 279.3 yards per game.
Through the first six games, the Cardinals are only slightly better than they were last season—allowing 31.5 points per game, 174.2 rushing yards per game, 264.8 passing yards per game and 439 total yards allowed per game.
The line
Last season, the Tigers easily handled the Cardinals by a final score of 77-16 inside the friendly confines of Death Valley. While the Cardinals can only get better from what they were last season, the pundits in Las Vegas think this will not be the season they get the best of their Atlantic Division rival.
The Tigers are 24-point favorites over the Cardinals.
