Scott Satterfield Questions Officiating From Louisville's Loss at Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - During their 37-34 loss at the hands of Wake Forest, Louisville played far from a clean game. They committed nine penalties worth almost 100 yards, were just 4-for-12 on third down, Malik Cunningham had a couple overthrows that would have been guaranteed touchdowns, and Josh Johnson muffed a punt that set Wake Forest up for a field goal to end the first half.

That all being said, the Cardinals did not get much help from the officiating crew. Blaming the referees is rarely a legitimate reason for a loss, but there were a couple instances in the crucial division matchups that Louisville can point to.

Cunningham was tackled during a second down play in the second quarter, and left the field of play without his helmet. Rather than have backup Evan Conley man the 3rd & 3 play, head coach Scott Satterfield called a timeout so that Cunningham could be re-inserted. Instead, Satterfield says he was told the opposite.

"They said on the play, when he came off of the field of play, he had to come out and you couldn't burn a timeout for that," Satterfield said. "Evan comes in, they had a tight man-to-man coverage on a contested throw, and we don't get it."

The play was the catalyst for Wake Forest to begin a stretch of 17 unanswered points, at a time where Louisville was leading 17-10. According to NCAA rules, Cunningham should have been allowed to be inserted after the timeout.

But that wasn't even the most questionable sequence of that quarter. After the muffed punt from Johnson, Wake Forest eventually found themselves one yard away with four seconds left. Christian Beal-Smith would get stuffed at the line, and Louisville thought they had made it to halftime maintaining a 17-17 tie, as the play appeared to be blown dead by the nearest official when the clock hit zero.

However, a Demon Deacons timeout was granted with one second remaining. In a statement by the ACC acquired from ESPN's Andrea Adelson, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson had "told the official on his side that he was going to call timeout as soon as they play ended", and that the runner was down with two seconds left on the clock.

"Usually, when you run a running play, it's gonna take a minimum of four seconds," Satterfield said. "Whenever they ask you to clock a football, you have to have three seconds just to get the ball out to the center and clock it.

"There was four seconds, they're in the shotgun, they hand the ball off, and it bounces (around). I don't know how it was only three seconds, but obviously, I'm not working the clock here in Winston-Salem."

But what Satterfield was most frustrated with was the discrepancy of the holding calls between the two teams. Louisville was called for five holding penalties - three on the offensive line - while Wake Forest drew just two.

"I'm very frustrated, because I don't know what to tell them," he said. "We're fighting and we're playing hard. We're getting the calls, and we don't see them get the calls. You can call holding on most plays, let's be honest. A bunch of big dudes in there, and you're grabbing, and you can call holding a lot of times on both sides."

Even with the clear displeasure in the officiating, it does not seem that Satterfield or Louisville will take it up with the ACC offices - mainly because it will still result in a loss for the Cardinals.

"There's really no recourse. It'll go down as an 'L'," he said. "There's nothing you can do, you just got to take it."

Louisville will be back in action next weekend, when they will return home to host Virginia at Cardinal Stadium. Kickoff against the Cavaliers is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9 at either 3:00 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Scott Satterfield: Reinhold Matay - USA TODAY Sports)

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