What Scott Satterfield, Louisville Players Said After 41-3 Win vs. USF
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program was able to bounce back from their disappointing loss to Florida State the week before, dominating USF in all facets of the game for a blowout victory.
Here's what head coach Scott Satterfield, quarterback Malik Cunningham, outside linebacker Yasir Abdullah, running back Trevion Cooley and defensive end YaYa Diaby had to say following the win:
Head Coach Scott Satterfield
(Opening statement)
“First of all, we have a lot of respect for South Florida, Coach (Jeff) Scott and his team, what they did last week down in the Swamp really handled Florida I thought. Think about how their running back had 150 yards, their quarterback rushed for over 100. We wanted to come in here and stop the run and make them one dimensional. It started in practice on Tuesday, our guys were very focused and very intent on having a good week of practice coming off of a disappointing loss with Florida State. Credit to them, because it’s easy to still feel sorry for yourself and not want to come back in here and work and think ‘we’re 0-2 in the conference, what are we going to do?’ But to their credit, they came back and worked hard and put together a really nice complete game today.
Defensively, we did not give up the big plays and offensively and defensively we did not shoot ourselves in the foot as far as penalties go – we only had five and two of them were right there at the end, Chris Bell on the face mask and the late hit on kickoff team - so you’re looking at three penalties throughout the whole day. We turned them over, we had some really nice plays. We stopped the run and made them try to think they’ve got to try to get back in it, try to force the ball down the field. We got some interceptions, finally got our first fumble today. Offensively, not great on third down, but we made up for it on fourth. We converted those fourth downs which enabled us to go down and score touchdowns. I thought we were pretty efficient in the red zone there. The one time we didn’t get any points, we went for it on fourth down, we’d normally probably kick it on that. Brock (Domann) threw a slant to Chris Bell. It was good to get a lot of guys in the game today. We played a lot of players, a lot of young guys got to play. I mentioned Chris Bell got his first catch, Bradley West got a catch, Grant Goodman got a carry there at the end. We’re playing guys on defense that hadn’t played a ton. It was good to see the tackles spread out, Dorian Jones may have led us in tackles, but I think a lot of guys had production. YaYa (Diaby) had a had another good game, he’s been playing really good this year on defense. The kicking game was very solid. We were a little concerned about 21 (Brian Battie) as a return guy, and Brock (Travelstead) put it out of the endzone. He’s done excellent this year with the touchbacks which has been awesome and then Mark Vassett’s really punted the ball well. He punted again today, outstanding, I think maybe a 44-yard average. You’ve got to be able to win those special teams. Just overall proud of our guys, it was a complete game and looking forward to putting this one to bed and then focusing on Boston College.”
(On getting running backs into the passing game)
“We were going to utilize the backs in the throw game. (Trevion) Cooley, last week, had four catches. We have good confidence in those guys to make plays in the passing game. We really wanted to distribute the ball and spread the ball out with all our guys including the running backs. Today, (Marshon) Ford and the backs caught the ball and Ahmari Huggins-Bruce had a nice play. Tyler Hudson had some nice plays. It is really good to spread it around and distribute it. I thought we ran the ball good today again. Malik (Cunningham) went over 100 yards for the third straight week. It puts pressure on defenses when you are able to run like that with him. Hopefully, that opens up the throw game. I thought he did a really nice job with the underneath passing game today. There were a lot of bend-but-don’t-break type coverages so he did it underneath. I thought that was good. Guys got some YAC (yards after catch) like that. He will tell you he missed one when we ran a slant and go to Ahmari and we should have had a touchdown on that. We ended up scoring but that would have been nice to hit that. We want to spread it out. “
(On Tiyon Evans being back and his value to the offense)
“He still was a limited in practice this week, but was able to get him back out and he had some really nice runs – strong runs. I thought (Trevion) Cooley did some really nice things. (Jawhar) Jordan may have had the most yards per carry. It is nice to play all those guys and keep them fresh. Then when you need those tough yards, they are able to break those tackles. That has been really nice to have that luxury. It is also a competition at practice every day. They are competing to see who is going to get the most carries and the most opportunities. That is good to see.”
(On the roller coaster nature of this year’s performances)
“It proves that if you go out and don’t beat yourselves, you have a great opportunity. Again, South Florida is a team that has ability and talent. We saw that last week. We came out and dominated the game. It was 28 first downs to 11 and a lot of yards to not very many. I thought our guys were focused and played that way. It proved we can do it. With commitment each and every week to come out and stay focused on the task at hand. When we are like that, then it is more about us than who we are playing.”
(On Jaelin Carter’s TD catch)
“It was awesome. He has worked extremely hard since he has been here. I switched the play we had called at the last second to a double move and it ended up working out pretty good. I thought Malik (Cunningham) overthrew him but that was an unbelievable catch. He did a full lay out and got that ball and got it into his body. Great catch. That will give him a lot of confidence. He will remember that for the rest of his life as his first catch here for a touchdown. I think there is more for where that came from because he has a lot of ability. I think he has some potential to really help us this year. This was basically his first game playing this season. Hopefully, we can expand on that.”
(On Malik Cunningham’s performance)
“He is a special player. He gets a lot of criticism at times when he doesn’t play great. Here is the thing about this quarterback is that the ball is in his hands a lot as far as running and throwing. I don’t know what the average is but – let’s say – 45 to 50 times a game when he is running or throwing. He is not going to be perfect. Every one of those plays are not going to go exactly the way like we wanted. We want it to be that way but it is not going to happen. It seems we focus on the four plays that didn’t go that well as opposed to that other stuff that is outstanding. Going to the skinny defensive corner, those guys don’t want to play against him because he puts so much pressure on the defense. When he is dialed in, it’s working good, and he is as good as anyone in the country with the pressure that he can put on defenses. We are striving to be great and striving to be perfect in that regard. We may never get there but if we get pretty close, it is going to be outstanding. The thing is we have to keep going, keep practicing and keep working and keep getting better. Hopefully, he will continue to play well.”
Quarterback Malik Cunningham
(Malik, today you went over this barrier where you're the eighth player in NCAA history to throw for 8,000 yards and run for 3,000 yards. What does that mean to you?)
“I just give credit to my teammates for opening up the holes for me and blocking out the field. Without them, I couldn’t do a lot of those things. I'm blessed to be in that position. Kudos to me I guess.”
(You burned them on several option plays. Did you guys run that more today? And you seemed to make the perfect read almost every time?)
“No, I'm not going to lie like the whole week was practicing for them to take me and I've been pitching it the whole week. So, when they didn't take me, it made my job a lot easier. Just go score.”
(How special was that moment, getting that first touchdown catch up for Jaelin (Carter), his first catch at Louisville?)
“That was a cheerful moment. Considering it was the first touchdown a receiver has caught all year, so I was happy about that. And just having him back is good for our team and receiver room. He's an older guy so he’s been around for a little bit, so he knows a lot. Then just to get him back in the groove of things is really good for the offense.”
(How special to you is this running back group and how important are they in helping you feel more comfortable especially now getting involved in the passing game as well?)
“Those guys are dogs in my opinion. They put in a lot of dirty work that is unseen, so whenever I get a chance to hand the ball off, I get caught up in watching them because of how much I want to see them break and run. It’s a blessing to have those guys behind me. I believe in them. they believe in me. And we're going to get this thing back on the road.”
(You got caught up in the field goal net after that touchdown. Has that happened to you before?)
“I've never had that happen. It’s crazy because I was trying to get out of the net and he was like ‘We gotta go, we gotta go.’ But I was stuck in the net. And that was my first time actually ever getting caught in the net. It was pretty funny.”
(How much did this team need a win like this and what can it do for you guys moving forward?)
“We needed this one bad. We need all of them bad but since this was the next one, it was a good win for us. It’s the start of something good. We’ll come back and watch it tomorrow and put it behind us to get ready for Boston College. So, we got to come to work.”
Outside Linebacker Yasir Abdullah
(You all created a lot of pressure today early. How big was that for you all as a defense to get started that way?)
“It was huge. Once we got back there in the backend, they did their job as well, in picks and turnovers. That’s what we need, just straight pressure.”
(It’s been kind of a roller coaster ride so far this season, but this one, you dominated from start to finish. What can you take away from this as far as moving forward to make yourselves perform better and more consistently?)
“I'm going to start off like preparation - going into the whole week, we locked in, no playing around. Everybody's focused through the first two days of practice, to the walk throughs, and then to the run throughs, everybody was locked in.”
(South Florida is a team that put 21 (points) on Brigham Young and they put 28 (points) on Florida last week. They never really got close to getting a touchdown against you guys, what was the difference? Why were you able to shut them down that effectively?)
“Like I said earlier, everybody was doing their job. Preparation was key. Everybody fit their gaps. We did our jobs; we did everything we planned throughout the week.”
Running Back Trevion Cooley
Defensive End YaYa Diaby
(Photo of Scott Satterfield: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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