Satterfield: accomplishments "incredible" this season
There wasn’t much time during the regular season to bask in accomplishments for Louisville football. Cardinal head coach Scott Satterfield kept a scripted response for the entire year, saying Louisville would focus on the next game and next opponents with everything else taking care of itself in the end.
Louisville finished the season bowl eligible and 7-5, placing second in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) with a 5-3 record. Louisville is just the second team in league history to go 0-8 in conference play and improve to 5-3 the following season.
The Cardinals defeated 19-ranked Wake Forest in Winston Salem Oct. 12, Louisville’s first road win over a ranked opponent since 2011. Satterfield was named ACC Coach of the Year last week in his first season after Louisville went 2-10 a year ago.
“If you sit back and think about it, it is really incredible what we have been able to accomplish this year,” Satterfield said. “What a difference a year makes. We have come a long way, there is no question about it. You can ask our players, each and every one of them will say the same thing.”
There was plenty of turnover and change last went as Satterfield and his coaching staff took over a new program. More than 20 players left the program as Satterfield worked to develop a new culture.
“I think people said ‘if you can just go to a bowl game would be an unbelievable year,’” Satterfield said. “ But to do what we did, finish second in the league, it’s tremendous. For us as coaches and our players, we have to be able to build off this.”
Louisville has gotten feedback from recruits following the successful season. Satterfield and his coaching staff spent the last week meeting with recruits, many of whom he expects to sign next Wednesday.
Satterfield said the recruits he spoke to were excited about joining the program. He thinks half of Louisville’s recruiting class should be early enrollees in January.
“They really honestly aren’t surprised that we won some games,” Satterfield said. “When you look between 20 and 25 newcomers in January between scholarship and walk on guys, that’s a lot of new additions to our team that will be awesome to build off of this season.”
