Walk-ons glue for Louisville football
If walk-ons are the glue to a program, Louisville football used its share to keep things stuck into place last season.
Scott Satterfield wasn’t shy about using and rewarding walks on during his first season as Louisville’s head coach. Six walk-ons earned scholarships last season.
“I call those guys the glue, they are the glue of the program,” Louisville coach Scott Satterfield said.
Tyler Haycraft, who earned a scholarship in 2018 after walking on from St. Xavier (Louisville), started all 13 games on the Cardinals offensive line.
Marshon Ford, a product of Ballard High School in Louisville, earned a scholarship last April. He had 20 receptions for 292 yards and seven touchdowns as a tight-end that appeared as an H-back.
Jack Fagot appeared in all 13 games, finishing with 25 tackles and an interception. Fagot was awarded a scholarship last April.
The program hosted a walk-on day in January.
“A lot of these guys are coming, they’re coming to play for us. A lot of these guys had offers, they had scholarship offers from DII or Group of 5 and they’re choosing to come play for us because they know they are going to have an opportunity,” Satterfield said. “We want this program to be a place where maybe you didn’t get recruited at the level you wanted to get recruited at, you have an opportunity to come in and play.”
Satterfield says it’s not lip service that the players will have opportunities to play. He said walk-ons work with a chip on their shoulder every day, something that he wants in his program.
“If you have a really talented guy that sees this guy who is getting no scholarship money, that will show up every single day at 6 a.m. and does everything right, works his tail off, then what are you doing?” Satterfield said. “I think that goes hand in hand, it helps your program.”
