Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 PRESEASON 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ANDREW MENTOCK O n Nov. 11, with two games left in the 2018 season, Louis- ville fired head football coach Bobby Petrino after a 2-8 start. Almost immediately, rumors began to swirl regarding the next coach, with most assuming former Louisville quarterback and assistant coach Jeff Brohm would leave his head coaching gig at Purdue to return "home." When Brohm didn't budge, Louis- ville quickly hired Appalachian State head coach Scott Satterfield. From the outside, Satterfield looks like a second choice, but according to those closer to the program, that is far from the case. "Like virtually everyone, I thought that Louisville would hire Jeff Brohm, and I thought he would want to come," CardinalSports.com publisher Mark Ennis said. "I think we learned shortly thereafter, that was never re- ally the case. He really wasn't dying to come back here. And Louisville wasn't totally sure that they should have to beg him to come here. "Then Scott Satterfield is immedi- ately who they went after." In six seasons at Appalachian State, Satterfield went 51-24, averaging 10 wins a season over the last four, and won all three of the bowl games his teams reached and he coached. Right away, Satterfield began to fix the most broken aspects within the Louisville program: player-coach re- lationships and the culture. It's well documented that many of the current players had never been to their head coach's office before. They were also frozen by the fear of making a mental mistake. At a recent Louisville media event, new offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford recalled walking into his first meeting. It was dead quiet. The play- ers were afraid to talk; afraid to laugh. Ledford quickly encouraged them to speak up and have some fun. "I was just trying to get them to relax; be themselves," Ledford said. "Football is a tough game. It demands a lot from us mentally and physically. You've still got to be able to enjoy the fun aspects of football." Satterfield aspires to run a program the way Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney does — player-friendly but with high expectations. Players may now feel they are free to make mistakes, but when they mess up, coaches expect it to be while giving 100 percent. They've instituted what's called a "hustle tape," which is a highlight reel of defensive players going all-out to make a play on the other side of the field. If in a given week a player doesn't make the tape, he'll sit. The biggest storyline headed into Louisville's fall camp was the quar- terback competition between red- shirt junior Jawon Pass and redshirt sophomore Malik Cunningham, but that's all but settled after Cunning- ham tweaked his knee during an early August practice. With that said, Satterfield has made it clear since the spring that Cunningham is too talented to not utilize on offense, even if it's not as an every-down quarterback. "Pass has to solidify himself as the guy," Ennis said. "Each [quarter- back] does something better. I think Jawon's got a bigger arm. He's a big- ger guy, can see more and he's more of a pocket guy. Malik is barely six feet, but he's very mobile and he's very dangerous as a runner. He's like a tiny Lamar Jackson, but not that good." Pass started 11 games last season as a redshirt sophomore, complet- ing just 54.0 percent of his passes for 1,960 yards (6.5 yards per attempt) with eight touchdowns and 12 in- terceptions. He rushed for 93 yards on 76 attempts and picked up two touchdowns on the ground. That pales in comparison to Cun- ningham's production on the ground. GAME PREVIEW: LOUISVILLE MAJOR TURNAROUND After a disastrous 2-10 season, new Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield looks to rebuild with a player-focused culture Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME AT LOUISVILLE Game Info Date: Sept. 2, 2019 Site: Cardinal Stadium (61,000) Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET Television: ESPN Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129) and on Notre Dame's IMG affiliates. Series Facts: This will be only the second all-time meeting between the two programs, with Notre Dame trailing the series 1-0. Louisville won the previous meeting in 2014 by a score of 31-28. Head Coaches: Louisville — Scott Satterfield (0-0, first season); Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (81-35, 10th season). Noting Louisville: Louisville had at least 13 players transfer in the offseason, but head coach Scott Sat- terfield does not seem upset by the attrition and replenished some of the overall talent through gradu- ate transfers … A number of former starters return on both sides of the ball, but no spots are guaranteed coming off their 2-10 season in 2018 … Prior to last year, the Cardinals had won at least eight games in every season since 2012 … While last season was considered a disaster, this is a program with a recent winning tradition … Louisville's two wins came in the first three weeks of the 2018 season — the Cardi- nals beat Indiana State of the Football Championship Subdivision 31-7 in week two and topped Western Kentucky 20-17 in week three … The Cardinals' last win against a Power Five opponent was on Nov. 25, 2017, when they beat Kentucky 44-17 … After a 4-8 debut, Satterfield went 47-16 in his final five years at the helm of Appalachian State, including three straight Sun Belt championships to cap his tenure.