Letting the cake bake: Is Louisville football fan reaction warranted?

Louisville football supporters are taking issue with the trajectory of the program under Scott Satterfield. Is putting Satterfield on the hot seat warranted or an overreaction?

Local radio host and Louisville basketball color analyst Bob Valvano has become synonymous with his creative analogies. In my limited google searching, the closest thing I could find to a definition behind “letting the cake bake” is a recipe for a cannabis kuchen. Thus, I will credit him for sharing perhaps his most famous line on his daily 680 AM radio show. Louisville football, as Valvano would likely put it, has to let the cake bake.

It’s not easy to wait for Louisville football. Not after what fans have endured of late.

The beginning of the Scott Satterfield era was a shockingly delicious sample of what our head chef could bring to the table (pun intended). On the heels of a disastrous 2-10 season that led to the firing of one-time program savior Bobby Petrino, Satterfield concocted a smorgasbord that would have left Gordon Ramsey impressed.

Here’s the thing. Satterfield had many of the right ingredients during that 2019 season. Petrino didn’t leave the cupboard bare. Instead, he just stocked the pantry with a shit ton of sugar and like two eggs and then gave the restaurant the double middle fingers as he went out in a blaze of glory.

Satterfield and his staff took that sugar and made something just sweet enough that we thought he was a mf’ing football genius.

18 months later, however, Satt Daddy is running out of ways to convince fans that a half dozen raw eggs and some Wondra flour are anything resembling a five-star flan.

The Satterfield brand losing its luster

Satterfield brought a brand that, on the surface, was fun. More importantly, it was the polar opposite of his predecessor.

In year one of the Satterfield era, he leveraged a roster that featured Petrino’s most talented class into an 8-win season. Satterfield was named ACC Coach of the Year, and rightfully so. He embraced the fans, “loved up” on the players, and assembled an incredibly personable staff.

However, year two brought plenty of challenges. From COVID outbreaks that forced entire position groups out of action, to unexpected challenges with turnovers, whatever could go wrong did go wrong in 2020.

Given the circumstances last season, some of the mistakes during a 4-7 season are forgivable. The pressure was on, though, in the offseason for the Cards to rebuild and become a viable threat in 2021.

What was hard to forgive for many among the Louisville fanbase was Satterfield’s late-season flirtation with South Carolina. With his program sitting at 3-7 and having lost four games to unranked teams by double digits, Satterfield was still considering heading to greener pastures.

Fans are none too pleased to have a coach that leverages his success at UofL to make another career move. But to be enduring a miserable season with a coach that is considering different options less than two years in felt like the ultimate betrayal.

Still, over the course of the offseason, the hope of returning to a winning season lessened the sting of Satterfield looking elsewhere.

While the honeymoon phase was over, winning or the promise of a successful season, allowed Louisville football faithful to get out of their feels for a bit.

That all changed with a Monday night loss to Mississippi.

No realistic person expected Louisville to beat Ole Miss. As a double-digit favorite, stopping Kiffin’s high-powered offense was expected to be an exacting challenge. However, Louisville was expected to at least compete. To show signs of improvement. To be in the game in the fourth quarter.

Instead, fans saw their team fall on its face in front of a primetime national television audience.

All at once, the frustrations that were set aside, the patience that was mustered up, and the good grace that the Louisville faithful had established came boiling to the surface. All of the silly mistakes, the confusion, and errors on both sides of the ball that led to a disappointing 2020 reared their ugly heads once again.

Ole Miss was the more talented, aggressive, and well-prepared team by a long shot. Kiffin’s squad looked the part of an SEC contender; Louisville the ACC bottom dweller, pieced together with “diamond in the rough” recruits and Group of Five transfers.

Proceeding with patience

Most Louisville football supporters entered this season with a sense of cautious optimism.

Last weekend, I felt like I was bracing for impact more and more as we neared the Monday night showdown. Hoping for a positive outcome, but expecting Louisville to ultimately coming out on the losing end.

It’s probably safe to say that things went far worse than anyone could have anticipated.

Satterfield and his players are pointing towards a second half where the Cards outscored the Rebels 24-17 as a positive takeaway. However, Louisville football was still outgained by more than 200 yards. They lost the turnover battle, frequently stalled on offense, and relied far too heavily on a version of Malik Cunningham that was a shadow of his potential.

However, the only option that is left at this point is to proceed with patience. Let the cake bake.

For a team that we knew coming in may not even make a bowl game, it’s tough to call it quits on the season one game in.

The writing appears to be on the wall. Louisville football will have to make vast improvements in a hurry, or a repeat of last season is very much in the making. However, we can’t just call in the coaching search committee after one poor game.

The cake has to bake. It might come out terribly, but what is the sense in pulling it out of the oven when it’s a big goopy mess. Let’s let this thing play out; No matter how painful that might seem at the moment.

Next: More explosive sound between Chris Mack and Dino Gaudio released