In December of 2019, Louisville football fans and players could not have thought much more highly of Scott Satterfield. By December of 2020, Satterfield has become a walking contradiction.
A tenure that began as hopeful and exciting has become shameful and just downright embarrassing.
Satterfield seemed to stick by his word in his first season- One that was a shocking success. A 2-10 team became arguably the second-best in the ACC in a matter of months. Satterfield was the obvious choice as conference coach of the year. Off the field, rapport was just as good. His players respected him, his coaching staff was impossible not to love, and he and his family had all of the support and goodwill one could muster in less than a year’s time.
That quickly changed. The play on the field fell well below expectation. This was not excusable but, perhaps, understandable given the difficulty surrounding the season and the program.
However, it was Satterfield’s actions off of the field that destroyed any good will established with the players, fans, and fellow staffers.
The relationship between Satterfield and fans has turned from what felt like mutual love to a toxic “friends with benefits” situation- A partnership that is merely transactional; Win, or there’s the door.
The plummet from beloved to begrudged falls squarely on the shoulders of Satterfield himself, and his inability to properly explain himself. Though he became Louisville football’s head coach with a clear vision for the future of the program, that vision now appears focused on his future and not Louisville football’s.
The juxtaposition between the Satterfield of two years ago and Louisville’s head coach today is best explicated in his own words.
The following quotes are taken from Satterfield’s introductory presser in December of 2018 and his interview with the Courier-Journal as well as his weekly presser in December of 2020.
December 4, 2018
“I’m extremely honored to be the head coach here. There were other schools out there, but this is the job I wanted. I wanted to be here because of the success that this program has had. Incredible success over the years – Heisman Trophy winners, NFL players that have moved on and are doing great things.
The very first thing I told them was that ‘guys, you have to trust me. And I have to trust you. And that’s the way our program’s going to work.'”
December 7, 2020
“I’m sorry that I hurt you. We are going to do everything that we can to earn your trust back.”
December 4, 2018
“The other thing that we talked about is the other 10. There’s 11 guys on the football field, but I’m playing for the other 10. I’m not thinking about me, I’m thinking about the other 10. When you do that, we’ll have a tremendous amount of success.”
December 7, 2020
When From The Pink Seat Co-Host Matt McGavic asked if he would feel obligated to interview for any open job in North Carolina or South Carolina:
“I’m not gonna sit here and say that I wouldn’t. I think that… You know, if anything comes out there (is a job opening) in the future, it’ll be handled a lot different. I think, shoot, man, I wanna, you know, last year there were several jobs that reached out last year. I did not entertain them. I think if you’re doing a good job, wherever you are, you can look across the country, (if) somebody is doing a good job, people are gonna inquire about them.”
December 4, 2018
We’re going to open it up. We have nothing to hide. I want to feed off them, they can feed off of us. We’re going to do this thing together. It’s not going to be about me. It’s not going to be about our coaches or our players, it’s going to be about all of us. The fans, the players, the alumni, everybody’s got to be involved with this. That’s how you win when everybody’s involved.
December 5, 2020
In an interview with Cameron Teague of the Courier-Journal:
“I’ve kept Vince abreast to everything. When they reached out, I told Vince they reached out, and I told him I wasn’t interested in talking to those guys. Well, they circled back in a week and so I said I would listen to what they had to say, and the reason being is that it’s a few hours away from my parents who are both getting older and I’ve seen them one time this whole year, although it’s a different type of year with COVID. I saw them one time this year — there’s a place close to home, my other son is not far away as well. I went to listen to a conversation and that’s what it is. I kept Vince abreast with that, too. I’m not trying to hide anything from anybody. I’m not that person.”
December 7, 2020
On whether AD Vince Tyra knew that Satterfield had met, in person, with South Carolina:
“Well, we’ve certainly had conversations throughout really the whole time that I’ve been here. The conversations that we have had, obviously, are between us- between an AD and a head coach, and, so, I’ll just leave it at that.
December 4, 2018
This is an unbelievable opportunity to be able to coach at this kind of university to compete for championships. I can’t turn that down at this point of my career.
December 7, 2020
“As players, it’s a little bit different than coaches. Sometimes we like to lump coaches in with players. As a player, you’re there for three to four years and then you’re done. As players, you don’t have a family. It’s just you. As coaches– and I’m just thinking in general terms here– coaches have wives and kids. As a job, are they going to be a job at 40 years? There are a lot of different things that are involved in coaching. With players, like I said, it’s three to four years, and they have to be all in.”
It was clear he was in it for himself after how he left Appalachian State for Louisville…thanks for taking him off our hands