Red & Black Rants & Raves: Satterfield Hire, Bracketology

OK class, everybody who seven days ago could name Scott Satterfield as the coach of Appalachian State raise your hands?

Liars, liars, pants on fire. You all get 5 points deducted from your semester grade.

That aside, absent any last minute snafus, before sundown, he’ll be the 23d head coach to lead University of Louisville football.

For any number of reasons, it is a most fascinating changeover. Not the least of which is that the guy he replaces, Bobby Petrino, holds the best winning percentage of the bunch. At least since the Cardinals first leader, Amos Alonzo Stagg devotee Lester Larson (Ain’t Wikipedia grand?), went 8-2 in ’12 and ’13.

More salient is the Satterfield’s coaching resumé. A year as QB coach at Toledo. Two years as OC at Florida International. 51-24 as head guy at his alma mater, with only a single losing season, his first. Conference crowns. 3-0 in bowls. Yada, yada, yada. All info now indelibly memorized by Cardinal football aficionados.

So, the question obviously: Is he ready for prime time in the Power 5?

Actually there’s another: Was this the best Vince Tyra could do? Were there not any fellows with big time experience interested?

Which frankly doesn’t matter, does it? To be fair, it’s been reported that Satterfield was Tyra’s second choice after being spurned by legacy Jeff Brohm.

As for Satterfield’s readiness, only time will tell.

Of the previous Cardinal coaching hires, at least in modern times — post Frank Camp — this choice most resembles those of Steve Kragthorpe (15-21, .416) and Ron Cooper (13-20, .393). They were previous lower level head coaches, who displayed promise.

Kragthorpe misstepped from the get go. When he and his entourage got off the elevator in the press box at Cardinal Stadium, walking into a phalanx of TV cameras and lights, he hung a Louie and made a pit stop into the Mens Room. It was all downhill from there.

It was a little better beginning for Cooper, who, with his bucket list of life goals, people tend to forget, was Flavor of the Month during his honeymoon. Head of this charitable campaign. Marshall of this parade. Every around town.

It turned out neither Cooper nor Kragthorpe could coach. Both had little support from inexperienced, ineffectual assistants.

We’ll find out early on if Satterfield can bring in some up and comers, some experienced old heads, or fellas that have been with him at App State, who are ready to move up to the big leagues. Or an effective combination thereof.

Though it would appear this recruiting season will be a washout, we should get some idea of Satterfield’s modus operandi, and ability to convince.

Frankly his lack of experience outside the state of North Carolina is worrisome.

But, all thing considered, I like the hire, and admire Tyra for the bold move. It’s not like this opening had “Sure Thing” written over the entryway.

By all accounts, Satterfield is a decent guy, prone toward the quiet side.

I’m looking forward to watching him work.

My hope is, in this age of what have you done for me in the last two minutes, Cardinal fans will realize how decimated the program is, how long it will take to reestablish some cred, and cut Satterfield considerable slack.

 * * * * *

It turns out that ESPN’s Joe Lunardi isn’t the most astute of Bracketologists, but he sort of invented the “science.”

What I love about the process, which, as a hoopaholic, I follow from this time of year until Selection Sunday is the definite yearly half life of Bracketology. It’s all that, building momentum from the season’s opening tip. Until 6:00 PM on Selection Sunday, at which point it expires and totally disappears from the lexicon until the next season.

Anyway, Lunardi’s already at it.

In his latest projection, he’s got Louisville in the Dance as a 12 seed, in a play in tilt in Dayton against Oklahoma, with the winner going against Purdue.

Given all the turmoil surrounding U of L hoops, there could be more dire predictions at the beginning of December.

I’ll take it . . . for now.

— Seedy K

3 thoughts on “Red & Black Rants & Raves: Satterfield Hire, Bracketology

  1. Thank you, Chuck. Looking forward to the Satterfield era. Still waiting to hear WTH happened to Petrino and his team this year.

  2. Here’s my take. OSU dealt with Urban Meyer’s “retirement” so quickly, naming Ryan Day in the same breath as the announcement, one wonders if this hasn’t been in the works for some time. That said, perhaps Mr. Day and Luke Fikkel knew all this and were holding their cards in hopes of getting their shot at the top spot in Buckeye nation. Other coaches might have heard his Urban’s retirement was in the works and if OSU decided to go outside the program, then the carousel would start and they wanted to be sure they were available for something better than UL.

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