Takeaways from Scott Satterfield's Press Conference
October 12, 2020 | Football
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville football team concludes its three-game road trip with a visit to Notre Dame on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. contest, which will be televised on NBC, with Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Kathryn Tappen calling the action. The Cardinals are making their second appearance at Notre Dame Stadium, winning 31-28 in 2014. Louisville also dropped the 2019 season opener 35-17 at home last season.
The Cardinals dropped their third-straight game for the first time under Scott Satterfield, falling 46-27 at Georgia Tech last Friday. After opening the season with a win over Western Kentucky, the Cardinals have lost their first three ACC games for the first time since 2018.
Quarterback Malik Cunningham accounted for four touchdowns — two on the ground and two through the air — passing for 233 yards and rushing for 50 yards in the loss to the Yellow Jackets. Running back Javian Hawkins registered his 10th 100-yard rushing game in only 21 career contests. The redshirt sophomore rushed 26 times for 155 yards — the fourth 150-yard game of his career.
Tight end Marshon Ford reached new career bests in the loss to Georgia Tech, catching five passes for 89 yards and his 10th career touchdown, which ties him for seventh all-time for a tight end at UofL.
Head coach Scott Satterfield met with the media on Monday afternoon. Here are the takeaways from his weekly briefing.
The Cardinals are facing a huge challenge with a trip to South Bend, Ind., to take on No. 4 Notre Dame.
The number one thing that stands out about Notre Dame is the offensive line. It's arguably the best offensive line in the country. They have guys that have played a lot of ball together up front. I think Coach Kelly has even said this is his best offensive line since he's been at Notre Dame. These guys are good at pass pro and run blocking, and Ian Book, their quarterback, is obviously a very good player, especially when they're able to run the football.
I think what they've shown this year is that they've got some very good backs that are able to run the ball because the offensive line is able to open up those holes. When you're able to do that, Book is able to stand back when it is time to make that throw to take his time and find that open receiver. They're very impressive there.
Defensively, they have a lot of seniors, a lot of experience on that side of the ball. Guys can really run to the football. They try to keep everything in front of them and do an excellent job with that. They're also excellent on third down.
I mean, this is Notre Dame. They recruit some of the best players in the country year-in and year-out. They have depth. It's just an outstanding program. So as you look at them, there's not a ton of weaknesses on this football team.
Satterfield made a change at punter last week to Ryan Harwell. The junior averaged 39.5 yards per punt against Georgia Tech.
"He just got a little bit more comfortable the last couple weeks punting the football. I thought he did a good job, particularly the first half he had two punts that we downed inside the 20, actually, down near the goal line. So I thought he executed well, and he's just earned the right to be able to go out there and play. We'll see again this week. We'll let those guys battle it out and see which one ends up coming out punting for us, but I thought he did a pretty good job with that in the first half of the game. He finished the game good. We gave up a little bit of pressure in the second half, and that was one of his worst punts, but I think overall he did a good job."
Big plays were a huge part of the UofL offense last season, but those plays haven't transpired through four games. The Cardinals only have three plays of over 50 yards this season.
"It seems like there's something different. Now, Malik's overthrown a few of them, but it seems like there's been something different, whether it be Malik not throwing the proper ball or the receiver not running the proper route or the O line or tight ends not protecting. So, in the course of the season, it's been a little bit of everybody, I think, that have attributed to some of those shots not being there. But I think, Malik's got to be able to hit some of those balls. We had, of course, the Ean drop on the first drive and then I think maybe the third drive or could have been the fourth, it was in the second quarter going the other way, we got TuTu on a post coming across, which we've hit, many a times, just overthrew that. And it's hard to overthrow TuTu. So, but it's just for whatever reason we've just not connected like we needed to down the field. Now, we've hit some throughout the year, but we've got to hit them all. We don't have a whole lot of room for error. We're not good enough to not connect on those big plays. I think our running game is solid. Hawkins is top 10 in the country in rushing per game so, that should be good enough running the football, but you got to combine that with hitting those balls down the field. We've just got to be able to do that, and then we got to take care of the ball. Those two things, if you do that then we're, you can go back and look at the Pitt and the Georgia Tech game and, that's a couple of touchdowns in each game, it's probably a different outcome of both of those games and we're sitting here at 3-1, even with how poorly we've played defensively. We've got to be able to do those things, that's the way our makeup of our team is right now. And that's what we have to be able to do in order to to win these games."
The Cardinals have dropped three-straight league games for the first time since 2018 and turnovers have been the key issue. Satterfield is no stranger to long losing streaks during his first couple seasons at Appalachian State.
"Oh yeah. My first year as a head coach we were 4-8. My second year we started out 1-5, so I was 5-12 as a head coach. So yeah, we've been here before. It's not any fun believe me. But my second year when we started 1-5, we won our last 6 in a row, so we finished 7-5 that year. It's the same thing, you take it one week at a time, find a way to make the plays in whatever game you're playing, and hopefully you come out victorious. But it's never easy. When you put in the kind of work we put in and you go out and you're not able to celebrate in the locker room, it's very frustrating. But again, you just have to take it one week at a time and stay focused on the task at hand right now."
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The Cardinals dropped their third-straight game for the first time under Scott Satterfield, falling 46-27 at Georgia Tech last Friday. After opening the season with a win over Western Kentucky, the Cardinals have lost their first three ACC games for the first time since 2018.
Quarterback Malik Cunningham accounted for four touchdowns — two on the ground and two through the air — passing for 233 yards and rushing for 50 yards in the loss to the Yellow Jackets. Running back Javian Hawkins registered his 10th 100-yard rushing game in only 21 career contests. The redshirt sophomore rushed 26 times for 155 yards — the fourth 150-yard game of his career.
Tight end Marshon Ford reached new career bests in the loss to Georgia Tech, catching five passes for 89 yards and his 10th career touchdown, which ties him for seventh all-time for a tight end at UofL.
Head coach Scott Satterfield met with the media on Monday afternoon. Here are the takeaways from his weekly briefing.
The Cardinals are facing a huge challenge with a trip to South Bend, Ind., to take on No. 4 Notre Dame.
The number one thing that stands out about Notre Dame is the offensive line. It's arguably the best offensive line in the country. They have guys that have played a lot of ball together up front. I think Coach Kelly has even said this is his best offensive line since he's been at Notre Dame. These guys are good at pass pro and run blocking, and Ian Book, their quarterback, is obviously a very good player, especially when they're able to run the football.
I think what they've shown this year is that they've got some very good backs that are able to run the ball because the offensive line is able to open up those holes. When you're able to do that, Book is able to stand back when it is time to make that throw to take his time and find that open receiver. They're very impressive there.
Defensively, they have a lot of seniors, a lot of experience on that side of the ball. Guys can really run to the football. They try to keep everything in front of them and do an excellent job with that. They're also excellent on third down.
I mean, this is Notre Dame. They recruit some of the best players in the country year-in and year-out. They have depth. It's just an outstanding program. So as you look at them, there's not a ton of weaknesses on this football team.
Satterfield made a change at punter last week to Ryan Harwell. The junior averaged 39.5 yards per punt against Georgia Tech.
"He just got a little bit more comfortable the last couple weeks punting the football. I thought he did a good job, particularly the first half he had two punts that we downed inside the 20, actually, down near the goal line. So I thought he executed well, and he's just earned the right to be able to go out there and play. We'll see again this week. We'll let those guys battle it out and see which one ends up coming out punting for us, but I thought he did a pretty good job with that in the first half of the game. He finished the game good. We gave up a little bit of pressure in the second half, and that was one of his worst punts, but I think overall he did a good job."
Big plays were a huge part of the UofL offense last season, but those plays haven't transpired through four games. The Cardinals only have three plays of over 50 yards this season.
"It seems like there's something different. Now, Malik's overthrown a few of them, but it seems like there's been something different, whether it be Malik not throwing the proper ball or the receiver not running the proper route or the O line or tight ends not protecting. So, in the course of the season, it's been a little bit of everybody, I think, that have attributed to some of those shots not being there. But I think, Malik's got to be able to hit some of those balls. We had, of course, the Ean drop on the first drive and then I think maybe the third drive or could have been the fourth, it was in the second quarter going the other way, we got TuTu on a post coming across, which we've hit, many a times, just overthrew that. And it's hard to overthrow TuTu. So, but it's just for whatever reason we've just not connected like we needed to down the field. Now, we've hit some throughout the year, but we've got to hit them all. We don't have a whole lot of room for error. We're not good enough to not connect on those big plays. I think our running game is solid. Hawkins is top 10 in the country in rushing per game so, that should be good enough running the football, but you got to combine that with hitting those balls down the field. We've just got to be able to do that, and then we got to take care of the ball. Those two things, if you do that then we're, you can go back and look at the Pitt and the Georgia Tech game and, that's a couple of touchdowns in each game, it's probably a different outcome of both of those games and we're sitting here at 3-1, even with how poorly we've played defensively. We've got to be able to do those things, that's the way our makeup of our team is right now. And that's what we have to be able to do in order to to win these games."
The Cardinals have dropped three-straight league games for the first time since 2018 and turnovers have been the key issue. Satterfield is no stranger to long losing streaks during his first couple seasons at Appalachian State.
"Oh yeah. My first year as a head coach we were 4-8. My second year we started out 1-5, so I was 5-12 as a head coach. So yeah, we've been here before. It's not any fun believe me. But my second year when we started 1-5, we won our last 6 in a row, so we finished 7-5 that year. It's the same thing, you take it one week at a time, find a way to make the plays in whatever game you're playing, and hopefully you come out victorious. But it's never easy. When you put in the kind of work we put in and you go out and you're not able to celebrate in the locker room, it's very frustrating. But again, you just have to take it one week at a time and stay focused on the task at hand right now."
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