Takeaways from Scott Satterfield's Press Conference
November 16, 2020 | Football
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville returns home for a Friday night Atlantic Coast Conference game against Syracuse at Cardinal Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 7:05 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.
The Cardinals dropped its second-straight game by falling on the road at Virginia 31-17. Quarterback Malik Cunningham rushed for a career high 197 yards — the most by a quarterback in FBS this season and the third-most by a quarterback in Louisville history.
Wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick led the Cardinals with five receptions and 71 receiving yards. Fitzpatrick jumped teammate Tutu Atwell into ninth place on Louisville's all-time receiving chart with 2,270 career receiving yards.
The Cardinals lost despite rushing for a season high 317 yards, averaging 8.1 yards per carry. Louisville lost for the fourth time in program history when rushing for over 300 yards in a game, and the first time since a 38-35 loss to Drake in 1974.
Head coach Scott Satterfield addressed the media on Monday afternoon, and he are a few takeaways from his media gathering.
Sophomore running back Javian Hawkins, the team's leading rusher over the last two seasons, decided to opt-out for the remainder of the 2020 season. Hawkins rushed for 822 yards and was seventh nationally in rushing yards.
"We had a conversation about it, he wasn't sure, at the end of last week. He was isolated, COVID related, one of his roommates tested positive. So, we had him isolated away from that and he was not able to be around the building for most of the week last week, he comes in and we talk about it and he wasn't fully decided on what he wanted to do. I think it kind of hit home when one of his roommates, suite mates there tested positive, I think that had something to do with it and then the fact that he's got a dream and he wants to go tackle that. It is a personal choice for him but obviously for us, selfishly, we would love to have him and be able to finish out the season but for him, he had a decision to make for him and his family and he felt that was best for him."
Â
Wide receiver Tutu Atwell missed the game to due an injury. The team's leading receiver has caught 40 passes for 528 yards and five scores.
"Tutu is dealing with a little bit of an injury, and we should know more this week. He's still listed right now as questionable. I think he's going to be really close to being able to come back. The negative is it's a short week. Friday's another quick turnaround. But he's really close, so we'll know more. He's going to go back, get checked up this week and see exactly where we're at with everything. Don't want to get specific with what's going on with him, but he is dealing with an injury. That's why he was on the trip, on the sideline for our game Saturday."
Quarterback Malik Cunningham posted the third-highest rushing total by a quarterback in school history with 197 yards in the loss to Virginia.
"Well, I don't think it's all Malik Cunningham. I think if you go back and look and some of these interceptions he's thrown, they are not all his fault. Some of them are on fourth down, where we want him to throw and sometimes it's not there, but it's going to be in a coverage. He's had at least three picks that were batted balls. Some we should have caught that were knocked up and knocked around and then, of course, it goes in his stat line. That's not all his fault. I can think of at least four or five of those interceptions that went that way. Last year he had five interceptions. The fumble we went back and watched the fumble in the fourth quarter this past game, he's got two hands on the ball, he's got the ball wrapped up with two hands. The Defender, he starts to spin the defender makes a great play with his arm underneath and just kind of rakes it out as he's getting ready to fall, very unfortunate is a great play by their guy, so I certainly don't want to turn the football over. He's got a ball in his hands every single play, and there's got to be more opportunity for him to turn the ball over with the way the ball is in his hands. Whether it be throwing or running. I mean he was the offense, he rushed for over 200 yards, of course you take away some of the sacks and it ended up being right under 200 yards. In threw for 165-170 yards. He was a guy that kept us into game offensively and then again, we just can't turn the ball over which there are things we work on all the time. There are times he's runs the ball loosely and that hasn't changed. I mean we got to continue to make that better when he does take the ball down and go running so I think he's been a solid player. For us the last couple years, we believe in him and we got to get better. We just got to be get better, and the guys have to get better around him to help him as well to where we don't turn the ball over as much."
The Cardinals have turned the football over a national worst 18 times, throwing nine interceptions and fumbling nine times.
"We do individual drills where we're working on ball security, depending on if you're a quarterback a wide receiver running back, carrying a ball high and tight if you're a quarterback. In the pocket we work on in the pocket and running to where if you're trying to strip the ball, you're knocking balls, you're hitting arms and obviously we throw the football in practice all the time as far as far as looking at interceptions about where to throw it who were reading. It's constantly harped on and talked about and really worked on. We try to make it as difficult as we can at practice and we haven't had much issue really until this year. The teams I've been a part of, we've done a great job of taking care of footballs. It's just one of these things it's happened this year and we've been plagued by them. We have been well we have a two to game stretch where we didn't really have any offensively and which was awesome. And we stayed in the game Notre Dame and Florida State, then some of these other games, it's just plaguing us and as I mentioned in the game we're not good enough to overcome those right now and we got to continue to play better and play mistake free football."
Â
Â
The Cardinals dropped its second-straight game by falling on the road at Virginia 31-17. Quarterback Malik Cunningham rushed for a career high 197 yards — the most by a quarterback in FBS this season and the third-most by a quarterback in Louisville history.
Wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick led the Cardinals with five receptions and 71 receiving yards. Fitzpatrick jumped teammate Tutu Atwell into ninth place on Louisville's all-time receiving chart with 2,270 career receiving yards.
The Cardinals lost despite rushing for a season high 317 yards, averaging 8.1 yards per carry. Louisville lost for the fourth time in program history when rushing for over 300 yards in a game, and the first time since a 38-35 loss to Drake in 1974.
Head coach Scott Satterfield addressed the media on Monday afternoon, and he are a few takeaways from his media gathering.
Sophomore running back Javian Hawkins, the team's leading rusher over the last two seasons, decided to opt-out for the remainder of the 2020 season. Hawkins rushed for 822 yards and was seventh nationally in rushing yards.
"We had a conversation about it, he wasn't sure, at the end of last week. He was isolated, COVID related, one of his roommates tested positive. So, we had him isolated away from that and he was not able to be around the building for most of the week last week, he comes in and we talk about it and he wasn't fully decided on what he wanted to do. I think it kind of hit home when one of his roommates, suite mates there tested positive, I think that had something to do with it and then the fact that he's got a dream and he wants to go tackle that. It is a personal choice for him but obviously for us, selfishly, we would love to have him and be able to finish out the season but for him, he had a decision to make for him and his family and he felt that was best for him."
Â
Wide receiver Tutu Atwell missed the game to due an injury. The team's leading receiver has caught 40 passes for 528 yards and five scores.
"Tutu is dealing with a little bit of an injury, and we should know more this week. He's still listed right now as questionable. I think he's going to be really close to being able to come back. The negative is it's a short week. Friday's another quick turnaround. But he's really close, so we'll know more. He's going to go back, get checked up this week and see exactly where we're at with everything. Don't want to get specific with what's going on with him, but he is dealing with an injury. That's why he was on the trip, on the sideline for our game Saturday."
Quarterback Malik Cunningham posted the third-highest rushing total by a quarterback in school history with 197 yards in the loss to Virginia.
"Well, I don't think it's all Malik Cunningham. I think if you go back and look and some of these interceptions he's thrown, they are not all his fault. Some of them are on fourth down, where we want him to throw and sometimes it's not there, but it's going to be in a coverage. He's had at least three picks that were batted balls. Some we should have caught that were knocked up and knocked around and then, of course, it goes in his stat line. That's not all his fault. I can think of at least four or five of those interceptions that went that way. Last year he had five interceptions. The fumble we went back and watched the fumble in the fourth quarter this past game, he's got two hands on the ball, he's got the ball wrapped up with two hands. The Defender, he starts to spin the defender makes a great play with his arm underneath and just kind of rakes it out as he's getting ready to fall, very unfortunate is a great play by their guy, so I certainly don't want to turn the football over. He's got a ball in his hands every single play, and there's got to be more opportunity for him to turn the ball over with the way the ball is in his hands. Whether it be throwing or running. I mean he was the offense, he rushed for over 200 yards, of course you take away some of the sacks and it ended up being right under 200 yards. In threw for 165-170 yards. He was a guy that kept us into game offensively and then again, we just can't turn the ball over which there are things we work on all the time. There are times he's runs the ball loosely and that hasn't changed. I mean we got to continue to make that better when he does take the ball down and go running so I think he's been a solid player. For us the last couple years, we believe in him and we got to get better. We just got to be get better, and the guys have to get better around him to help him as well to where we don't turn the ball over as much."
The Cardinals have turned the football over a national worst 18 times, throwing nine interceptions and fumbling nine times.
"We do individual drills where we're working on ball security, depending on if you're a quarterback a wide receiver running back, carrying a ball high and tight if you're a quarterback. In the pocket we work on in the pocket and running to where if you're trying to strip the ball, you're knocking balls, you're hitting arms and obviously we throw the football in practice all the time as far as far as looking at interceptions about where to throw it who were reading. It's constantly harped on and talked about and really worked on. We try to make it as difficult as we can at practice and we haven't had much issue really until this year. The teams I've been a part of, we've done a great job of taking care of footballs. It's just one of these things it's happened this year and we've been plagued by them. We have been well we have a two to game stretch where we didn't really have any offensively and which was awesome. And we stayed in the game Notre Dame and Florida State, then some of these other games, it's just plaguing us and as I mentioned in the game we're not good enough to overcome those right now and we got to continue to play better and play mistake free football."
Â
Â
Players Mentioned
The Card Tape: Boca Raton Bowl
Friday, December 26
FB: Bush's Boca Raton Bowl Postgame Press Conference
Wednesday, December 24
The Card Tape: Kentucky (2025)
Monday, December 01
FB: Highlights vs. Kentucky
Sunday, November 30
