Takeaways from Scott Satterfield's Press Conference

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield met the media on Monday after last Saturday's 34-31 loss at Wake Forest to fall to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Here are some takeaways from what Satterfield said on Monday.

The Cardinals dropped their second-straight game to a ranked opponent with the 3-point loss to the Demon Deacons. The Cards dropped a 12-7 last season at No. 4 Notre Dame.
"Well, I know our guys are obviously fighting to win the game and we've come out on top the last few times, and I just know our guys are going to keep playing. You have to have a 'this play' mentality, this is the play we're going to make to win this game no matter what the scenario is, we're going to make the play right here to win this game. It's just like the last game, we just had to make a play somewhere along that last drive. It's unfortunate we didn't but I think our guys continue to play, we've got to get better, we've got to make more plays so it doesn't come down to that, but that's the game of football, we're going to have a lot more of those this year, and it's going to be a lot of tight games and we're going to have to deal with it."

Louisville lost a lot of production from the wide receiver position last year, and the 2021 unit is starting to produce with big plays through the air.
"We talked about it last week how we're going have to count on some more guys. We knew Ahmari (Huggins-Bruce) was going be one of those guys we can move more in the slot to where Braden (Smith) was at, utilize that speed that he has, and we hit him on a reverse as well and he got around the edge for about 12 yard and nice route catch on the touchdown. It's just about picking and choosing when to put him in because he's still learning the offense and he's getting better, and I thought he blocked a lot better in the game. I thought our receivers played well, the absence of Braden (Smith) I thought they played really well. Jordan (Watkins) made some great plays, of course Marshon (Ford) continues to play well, but those guys are going have to step up. Tyler (Harrell) is such a fast player I mean, once he caught his balance like that, it's a touchdown, they're not going to catch him. He's incredibly fast and it was a great catch too, it was a ball across the middle and the umpire is kind of in the way and the umpire jumps out of the way and he catches it, what a great play and if we find ways to get those guys the ball in space, it's going to put pressure on the defense because of how fast they are, they're two of our faster guys that we have outside."

The Cardinals are averaging over 470 yards of offense in the last three games, and the unit is starting to resemble some of Satterfield's best offensive units.
"Saturday, I felt really good about the running game. It opened back up a little bit more. We were able to hand the ball off to (Trevion) Cooley and to (Jalen) Mitchell, and they really help take the pressure off (Malik) Cunningham and running the football, albeit (Malik) Cunningham still threatens the defense with the with his legs. He threw the ball very well Saturday, missed a couple of touchdowns but other than that he played outstanding. Some of those throws he made to Dez (Melton) down the sideline, he made another crossing route to (Jordan) Watkins. I mean the guys are right on their hip, incredible throws. He was very efficient. We want to continue to get the running game going, I think that really helps her offense. When you think about being able to hand the ball to a running back and now you've opened up your play action stuff, we can use to get the ball down the field, but I thought our office played well, we had 500 yards of offense and 34 points. We really, probably left some more points out there that we could have been a 600-yard offense that day and more but that's encouraging. That's what I was telling our team, we're playing pretty well, but we can be so much better, we have to continue to fight to get better and better and it has to happen throughout the week in practice, coming up with a great game plan and then executing that game plan and I think we can continue to get better. (Trevion) Cooley didn't play the week before but he was able to come back and make some big plays for us in the pass game and in the run game."

Satterfield singled out the play of converted safety to linebacker Jack Fagot, who has 18 tackles and a sack in the last two games.
"Jack has played really really well. He's got a great understanding of what we're trying to get done out there at that position because that position is hard for us. You can do a lot of different things. You're dropping him off in coverage, he's really blitzing, he's getting involved in the run game. The thing that makes him so valuable is he's smart. He understands. He can look at the offense and figure out what they're going to be doing and how to attack it. He understands leverage. He plays hard. He's a little undersized, but he makes up for it with all that stuff that I just mentioned. I think he'll continue to get better; he's getting more and more comfortable."

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