College Football 2018: Grading every new Power 5 coaching hire
3. Louisville Cardinals
New Coach: Scott Satterfield
Departed Coach: Bobby Petrino
The decision to bring Bobby Petrino back to Louisville was met with plenty of criticism as the embattled coach brought plenty of baggage back to the job where he had immense success in the early-to-mid 2000s.
The goodwill Petrino had earned from that stint wasn’t sustainable this time, as even with a generational talent like Lamar Jackson at QB, the Cardinals were not able to win more than nine games in a season. When Jackson departed at the end of last season, Louisville fell completely off the cliff this year, bottoming out to the very bottom of the ACC.
Defensive struggles marred Jackson-led teams, and while those continued in 2018, it was the offensive struggles that truly cratered the team in 2018. Louisville ranked 111th in total offense in the 10 games coached by Petrino this season, and produced a 2-8 record that caused Athletic Director Vince Tyra to pony up the $13 million buyout to fire his coach.
The search for his replacement always centered around native-son and Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm, but Brohm surprisingly turned down the offer from his alma mater to stay in West Lafayette with the Boilermakers.
That unexpected rejection left Louisville at the alter, but they were able to snag a pretty strong consolation prize even still.
Scott Satterfield oversaw Appalachian State’s promotion from FCS to FBS, and quickly led the Mountaineers to immense success in the Sun Belt. Long seen as an FCS power, it didn’t take Satterfield long to have App State near the top of the group-of-five.
He put together a 51-24 record in six seasons as the Mountaineers head coach, and led them to at least a share of three straight conference championships, including an outright conference title this year in the inaugural Sun Belt Championship Game.
Satterfield was expected to be in play at North Carolina, but their decision to go with the retread Mack Brown is Louisville’s gain, as they get a proven head coach who could take Louisville to the next level in the ACC.
Not bad for a second choice.