10 college football coaches who were better off as big fish in little ponds

7. Scott Satterfield

Scott Satterfield has had an interesting career thus far.

His career started as a grad assistant at Appalachian State and then he jumped around a bit before going back and spending one season as the offensive coordinator. A year later, Satterfield was appointed head coach. He went 51-24 with the Mountaineers, including three 10-plus-win seasons in the final four years that he was there. Satterfield was also 38-10 in conference play -- 34-6 after joining the Sun Belt.

Satterfield was then hired by Louisville in 2019 after winning Sun Belt Coach of the Year in 2018 and he won the ACC Coach of the Year award following an 8-5 season.

From there, it was all downhill as the Cardinals went just 17-19 over the next three seasons, never finishing over .500 in ACC play. Instead of returning to bring the program back to relevance, he decided to head to Cincinnati in 2023 and he regressed even more, going 3-9 overall and 1-8 in Big 12 play.

It's pretty clear that Satterfield was much better off staying at App State.