Just starting to watch the way Satterfield is gathering his staff makes reflect on the two paths we could have taken with regard to finding a new coach after being turned down by Brohm. Louisville really finds itself in a place between the top traditional destination powerhouse teams, and those obvious stepping stone schools were any decent coach will be itching to get out the door as soon as they can. The question is how can Louisville pull itself up to the upper tier without having the advantage of decades of tradition and success, being a huge Land Grant state institution, or having endless deep financial pockets from boosters?
We could have had a higher-profile P5 coach like West Virginia’s come in here and likely be competitive more quickly, but to what end? I think the only possible way Louisville can build its program to a level that regularly competes for an ACC playoff berth, is to create a unique culture that attracts players above what we would typically get. Since we don’t have the advantages of an OSU, Alabama, or Notre Dame, we have to find another angle. Clemson has done that to some degree, even though they have far more tradition than Louisville. Players want to go play for Dabo and that culture. If you think about it, App State has many institutional disadvantages that Satterfield and his staff had to overcome. It’s not an easy place to recruit to. They seem to have overcome those advantages by coaching players up and creating a positive winning culture that players wanted to belong. Time will tell if Satterfield and his staff can translate that formula to the P5, but I think it’s our only chance to make this place special and not be a NC State, Baylor, or a West Virginia. I like the path we took, because it's more risky on the surface, but I think this guy has the potential to figure it out and make it work from what I've seen so far.
We could have had a higher-profile P5 coach like West Virginia’s come in here and likely be competitive more quickly, but to what end? I think the only possible way Louisville can build its program to a level that regularly competes for an ACC playoff berth, is to create a unique culture that attracts players above what we would typically get. Since we don’t have the advantages of an OSU, Alabama, or Notre Dame, we have to find another angle. Clemson has done that to some degree, even though they have far more tradition than Louisville. Players want to go play for Dabo and that culture. If you think about it, App State has many institutional disadvantages that Satterfield and his staff had to overcome. It’s not an easy place to recruit to. They seem to have overcome those advantages by coaching players up and creating a positive winning culture that players wanted to belong. Time will tell if Satterfield and his staff can translate that formula to the P5, but I think it’s our only chance to make this place special and not be a NC State, Baylor, or a West Virginia. I like the path we took, because it's more risky on the surface, but I think this guy has the potential to figure it out and make it work from what I've seen so far.
