Adam Creech | Louisville Athletics
Football August 08, 2021 Rocco Gasparro
Cards Open the 2021 Season With First Practice
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Football is back at the University of Louisville. The Cardinals officially kicked off the 2021 season when 116 players took the field for the first time on Sunday morning.Practicing in front of fans, the Cardinals worked out for two hours under intense heat and sun on the practice fields at the UofL Football Complex.
"It was a good first day," UofL head coach Scott Satterfield said following the team's first practice. "We know we have a long way to go before that opener, but I thought today was a good first day."
The Cardinals featured 43 new faces on the practice field on Sunday. Louisville inked 23 players in the 2021 signing class and added a number of graduate transfers and junior-college players to bolster the roster.
"We had a number of new players out there today," Satterfield said. "It was good to get them all out there today in a team setting. They blended in well and I'm looking forward to them continuing to fit in as we move forward."
For the first time in over a year, things seemed back to normal. The fans were back at practice, players were out on the practice field having fun and competing.
"It felt normal out there today," Satterfield said. "Guys were flying around out there and competing. There was a lot of normalcy out there for the first time in a long time. I just like the way the guys competed for the first day."
The Cardinals had a great summer as the coaches and the players were able to interact a lot more, with the group spending time at the lake this summer together and doing other team-building adventures.
"The biggest void last year was the coaches and players not being able to spend time together," Satterfield said. "We need to have that interaction with our players and that was missing. We have been able to do more of that this year and it shows. We're a tighter bunch. The accountability they have for each other is different."
Satterfield has spent most of the summer talking about the development of his quarterback Malik Cunningham, and the third-year coach liked what he saw during the first day.
"I liked the way Malik threw the ball today," Satterfield said. "He was confident out there and was able to dump the ball down when there wasn't anything open."
The Cardinals return to practice on Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. for the second practice of the fall.
