The page has been turned at Louisville with the first spring under new head coach Scott Satterfield now in the books. After 14 spring practices, Louisville brought a close to their spring practice schedule Thursday night with a practice open to the fans. Satterfield had some typical coach things to say afterward, which was to be expected, but hearing the new head coach of the Cardinals say he feels comfortable with the improvement he has seen within the program this spring should be an encouraging sign for Louisville fans.
Because Louisville’s spring practice schedule was able to wrap up earlier than usual, Satterfield now has some extra time to do the things he needs to do to evaluate the team going forward ahead of the summer workouts and his first season on the sidelines with the Cardinals.
“It’s a lot of great film to coach off of,” Satterfield said this week. “We played a lot of guys in places we normally wouldn’t [Thursday night[ because we’re just trying to look at certain guys in scenarios to see how they are going to react and then we’ll coach through that. But overall, I am just very pleased at how the spring went.”
The sentiment seemed to resonate with some players as well.
“The biggest improvement for us is attitude and effort,” Louisville linebacker C.J. Avery said. “We are just focusing on getting to the football with violent intentions, and not worry about making mistakes.”
Louisville is coming off a dreadful 2-10 season, which led to the dismissal of Bobby Petrino as head coach. It should not take much to improve on last season, although it should take a little longer to get Louisville back to the level they appeared to be just a few short years ago with Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson and the Cardinals one of the top contenders in the ACC along with Clemson and Florida State. A clean slate with a new head coach with an accomplished record coming in may have been just what the doctor ordered for Louisville.