Coaching Staff:
Scott Satterfield
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Played QB at Appalachian State he started 27 games and led his team as a senior to a undefeated regular season and the playoffs where they lost to SFA.
He began coaching at app state in 1998. Coached WRs, RBs and the QBs from 2003-2008.
He made pit stops at FIU and Toledo. In 2009-2011 then returned to be the App state OC in 2012. And Head Coach from 2013-2018.
He enjoyed a 51-24 record at Appalachian State before moving on to Louisville. Satterfield won his conference 3 times as the Appalachian State HC. And he was 3-0 in bowl games there.
At Louisville he’s injected life into program that finished 2-10 before his arrival and led them to a 8-5 record with a bowl win. Louisville finished 2019 ranked 2nd in the Atlantic division behind Clemson.
Coach Satterfield is 4-0 all time in bowl games.
He knows his QBs and has been able to coach them up. Satterfield QBs do not turn the ball over. None of the QBs Satterfield has coached in the last decade have thrown more than 9 INTs in a season.
What Offense Does Louisville/Satterfield Run?
Louisville runs a spread offense out of the pistol formation with a focus on outside zone rushing plays.
Here’s some quotes from Satterfield describing his offense and challenges with a makeshift offensive line.
“You look at what the Ravens are doing, they are able to run their quarterback, we’re doing a little bit of that,” Satterfield said. “You look at what the Titans are doing with the way they can run their running back with Derrick Henry this past year, you look at the San Francisco 49ers with the play action game off the outside zone is tremendous.”
“We’re not a team that’s going to spread out and throw it 50 times a game, when you do that, you expose a lot of things,” Satterfield said. “We want to run the football and try to protect them (OFFENSIVE LINE) .”
Defensive Coordinator:
Bryan Brown
Satterfield brought his boy from Appalachian State. They had some great defenses at App state over the years. Browns background is with the secondary. He produced several of the top 10 defenses nationally while at Appalachian State. And Appalachian State consistently ranked near the top in college football for interceptions.
What defense do they run?
Louisville made the switch in 2019 from a 4-3 to a 3-4.
Here’s some Quotes from Bryan Brown on his defense.
“The scheme is a little different than most 3-4 teams,” Brown said during an interview just before the spring game. “It’s unique in the fact that we’re not a two-gap 3-4 team. We’re a slant and angle team. We get in the backfield and want to play a lot in the backfield. We're going to bring pressure but we try to keep offenses off-balance from where the pressure is coming from. We don't want them to know where it's coming from, so we'll bring the outside linebacker, inside linebackers and defensive line.”
“Our defense is all predicated on everyone being there in their gaps and we’ve gotten a ton better with that,” Satterfield said. “If you get out of a gap in this defense, then you’re going to get gashed. The thing we talk about whenever that does happen, and it will, that we have to get the guy on the ground. Then play the next play. We don’t want to give up those big chunk plays. I think that is the critical thing.”
Coaching Staff wise Satterfield had a history with productive offenses and Brown with nationally ranked defenses. Obviously Louisville still struggled last season while they were figuring out their players.
The Players
Key Losses: OT Mechki Bechton (1st Round NFL Draft) WR Seth Dawkins (Graduation) RT Tyler Haycraft (Graduation) NT GG Robinson (Graduation) DE Amontae Corbin (Graduation) FS Khane Pass (Graduation)
Returning Players/New Starters
QB: Micale Cunningham (6-1, 195)
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After taking over for the erratic Jawon Pass. Cunningham led the team with 2061 yard 22 TD and only 5 picks while also adding nearly 500 rushing yards. He can make the throws and he has Satterfield there to guide him. He will be fine.
He is kind of small at the college level. Miami needs to get some QB hits on him and make his body withstand 4 Quarters of being weighed down.
RB Duo Javian Hawkins and Hassan Hall
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Javian Hawkins (5-9 196) and Hassan Hall (6-0, 200) Both of these guys just make things happen. Hawkins rushed for 1500 yards last year and Hall rushed for over 500 yards.
Hawkins arrived to Louisville at 150lbs. I doubt he’s gained 40 pounds in two years. Either way he is explosive.
Satterfield said he wanted to run the football and he did, in his first year installing a new offense.
In 2019 Hawkins had 91 yards on 6 yards per carry. Hall had 79 yard at over 13 yards per carry.
Let’s tighten that up. The one good thing is that Miami didn’t let the QB Cunningham loose on the ground at all.
WR/TE:
1st Team ALL-ACC WR TuTu Atwell (5-9, 165)
View attachment 130144Returns his junior year as one the premier WRs in the ACC and the nation. He put up 142 yards with 6 catches and TD vs Miami last year.
I’m sure his gunning for All-America Honors this season.
SR WR Dez Fitzpatrick (6-2, 210) Fitzpatrick is a experienced guy he had 35 catches for 635 yards and 6 TDS in 2019.
Louisville’s top four WR in 2019 all had over 18 yards per catch. When they throw.....they are throwing for first downs. Cunningham’s 11-12 yards per attempt show that. Which is insanely high.
They lost #3 WR Seth Dawkins to graduation. But return 4 of their top 5 pass catchers
TE Marshon Ford (6-2, 240)
Ford caught 20 balls for 292 yards and 7 TDS. His catch to TD ratio is pretty high so look for that guy in the red zone. He was a freshman in 2019 and he is already on
Miami limited UABs best WR in Austin Watkin’s. Let’s see if they can do it again this week and let our CBs build some draft stock. Holding Watkins to 3 catches and a touchdown. While otherwise being ineffective the rest of the game.
Louisville OL
4 of the 5 starters on the OL are upper classmen. With at least 3 years in the program....I give that some slight consideration when talking OL with strength/experience....talent is obviously more important.
They break two new starters in at Both Tackle positions. Losing a 1st Round LT should sting. They also graduated their starting RT.
Two guys making their first starts against a power 5 opponent with really good
let’s take advantage.
Every starter on their OL is over 300lbs. So it’s a big OL. Best lineman overall is RS JR LG Caleb Chandler (6-4,310) He actually turned it on for Louisville to end the season last year. I’ll be tuned in to watch how our DTs battle him. He’s a fringe draft pick but a good season could get him there.
LT Adonis Boone (6-5,310) made his first start. And RS Freshman RT Renato Brown (6-4, 330) from Palm Beach Central made his first last night.
I would like to see Miami DE’s take advantage of the lack of experience. Draw some offsides penalties. Using their moves and techniques and experience to welcome these OT’s to big boy college football.
Louisville Defense
They bring back 9 of their top 11 tacklers. They finished last in the ACC in scoring defense and were ranked in the 100s defensively. They don’t get many interceptions. Bryan Brown is going to change that in the future....but you’re still dealing with personnel issues only 2 years into switching Schemes
The strength of this team is the linebackers and they have 4 good ones and a pretty good safety in SR Russ Yeast.
Let’s break down their 3-4 defensive players.
DL:
for a 3-4 this is an extremely small front. Size does matter. Especially when running a 3-4.
They are starting RS JR DE Junior Dayna Kinnaird (6–3, 270) RS SR DE Tabarius Peterson (6-3, 260) and NT Jared Goldwire (6-6, 304)
My thoughts are that this should be a game for Miami’s OL to get some work in. Our OL is still a work in progress I would like to see them blowing these smaller guys off the football.
I will be slightly concerned if the DEs get any pressure. This is one of those games where I’d much prefer to see them dominate. We ran for 6 yards a carry last season. I think we can do similar numbers this years. NT Jared Goldwire has some talent though. So watch the matchup in the middle.
LINEBACKER
This is a very good college linebacker corps. They’ve got 4 guys who can start on many teams in college football. All 4 are upper classmen and you usually want to see your veterans progress.
The best of the bunch is converted safety
SR LB CJ Avery (5-11,230) View attachment 130145
He led the team with 93 tackles and 3 sacks in 2019.
Joining him is SR OLB Rodjay Burns (6-0,215) with 83 tackles in 2019, SR LB Dorian Etheridge (6-3,230) who had 70 tackles in 2019, and OLB Yassir Abdullah (6-1, 225) who had 45 tackles.
That’s a Pretty solid group. Though they need to perform better against the run. They probably would be a better run defense if the DL wasn’t so small.
Secondary:
Louisville lost a really good safety to graduation in Khane Pass (80 tackles in 2019) They still return a pretty good one in
SR Russ Yeast (5-11, 205) View attachment 130146
All of their DBS are upper class men as well.
Replacing Pass and making his first start at Louisville is RS SR Isaiah Hayes who transferred from Arizona.
JRs Anthony Johnson (6-1,205) and Chandler Jones (5-10,186) return as starting cornerbacks.. They had a rough go of it in 2019 along with much of the Louisville defense. We will see if the experience begins to pay off. One thing about the Louisville secondary is that they DO tackle.
Overall ThMatchups I’m watching.
The Miami DE’s vs two new starting OTs. Also Nesta vs Caleb Chandler. Can Nesta perform similarly to UAB against Chandler. This week against a good Guard is the time to build some draft stock.
Miami’s Run Defense vs Javian Hawkins And Hall. We just have to do better than last year against Louisville.
Tutu is going to get his. That’s not my key matchup. I don’t believe we have DBs with the foot speed to really “check him”
Miami needs to focus on shutting down Louisville run game and the Miami pass defense will take care of itself enough to win this game.
I don’t want to see Louisville Louisville Running backs over 6 yards per carry again. We held UAB to 3.1 per carry. I hope to see us keep Louisville down in a similar fashion.
New year new teams for both ball clubs.
Louisville allowed 3.4 yards per carry to WKU. Which is similar to what they held them too last year. So it’s hard to take much away from their game 1 in regards to rush defense.
Louisville was trash against the run vs basically everyone In 2019.
Given all the experience they have coming back. I imagine they will be slightly better on defense. Therefore I think we go up there and roll again.
My Prediction 45-21 Miami.
I’d appreciate the CIS feedback.
