LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Something about moving from the practice fields to the stadium turf makes the approach of college football season seem more real, even if cancellations and rumors of cancellations continue to swirl.
The University of Louisville football team held its first major scrimmage Saturday morning at Cardinal Stadium. No statistics and few details were provided by the program.
For now, the reality of players on the field will have to be enough. But, two weeks into preseason practice, head coach Scott Satterfield said that the mood was good.
"Number one, it's a beautiful day in Louisville today and a chance to get out there," he said. "We got on the game field today, which was nice. We'd been on the practice field the whole time, so to be out there on the game field and basically tried to simulate game situations as much as you can. We did a lot of different situations moving the football — coming off goal line, going in red zone work. We got some great work in the kicking game today as well. Our longest day of the camp today for sure. A lot of good competition today."
Some things to know about Saturday's practice:
1). SOME STARTERS SAT OUT. This wasn’t a day for the No. 1 units to get out and butt heads. The goal for Satterfield and his staff Saturday was to look at younger players and to put them through some live paces.
"Well we held out a few guys,” Satterfield said. "We held out Hassan Hall and we weld out (Javian) Hawkins. We didn't tackle. Tutu Atwell and Des Fitzpatrick got some reps, but they didn't get many reps. We held out a couple of guys in the secondary as far as the safeties go. Inside linebackers didn't get as many reps, you know, Dorian (Etheridge) and C.J. (Avery). They've played a bunch of ball. So really, the mainstay players that have been around a long time, they got some reps but not many. And we really tried to get a lot of these young guys that haven't had the opportunity to get on the field, get them as many reps and show them as many different things as we can show them, put them in adverse situations and then we can coach up off of it."
2). THE OFFENSE STARTED FAST, BUT THE DEFENSE IMPROVED. It’s always impossible to gauge offense vs. defense in a scrimmage situation. A great offensive show can also mean that you’re defense is terrible. Or vice-versa.
Still, Satterfield said he liked what he saw from his offense. The back-up running backs performed well , and the first-team offensive line looked in sync.
"I thought early on offensively we did some really good stuff, made some big plays," Satterfield said. "Later on in the scrimmage, our defense really rose up in the second half and did some really good things. A lot of good young players making plays out there today and it was fun to see. Days like today we love going back and watching the film; there's so many things we can learn off this film and teach off of. Each player will get better because of this. Overall, I was very pleased with where we are at this point."
One thing that pleased the head coach was that, after giving up some big plays early, the defense shut those down as the scrimmage progressed.
Satterfield believes the group will benefit from playing a second straight season with the same defensive coordinator and system.
"They made mistakes early on, but what was great to see that later on they were correcting those mistakes and making plays," Satterfield said. "They were able to create a couple turnovers later. They held the offense from getting into the end zone on several occasions, held them to a field goal, and that's winning football. So that was good to see. Early the offense may have scored some touchdowns; it would be real easy to hang your head and think, 'Here we go.' But that wasn't the case; they continued to fight, continued to correct mistakes and then they got better. That's what's good to see from a coaching standpoint."
3). OFFENSIVE LINE ENCOURAGEMENT. Satterfield has some key returnees on the offensive front but has been impressed with the play of a newcomer.
"One of the young guys that's really stood out is the right tackle, Renato (Brown)," Satterfield said. "In one or two weeks has had some of the best work up front. You think of a lot of guys who have been here and played a lot of ball, but Renato redshirted last year and he's playing as good as any of the guys up front. So really excited about him at the right tackle position. Adonis Boone is holding down the left tackle spot. Cole Bentley has done a great job at center. Robbie Bell is a mainstay up front. All those guys who played last year haven't missed a beat and really actually gelled a lot better."
4). PRESEASON PRAISE HASN’T GONE TO ANYONE’S HEAD. Louisville has several players on national award watch lists, and wideout Tutu Atwell, who had limited reps on Saturday, has made some preseason All-American lists. But Satterfield says his players are handling those things well.
"They have not missed a beat," he said. "They're coming out; they're humble; they're hungry; they're trying to go as hard as they can possibly go. There's great competition right now really all over our team, so whatever drill we're setting up, these guys are trying to win. Since we got here a year and a half ago, we've really tried to instill the competition factor for everything that we're doing, doesn't matter what it is. Competing your tails off — once you get a habit of doing that, it's all you know how to do. Like Tutu today, he wants to get every rep. He doesn't want to sit on the sidelines. This is a Saturday scrimmage, early, a long ways before we play, but he wants to get every rep. That's just his mentality. That's the type of mentality of all these guys. They want to play. They're hungry to get out there."
5). WHAT’S AHEAD? The Cardinals will get back-to-back days off before heading back to work on Monday. While the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have dialed down for the season, Satterfield says his players feel grateful to still be working toward an opener.
"We've still got a ways to go before we play our first game, so the way we set up our practice schedule this time is a little different than it was in the past," Satterfield said. "In the past you don't get as many days off, but we started earlier so we're giving our guys days off the next three weeks. They'll get Sunday and Monday; they'll get a chance to get all their class stuff situated on Monday. They'll come back Tuesday to practice and we'll go (through Friday), give them off next weekend.
"In the past you usually don't get two days off back to back," Satterfield continued. "I think it's really going to benefit our guys as far as taking care of their bodies. We've got some dings and bruises out there with guys that will need a few days to recover. We held some guys out today as well just because we didn't think they needed to go. We're trying to be smart with everything we're doing, not only our health and protocols but also physically not wanting to take a toll on their bodies. To lose so much time in the summer I thought we had a great plan about how we should bring our guys back and east into it. We did that with time on the field, so to this point we're also talking about not taking a beating with our guys."
So far, full contact has been limited. But those days will come around soon enough.
"We know we've got to get some of the work in, like today where you're tackling and really playing football," Satterfield said. "But we're going to limit those opportunities. I think we'll try to get another one more next Friday, then after that we'll probably end up pulling back and working on the mental side of the game. Hopefully, they can heal their bodies up as we work toward our first game."
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