LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- College football is experiencing a mass of in-season head-coaching dismissals. The latest was Colorado's Karl Dorrell earlier this week, bringing the number among Power 5 schools to five.
On Friday, ESPN's Adam Rittenberg reported that Louisville's Scott Satterfield could be in danger of becoming No. 6. In his weekly College Football Coaching Carousel on ESPN+, Rittenberg said the following about Louisville:
Multiple sources close to Louisville athletics, however, insist that Satterfield's immediate future is not contingent on the result of Saturday's game at Virginia and that athletics director Josh Heird, in the estimation of one source, "is not there yet" when it comes to the coach's future at the school. Satterfield's current deal runs through 2026.
Heird has said repeatedly that the benchmark for Satterfield would be "meaningful progress." That standard would seem to be in jeopardy given Louisville's 2-3 start — with three of the losses to teams Louisville beat last season — and was exacerbated by last Saturday's loss at Boston College, in which the Cards entered as a 16.5-point favorite.
Heird was en route to Charlottesville, Virgina, with the team and could not be reached for comment.
Louisville will face five opponents down the stretch of the season who are either nationally ranked at the moment or have been ranked at some point during the season.
The Cardinals lost the lead four times in their loss at Boston College and defensively couldn't slam the door on the Eagles, who had lost to Florida State, 44-14, one week prior and averaged only 15 points in losses to three FBS teams. Their completion percentage of 83.3% (18-21) was the highest ever for a Louisville opponent with more than 10 passing attempts.
The defense has been a persistent problem. Of the last seven games in which Louisville has scored at least 30 points, it has lost four of them. The Cardinals have tied or led in the fourth quarter of 6 of their past 9 losses.
In response, Satterfield said this week that he was going to become more involved with the defensive coaching and play calling.
"For me and running this program, I think there's some things certainly that need to be different," Satterfield said. "I've got to spend more time helping all facets of the game, particularly defensively and on special teams. This week, that's what I'm doing, more time on that side of the ball as soon as we got back."
Matters could be made more complicated for the Cardinals on Saturday, with starting quarterback Malik Cunningham suffering concussion-like symptoms after leaving Saturday's game at Boston College. His status remains up in the air for the noon kickoff.
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