By Gabriel Wiest —

With an abrupt end to the Petrino era, Louisville football is working to distance itself from another  2-10 season. Head coach Scott Satterfield is looking to take steps in the right direction with a fresh coaching staff.

The first major part of this vision was changing the culture of the program to be more constructive. Satterfield’s coaching style focuses on showing players praise for good work, rather than slamming them when things go south.

“We’re trying to talk to our guys in a positive way. For example, every day we take the offense and show them eight clips and tell them ‘This is what we’re looking for,’ ” said Satterfield.

This optimism does not stop with just the offense, but is a team-wide effort to build players morale.

“One thing we do defensively is called the hustle tape and if you are not on that hustle tape you’re not going to play,” said defensive coordinator Bryan Brown when explaining how he combats low energy.

Satterfield assembled the coaching staff based off of people he worked with in the past and grabbing coaches from Appalachian State.

With a rough 2018 season, Satterfield explained that their greatest weakness is in depth. “When you go from the stars down to the next group it is a pretty significant drop off,” he said.

Building a strong second string will be essential entering the 2019 season as injuries can pop up at any part of the season.

While remaining optimistic Satterfield said, “I am really excited with theses guys, they are great to work with everyday, the egos are left somewhere else.”

Satterfield’s coaching style is chill, staying level headed in a variety of situations.

“I am extremely competitive. I want to win at everything I do, it does not matter what it is,” Satterfield said.

“I am very even-keeled, I want our players to be able to look at me when things go wrong and say ‘We’re still in this.’ ”

Staying calm and collected will be important when facing off against heavy hitting programs like Notre Dame, on the first game of the year.

Photo by Gabriel Wiest / The Louisville Cardinal