Louisville Hires Appalachian State's Scott Satterfield to Be New HC

The Louisville Cardinals are hiring Appalachian State football coach Scott Satterfield to fill their head coaching vacancy, the team announced on Tuesday. 

Louisville Courier Journal's Jake Lourim and Danielle Lerner first reported the news on Monday.

Louisville started the process of looking for its new coach after firing coach Bobby Petrino on Nov. 11 after a 2-8 start. The program finished 2-10, its worst mark since 1997.

Purdue Boilermakers head coach Jeff Brohm appeared to be Louisville's top choice. Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde and Pete Thamel reported the Cardinals made Brohm a seven-year, $35 million offer last month. However, Brohm decided not to return to his alma mater, instead remaining at Purdue.

Now, Satterfield is the one tasked with bringing Louisville back to relevancy.

Satterfield was the head coach at Appalachian State from 2013-18. He went 47-16 in his five years at the FBS level in Boone, North Carolina (4-8 in 2013, the Mountaineers' last FCS campaign). Each of the past three seasons featured bowl victories.

This season, Satterfield's Mountaineers nearly pulled off one of the upsets of the year by taking the then-10th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions to overtime in Happy Valley before falling 45-38. That near-miss was one of the lone blemishes, as Appalachian State went 10-2 and cracked the AP Top 25 for the first time in program history.

Appalachian State defeated the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 30-19 on Saturday for the Sun Belt championship. The Mountaineers will take on the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 15.

Prior to 2018, Petrino helped Louisville win eight-plus games in each of the past four seasons. But in the first year post-Lamar Jackson (who played 2015-17), the Cardinals struggled mightily. Their only wins came against non-major Indiana State and Western Kentucky as they went 0-8 in ACC play.