LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Cincinnati has hired Louisville's Scott Satterfield to be its next coach, the university announced Monday.
Satterfield has been with the Cardinals since 2019, leading them to two bowl games, a win in the Music City Bowl and a 25-24 record.
Louisville Director of Athletics, Josh Heird, released a statement saying, “We’re grateful to Scott for his dedication to our program and wish him well. We are always prepared to conduct head coaching searches, and we will begin a national search immediately to identify our next head coach. We will be looking for a tremendous leader who recognizes both the history and potential of Louisville Football and is committed longterm to helping the program reach new heights.”
Louisville is weeks from shipping up to Boston for the innaugural Wasabi Fenway Bowl on Dec. 17, where they will face Cincinnati. It's not yet clear whether Satterfield's job with the Bearcats begins next year, or if he will be on the opposite sideline of his former team at Fenway Park.
The Cardinals overcame starts of 2-3 overall and 0-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 5-2 stretch run highlighted by wins over then-No. 10 Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State. Their disappointing start fueled speculation that Satterfield would be fired at midseason before Louisville won 31-17 at Virginia to begin its second-half surge toward bowl eligibility.
Satterfield, who signed a six-year contract through Dec. 31, 2024, with an annual base salary of $3.25 million, departs Louisville following a somewhat tumultuous tenure after succeeding Bobby Petrino following a highly successful chapter guiding Appalachian State.
He inherited a Cardinals squad reeling from a 2-10 finish in 2018 and engineered a remarkable turnaround, ending 2019 with an 8-4 record and bowl victory. Louisville regressed to 4-7 against a 10-game ACC schedule in a coronavirus-marred 2020 season but seemed headed back to respectability last fall with a 6-6 regular season and another bowl appearance.
In between, Satterfield came under fire for talking with South Carolina about its coaching vacancy after initially denying contact. He later issued a public apology.
Heird announced at a news conference Monday he selected former Cardinal wide receiver and current Director of Player Development, Deion Branch to coach the Cardinals at the Fenway Bowl.
Branch, surprised by the call from Heird, said he may not be a head coach, but he's a leader and he's prepared to lead the team to the bowl game and fight for a win. He said he plans to call every coach he knows for advice. Branch said, newly hired Colorado coach Deion Sanders would be his first call.
"He was hired, what two days ago? Now I get an interim head coaching job. This is great. This is great for all the Deions in today's world. This is going to be amazing for the rest of the young men," Branch said. He added, he would call his former coach at UofL, John L. Smith. Branch said, it would be coach who actually calls him first.
When asked about the status of the current assistant coaches, Heird said he has had brief conversations with a couple of them, but said he isn't sure what they want to do. He added, before Satterfield left, he asked the former coach for transparency about what he was planning for the current staff and said he believes Satterfield will give him details.
Former Louisville Cardinal and current Purdue Boilermaker head coach was asked about the Louisville coaching job Monday morning during a news conference about his team's Citrus Bowl bid. Brohm replied, "Well, to be quite honest with you, I know no more than you guys do. [I] was in some meetings this morning and got some texts about Twitter and so, I found out on Twitter what was going on in the college world. But other than that I know no more information."
Brohm was also asked if he had any contact with Louisville and he said no. Brohm was considered for the Louisville head coaching position before Satterfield's hiring.
Cincinnati finished the season at 9-3, coming within a game of playing for the ACC Championship. The Bearcats lost its head coach Luke Fickell on Nov. 27, 2022 when he accepted the head coaching position at Wisconsin. Kerry Coombs, the cornerbacks coach and special-teams coordinator, was named interim head coach.
Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham called Satterfield “a proven winner” and noted his competitiveness and culture-building.
“He’s an innovative offensive mind and a leader who develops men on and off the field," Cunningham said in a statement. “He’s the perfect fit to grow this program and lead us into the Big 12 next season and beyond.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.