What played a part in Scott Satterfield’s decision making?

Scott Satterfield did a very good job as the head coach at App State and then parlayed that into, I think, a very good job at the University of Louisville. But as soon as he got there, it seemed like he wanted out. He basically put himself up for every job that there was and then had to deny that he was trying to get out. It was just he, for whatever reason, he didn't really want to be there. He finally got out. The delicious irony is that, it's not even irony, it's coincidence, is that next Saturday, Louisville will play Cincinnati, and he is the new head coach at the University of Cincinnati.

Mark Ennis, 93-9, the Ville in Louisville, joins us on the Adam Gold Show. I mean, at least, yeah, that can't be overlooked. But was he trying to get out from the very beginning? He was trying to get out after year two, for sure. I think, you know, year one, he did a good job. He did a great job year one. I don't want to undersell that.

Did a great job. Year two, they fell flat on their face and through, yeah, the COVID year. And don't forget also with Louisville, you had the, everything with Breonna Taylor here. There's a lot of unrest in Louisville unrelated to COVID stuff. I think Scott just realized, like, this is not, I am not in Boone anymore. And I think he started looking for a soft landing spot very quickly, but needed to, I think, sort of raise his marketability again.

And after some conversations with Louisville, where it was pretty clear he wasn't going to get some giant race for going seven and five with losing to Kentucky again, he went and found himself a soft landing spot to reset the clock, as Bud Elliott would say. Yeah, a six-year deal at the University of Cincinnati. Is Louisville a more difficult place than people would imagine?

Yes and no. Yeah, I think that it really depends on sort of what you do with it. It is like a pro sports town, except for Louisville is the pro sports. You know, there's, you get all of the attention, you get all the focus, but you get all the support and you get all the corporate money. I mean, there are good things about it. There are bad things about it.

It's entirely dependent upon what you do with it. Rick Pitino wrung every inch of life out of this program. He got fabulously wealthy. He had a tremendous support in every way he could have wanted. And then you have guys like Scott who never seem like they're particularly comfortable here, or Chris Mack, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the job. Is he life-giving or life-taking?

How about that? There was, for a long time, stability in the athletic director's office, and that has not been there of late. How big a part did that play in Scott's decision to get out? I don't think it's much of a factor at all.

I think Scott's issues here were entirely environmental. I think he simply didn't like it here, which doesn't really make sense out of the move that he is making because all the things that we are sort of perceived to think that he doesn't like about Louisville are very much true of Cincinnati too. He's going to a bigger, badder Louisville. So good luck, man.

Good luck. Is Cincinnati a bigger, badder Louisville? I mean, there are so many other things to distract people from what UC is doing. I mean, if I had to guess, I'd say Ohio State's still probably the number one college football program in Cincinnati, no? Oh, I don't think there's any question about that.

I'm talking more about quality of life, the nature of the city itself. I don't think Scott was ever comfortable in kind of this urban setting where racial issues were such a big deal and things like that. I think he very much wanted to be a country football coach, and he's just going to a place where it's going to be even less than that in Cincinnati. So maybe he'll adjust.

Well, good luck to him for adjusting. What was it like to cover Scott? He was all cool, man, at App. We talked to him a lot when he was at App. He did a great job there too, so he deserved the bump in competition.

What was it like to cover him on a regular basis? It was maddening, and maddening in only the way that not everything was bad, maddening. Scott took over the proverbial brownfield, post-Petrino thing, which is a struggle for everyone. If you look at coaches who come in after Bobby Petrino, it's a mess. And I think he deserves a lot of credit for doing a very good job, and then squandering virtually all of that goodwill, and then very much looking like he did not want to be here almost any minute after that. It was very odd those first two years.

And look, I think Louisville fans are savvy enough. We've been through coaches leaving and coaching searches enough to know, so when does a guy sound like he wants to be there and when is he not? And Scott never really gave that vibe like, man, this is it.

I really want to make this work. He never did. Yeah, there wasn't enough bourbon, I think, for Scott Satterfield in Louisville. We got the Angels' Envy Body right, the ball right here from him.

We will be back open today. So wait, are you celebrating in Louisville? Because I know I saw you on Twitter, at Mark Ennis on Twitter, and he's from 93 behind the Ville in Louisville. So, you put out that Cincinnati is like, we did what? And it just reminded me of when Missouri lured Frank Haith away from Miami, and Missouri fans were like, huh?

And Miami was like, yeah! So, are we talking about something as similar as that? It could very well be win-win for sure.

I don't, there are no, I have not seen this, I've not seen a single little fan that's like, oh man, like not one. Right. And there's a there's a possibility that Scott's buyout that he's going to be responsible for will basically pay off the Chris Mack buyout, and if so, as win-win as it could possibly be. He was better to cover than Chris Mack though, right? By a lot. Oh man, that says so many bad things about Chris Mack, that's too bad. Tweeting at me and calling me an idiot at the Super Bowl of his long time, lifelong Cincinnati Bengals, and he's calling me an idiot at the Super Bowl. So, he was definitely better than Chris Mack. Well, congratulations to you for touching a nerve. That is fantastic.

All right, final thing. I'm sure he's not coaching the bowl game for Cincinnati. It is kind of delicious that this is the matchup, which by the way, next Saturday? How does anybody get ready for a bowl game already? I mean, Luell was going to have Dion Branch be the interim coach. I think the best thing that happened at this press conference today at Cincinnati was Scott saying, I haven't really studied the roster of Cincinnati yet. Well, why not? You're supposed to play them in 13 days.

He had already packed up his office. All right, how good a job is it? I mean, we know that the boosters have deep pockets. We know the athletic department has been willing to spend money in the past. They've got a big budget. They've got a great stadium, basketball stadiums, obviously state of the art, but how good a job is that? Luell is a really good job. It is not, you know, Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson. It's not those.

And I don't think anyone here would even pretend that it is, but I like that tier below it. Like what Luell desperately needs out of them. They've had one coach since 1969 stay more than five years. One, they desperately are just dying for a successful guy who just stays around for 10 or 15 years. Just one. I think it's a really good job, but fans don't put up with much of a sense of like this guy wants to leave.

They'll be out before you are. Yeah. Everybody's looking for stability. Sometimes it might not be the way to go. Just find somebody. Let me be clear about something.

I don't think that they should look for a guy who won't leave. That never works. Yeah.

You just, you hope that your coach becomes attractive to other schools. That's what you want. You have to do it that way. Mark Ennis, at Mark Ennis on Twitter, 93.9, the Ville in Louisville. You're the man. I appreciate your time. Enjoy, enjoy your bottle today. All right. Take it easy. You got it. Mark Ennis.