By Rocco Gasparro
University of Louisville
University of Louisville football head coach Scott Satterfield said on Wednesday that things are almost back to normal. Well, as normal as you can hope during a pandemic.
More than half of the roster has returned to campus during the past two weeks, and Satterfield brought back his coaches on Monday in hopes to start the 2020 football season as planned.
COVID-19 has changed everyday life during the past four months, but the second-year head coach is slowly starting to see things get back to normal.
The first phase of the players’ return has reached the point that has allowed them to begin voluntary workouts.
University of Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield is slowly starting to see things get back to normal. (UofL photo)
“Last week we started our voluntary lifting portion of the program,” Satterfield said. “Bringing guys back, I think around 42 guys that worked out last week that are working out this week and we brought in 30 more guys this week on Monday and they’re testing and going their physicals.”
Most of the starting groups on offense and defense were the first groups to return, and some of the key reserves and newcomers were in the next phase.
“The first phase that we brought in those first 42 guys players, those are starters, and some guys that are that first or second team that are right there,” Satterfield said. “It’s probably your better players, obviously, but they’ve come in with great attitudes and in great shape.”
While the players were on their own for the last few months, Satterfield has been impressed with the leadership of the entire team, as the squad returned to campus in great physical shape despite being unsupervised since early March.
“All these guys are doing basically is lifting and running right now everything is going great so far,” Satterfield said. “Guys have come back and really good shape. That’s the one thing as coaches you kind of worry about you know what kind of safety the guys going to be in, and done some great work on their own back in their homes, and they really actually exceeded, where we thought they would be.”
While a number of programs across the country have been shut down or some reporting small numbers of positive results from testing, Satterfield is pleased where the Cardinals are from a COVID-19 standpoint.
“We’re excited where we are right now. Matt Summers, our trainer, and Coach Mike (Sirignano), our strength coach, all the guys have done a great job with everything that we put in place here, all the precautions for these guys come in here and be able to train and do it in a safe manner. Everything’s so far is going smooth and we’ll keep our fingers crossed with that. We all know how delicate situation that we’re all in right now with all of this and we’re trying to do our part to do things right.”
The Cardinals are slated to open the season on Sept. 3 versus N.C. State, but no one can predict what the virus will bring over the next few months. Satterfield hopes the Cardinals can get a full 12-game season in this year, but there are still many questions left unanswered.
“At the end of the day we still don’t know,” Satterfield said. “We’re going plan like we’re playing every single game and we’re going to start the season on time and all those things, but we really truly don’t know. We’re taking one day at a time and I think that’s all you can do.”
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