Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield met with the media this week to preview Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. showdown against Clemson at Cardinal Stadium.
The Cardinals enter the contest with a 4-4 record (2-3 ACC), while the Tigers are 5-3 (4-2).
“We’re playing a team that’s played for and won many national championships, and a lot of tradition there,” Satterfield said. “They’re used to winning. This year, have not done as well as they’ve done in the past. They’re so dominant the last seven, eight years, and this year, a lot of close games. They’ve lost a few. They played a Georgia team — which everybody thinks Georgia is one of the top teams in the country and has been playing that way — 10-3. And then a lot of close games.”
Clemson ranks first in the ACC and third nationally in scoring defense (15.3 points per game allowed), while the Tigers are last in the conference and 113th nationally in scoring offense (21.3 points per game) going into the matchup against Satterfield’s Cardinals.
“Offensively, they’ve not put up the numbers they’ve been used to putting up,” Satterfield said. “A lot of new players on that side of the ball. Defensively, they’re still one of the best defenses in the country. I think they’re number three in the country in scoring defense. They’ve had a lot of injuries and still rank really high defensively, holding teams in single digits to teens. And I think as you watch the film, very impressive on that side of the ball. Number 47 (linebacker James Skalski) has played a lot of football. He’s the quarterback of the defense. He could probably call the defenses. He knows it so well, and he’s still playing and still playing at a high level. I think their D-line’s impressive. They did have some injuries there, but they still have some great players that cause havoc up front. The biggest thing that they do well on their defense is just the multiple things they do on defense and the way they play it.
“So, we’re excited about the opportunity of hosting these guys and playing at 7:30, and look forward to having a great crowd here, a crowd that we can feed off of, and this weekend we’ll need it.”
Satterfield also spoke about Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, who has completed 55.7 percent of his passes for 1,291 yards and five touchdowns with six interceptions in eight games as a sophomore this season.
“He’s got as good an arm as anybody in the country,” Satterfield said. “Sometimes they have not been able to hit some of those throws, but he certainly can make them because every game, he’s made some incredible throws. So, we’ve got to be able to mix it up and try to put a little bit of doubt or confusion in the quarterback’s head.”
As Satterfield mentioned in his opening statement, Clemson hasn’t been the dominant force this season that it has been accustomed to being in the ACC and on a national level while winning each of the last six ACC Championships to go with six straight College Football Playoff appearances, four appearances in the national championship game since 2015 and two national titles over that span.
But Satterfield knows that Clemson is still Clemson, and he was asked what it would mean for his program to get a win over one of college football’s marquee brands on Saturday.
“It’d be awesome to get a win,” he said. “A team, as I mentioned, that’s won national championships, played for it a bunch of times and basically just run through the ACC over the last seven or eight years. They have not lost very many games, and to be able to beat a team like that this year would be incredible. It’d be great for our program, it’d be great for our guys.
“They’re a brand that everybody knows throughout the country, and if it comes across the ticker that Louisville won the game, then that’s huge in a lot of aspects – not only in just for the wins purposes, but also for the program moving forward when you talk about recruiting and all of the aspects part of the program. So, yeah, obviously it’d be a huge win for us.”
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