Scott Satterfield going to Louisville after acing Appalachian State’s FBS transition

Appalachian State head coach Scott Satterfield has taken the same job at Louisville, the school announced Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, SB Nation reported that Satterfield and Troy head coach Neal Brown were finalists for the job, with U of L meeting with Maryland interim head coach Matt Canada at the 11th hour. The Cardinals had targeted U of L alum and Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm, but Brohm surprised much of the college football world by staying in West Lafayette.

Satterfield has been connected to pretty much every southern head coaching opening in one way or another this season. That makes a lot of sense for a couple reasons. One is that Satterfield’s now represented by Jimmy Sexton, notable college football super agent. But the biggest reason is he’s made App State a damn good program.

He’s pretty much been a Mountaineer lifer. He played quarterback there from 1992-1995, when he led the school to an undefeated regular season and a quarterfinal run in the FCS postseason. In 1998, he returned to join the coaching staff.

2007 might have been the first time you heard of Appalachian State, but the Mountaineers were in the midst of their third straight FCS national championship run when they beat Michigan. By that time, Satterfield was the quarterbacks coach. He shepherded the electric Armanti Edwards. Satterfield has spent 17 of the last 20 seasons at Appalachian State coaching nearly every offensive position group. After three years away, he returned in 2012 as offensive coordinator, and the next year he became head coach.

That was a crucial time for Appalachian State, because it was the beginning of the program’s FBS transition. The Mountaineers’ first season in college football’s highest division was 2014. That first year in FBS is typically rocky anyway, but the Mountaineers went 7-5 in 2014 (6-2 in conference play) after a 1-5 start.

That’s still Satterfield’s worst FBS season.

This season’s 10-2 is the third-straight conference championship or first-place finish for the Mountaineers. (The Sun Belt just added a title game this year and handed out a co-championship in 2017.) To start the season, 11 years to the day of the Michigan upset, Satterfield took the Mountaineers north again. This time it was against Penn State, and Appalachian State almost pulled off the upset again.

They ran all over everyone else besides getting smacked by Georgia Southern on the road on a Thursday night. Satterfield even got the better of fellow G5 coaching darling Neal Brown, when his team beat Troy, 21-10, to end the regular season.

This team is built on good defense and an explosive running game that heavily involves the QB. Satterfield’s been at that for a long time.