Scott Satterfield will spend more time with Louisville football's defense. What that means

On Sunday, Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield had a conversation with defensive coordinator Bryan Brown.

The two, whose relationship dates back to their days coaching at Appalachian State, discussed a change in the coaching structure less than 24 hours after the 34-33 loss to Boston College on the road. Moving forward for the rest of the season, Satterfield will be spending more time helping with the defense and special teams.

It was the biggest news to come out of Tuesday's press conference from a team that's 2-3 and losers of three straight ACC games, other than Satterfield revealing quarterback Malik Cunningham's "probable concussion-like symptoms" that has the redshirt senior day to day for Saturday's game.

“If I can help out the defense any way of looking at it from an offensive perspective, like I would do to help those guys out," Satterfield said. “If I can help two to three plays, maybe that's the two to three plays, that'll be the difference to win football games. We're certainly in the business to win, and that's where we've fallen short. We have to win these games.”

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What does that mean for the Cardinals' offense and defense going forward this season? Here's what we know:

What changes are coming to Louisville's defense?

Satterfield and Brown offered scarce details about the new arrangement Tuesday afternoon. It's unclear if Satterfield will have more hands-on involvement in defensive play calls during games or if he'll have more of a say in the game planning during the week.

When asked about Satterfield’s decision to help more on the defensive side of the ball, Brown said he doesn't see it as a criticism and believes it to be a “great” thing.

“We've been together for so long. We're a family,” he said. “You got to take constructive criticism, no matter what, and I don't take that as a slight from him. We're just trying to win football games and help these kids be successful on and off the football field. Once we figure that out on the football field then I think everything else will be fine.”

When Satterfield was asked what brought about the change, he simply said, “Losing games.”

“That's it. Gotta find ways to win, man.”

For the third time in five seasons, Louisville has lost its first three ACC games. The last two losses to Florida State on Sept. 16 and Boston College on Saturday came by a combined five points. In both defeats, at least one receiver from the opposing squad had over 100 receiving yards. Syracuse didn’t have a receiver go over 100 yards but instead had a 100-yard rusher in running back Sean Tucker.

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Johnny Wilson exploded for 149 yards on seven catches and two touchdowns for the Seminoles, while BC’s Zay Flowers had five receptions for 151 yards and two scores. Where Wilson’s touchdown grabs were shorter (10 and 2 yards), Flowers burned Louisville defenders with 57- and 69-yard scoring catches.

Brown accepted responsibility for allowing Flowers’s big plays.

"I put Mink in a bad situation last week, I mean, I did,” Brown said about safety Josh Minkins trying to cover Flowers one-on-one on Flowers’ 69-yard TD. "I was thinking run and that's on me. I told him (Minkins) that after the game, and really after that series. I gotta do a better job of putting those guys in situations to do what they do best. If we can do that, I think we'll be a lot better defensively, not giving up those explosive plays.”

Louisville’s overall defense ranks ninth in the ACC and 66^th nationally, allowing 369.8 yards per game. The Cardinals also are ninth in the league and 60^th in the nation in scoring defense, giving up 23.4 points per outing, with the ACC’s third-worst rushing defense (159.4 yards per game).

Satterfield's background is on offense — he was a quarterback at Appalachian State and in coaching stints at Toledo, Florida International and his alma mater he coached quarterbacks, was a passing game coordinator and an offensive coordinator.

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Is Lance Taylor calling plays? What will the Cardinals' offense look like?

With Satterfield paying more attention to the defense, offensive coordinator Lance Taylor will take on a bigger play-calling role. It will be the first time he's called plays.

“They'll be a lot more involved in play calling and running the offensive side of the ball,” Satterfield said of the Cardinals’ offensive staff. “They've done a really nice job this year with, in our last three games, we've scored over 30 points and (moved) the football and done some really nice things.”

The Cardinals are averaging 26.4 points per game with 430 yards of total offense per contest, which is eighth-best in the ACC and ranks 52^nd nationally. Much of that production has come from quarterback Malik Cunningham, who has had a hand in 12 of U of L’s 16 touchdowns on the year. His status for Saturday’s game is uncertain, however, with the quarterback having experienced “concussion-like symptoms” against Boston College, Satterfield said. He’s considered day to day with the possibility backup quarterback Brock Domann has to start.

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“I think that what we do offensively is just like every week: we take our process, and we'll see what we do well offensively,” Taylor said. “Who are the players that we need to get the ball to and how do we get them the football? Then also, what does Virginia do defensively? We'll craft a game plan based on those three things, just like we always do. We'll go through our process. We have full confidence in Brock and Malik, and we'll go through the week and have a plan for each.”

Taylor embraces the opportunity to have more of a say in the team’s offense "if it helps our team win games.” Though he’ll call plays, Taylor said the whole offensive staff has a hand in how the unit prepares its game plan.

“We have great chemistry offensively, bounce ideas off of each other, whether it's coach (Nic) Cardwell, and coach (Josh) Stepp,” Taylor said of the offensive line and tight ends coaches, respectively. “In the run game, Coach (De’Rail) Sims has great ideas. Coach (Pete) Thomas and I always talk pass game stuff together. We really work well together. Offensively, it takes all of us to put a plan together.”

It's not clear what a Taylor offense looks like and how much his play-calling will differ from Satterfield's.

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“Moving forward, I think I'll be much more involved,” Taylor said. “He (Satterfield) hasn't said exactly what it'll be in games, but I think that he'll give us direction as we move forward. Once we get past through the week of prep and get into Thursday and Friday, and really start talking about game plan specifics."

Though this is Taylor’s first OC job, his background includes coaching running backs at Notre Dame and Stanford and serving as the wide receivers coach at Appalachian State. Taylor, who currently coaches the Cardinals’ wide receivers, was also a wide receivers coach for the Carolina Panthers and an assistant tight ends coach for the New York Jets.

He was brought in following a 2021 season where Louisville didn’t have an offensive coordinator and Satterfield called plays. Heading into the 2022 campaign, Satterfield and Taylor both said they’d collaborate on play-calling with both having a say in the game plan and what the team runs.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Scott Satterfield makes changes on Louisville's offense, defense