Athlon Sports assesses Scott Satterfield's hot seat temperature entering 2025

The 2025 season is rapidly approaching. With that, the Cincinnati Bearcats are looking to quickly turn things around next season under Scott Satterfield.

It’s been a difficult first couple of seasons in Cincinnati for Satterfield. Now, he finds himself on the list of coaches that Athlon Sports sees as being on a hot seat going into the season.

“Satterfield was a surprising hire for Cincinnati following a 17-19 record in his final three years at Louisville,” Athlon wrote. “Through two seasons, Satterfield has struggled to find his footing with an 8-16 mark.”

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Satterfield came to Cincinnati from Louisville ahead of the 2023 season. There, he’s been tasked with overseeing the team’s transition from the AAC into the Big 12. However, it’s been a slow-building process to get to this point. After going 3-9 in his first season, the Bearcats did take a small step forward in 2024 by going 5-7. Still, they missed a bowl. They did so while also losing their final five games.

The team that Satterfield inherited at Cincinnati was sitting atop the Group of Five under Luke Fickell. The Bearcats went 9-4 the season before Satterfield got to the program. The year before, they had played in the College Football Playoff. So, missing a bowl for two straight seasons has become surprising.

At the time, Cincinnati’s hiring of Satterfield was a surprise in its own right. He had thrived as a Group of Five coach at Appalachian State, winning double-digit games in three of his final four seasons there. That landed him the Louisville job, which comes with a similar recruiting territory to Cincinnati in the Power Four. However, he struggled to find his footing there, only going 25-24 over the course of four seasons.

Expectations around the Big 12 aren’t high for Scott Satterfield. One coach spoke anonymously to Athlon, sharing their prediction that he won’t survive being on the hot seat this season.

“This is a hot-seat job, and they have to show results this season or it’s probably done,” the coach said. “The school or the AD, or both, locked in Satt [Scott Satterfield] on a big contract, and that’s kept him safe, but this is the season they have to show results.”

Satterfield and Cincinnati are going to begin the season on August 28th at Arrowhead Stadium against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Bearcats will then be in Kansas on September 27th to take on the Kansas Jayhawks and open up Big 12 play.