Louisville will have just 3 full-time coaches available for Fenway Bowl

In this biggest surprise of this year’s coaching carousel, Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield took a very lateral move to Cincinnati after being the hidden finalist for director of athletics John Cunningham. The hire that caught many by surprise really came at an unfortunate time.

The Cards will travel to New England later this week to face Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl. Satterfield has stated that he will not be involved in this postseason game and won’t even make the trip to Massachusetts. However, the head coach is still interfering with Louisville’s bowl prep as Deion Branch (Director of Player Development) has been promoted to interim head coach and is dealing with a gutted coaching staff.

Since Satterfield was hired, the Bearcats have brought defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas, offensive line coach Nic Cardwell, running backs coach De’Rail Sims, and linebackers coach Derek Nicholson up I-71. Satterfield has also added interim Cincinnati head coach Kerry Coombs to his first staff for the new Big 12 program. Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Lance Taylor has left to be the head coach at Western Michigan and co-defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff has joined Hugh Freeze’s first staff at Auburn.

That has left Louisville in a rough spot.

The Cardinals are dealing with a skeleton crew as rushed bowl prep began last week. Defensive line coach Mark Ivey, linebackers coach Greg Gasparto, and tight ends coach Josh Stepp are the only full-time assistant coaches left in Louisville. It appears unclear who will call plays on both offense and defense.

Elsewhere, star quarterback Malik Cunningham has declared for the NFL Draft, No. 1 wideout Tyler Hudson and No. 1 cornerback Kei’Trel Clark are not listed on the bowl depth chart, and offensive guard Luke Kandra has entered the transfer portal and committed to Cincinnati.

Louisville will be very shorthanded when the Keg of Nails rivalry adds its oddest chapter ever on Saturday in an MLB ballpark.