Louisville football loses recruiting coordinator in middle of recruiting weekend
The Louisville football program seems to be having issues keeping people in the building. On Friday evening, the program was dealt a major blow when Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs plucked away their recruiting coordinator.
BREAKING: #UGA adds to support staff with rising star David Cooper https://t.co/OCG7osUqes — @KippLAdams @Mansell247 @Rowe247 pic.twitter.com/nDvUNsjmKq
— Dawgs247 (@Dawgs247) June 11, 2021
In February, David Cooper left his post as the assistant director of player personnel at the University of Florida to become the recruiting coordinator at the University of Louisville. In an off-field role, Cooper was assigned to run the recruiting operation for the Cardinal football program after Satterfield’s first three recruiting hauls finished 53, 47, 44 in average star rating among the 65 Power Five programs. After landing two commitments, a couple of transfers, and serving four months, Cooper is returning to the SEC.
However, this is just horrific timing. Popeye Williams — a four-star edge player from Indianapolis — is currently the program’s highest-ranked commitment in the 2022 class and is on campus this weekend for his official visit. Now the coaching staff must explain while the man running their recruiting operation is dipping out in the middle of an important weekend.
My 2nd home! L’sUp pic.twitter.com/n0rWfgjkgo
— Popeye Williams (@Popeye2022) June 11, 2021
This comes right after a season where Louisville has seen major turnover. The Cardinals lost offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford to the Atlanta Falcons, safeties coach ShaDon Brown to West Virginia, running backs coach Norval McKenzie to Vanderbilt, and quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce to Appalachian State. That’s 40 percent of the full-time assistants that had to be replaced. Ledford and Ponce had deep ties with Satterfield working with the head ball coach at App State.
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In the portal, Louisville has lost 15 scholarship players from last year’s team. Russ Yeast, Anthony Johnson, and Lovie Jenkins all could have been starters in the secondary. Jawon Pass and Tee Webb leaving caused major depth issues at quarterback. The program landed Nebraska transfer Luke McCaffrey to fill the void, but the former blue-chip recruit decided to depart after just a couple of days on campus. Not great.
To help fill the void, Louisville just signed the best recruiting class of the Satterfield era but the Cardinals are still bringing in just two top-500 recruits. In the portal, the program landed Virginia Tech transfer Bryan Hudson to shore up the offensive line to go along with Georgia Southern safety Kenderick Duncan and Southern Miss nose tackle Jacques Turner. However, it still feels like there are holes on the roster.
The Cardinals have major questions at the skill talent positions on offense. On defense, the pieces are available for coordinator Bryan Brown to have his first good unit at UofL but there appears to be a lack of top-end talent in the group. This is all going into a year where Louisville plays a very tough non-conference slate — Ole Miss, UCF, Kentucky — to go along with road trips to Florida State and NC State with a home game against Clemson in ACC play. Meanwhile, people are leaving the program in a hurry.
Satterfield’s seat could be warming.
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