Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield met with the media after his team's 28-13 loss at NC State.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
Opening statement...
First of all, I want to congratulate Coach Doeren and his crew. Good football team. They played well tonight.
And I’m proud of our guys, our guys came out and fought. Too many mistakes for us, particularly when you’re moving the football and you get a big play, you get a penalty, and you get that play called back, it’s hard to get any momentum. I thought in particular, the first quarter we drive the ball down to the one-yard line and we get a false start and now it’s 4th-and-6 and you don’t get an opportunity to try and score. Then you miss the field goal, so that’s a big swing. And then in the fourth quarter there we just didn’t get anything going.
Offensively, put our defense in a bit of a bind, but our defense played well all night up until the last three or four minutes there. They were playing really good and keeping us in the game. But we’ve got to be able to make some of those throws down the field, some of those shot plays that you have to make when you’re playing a team like this because they’re gonna force you to take some of those and you’ve got to make those contested catches.
But we’ve got to continue to grow from this as a football team and come back next week as we host Clemson.
On how to clean up the penalties...
We had two facemask penalties by an offensive lineman almost back to back, and I’ve rarely seen a call on a facemask penalty. We had two on the same drive that took back, we had marched down to about midfield and that really hurt that drive, we were backed up. And the false starts, I think we had three false starts tonight, we haven’t been having those.
I think that was the environment here that caused that. You can’t have those penalties when you’re playing a team like this. It’s a close ballgame, any play can affect you and we can’t have those penalties because we had some good plays that we executed and all of a sudden it gets called back for something that really was insignificant.
On the offense’s struggles toward the end of the game...
I just think we just didn’t get any rhythm. You’ve got to get some things going. I just look at the last drive and we had two drops, and then Malik [Cunningham] scrambles there and we didn’t get it. You have to be able to get in rhythm. Before that, we had a receiver come across and he locked up with a linebacker, and that was our primary receiver there, so there just wasn’t a rhythm. They were doing a lot of the same defense they were doing pretty much the whole game.
Once they got ahead of us, then they were dropping eight and tried to keep everything in front of them. You’ve just got to make some plays so we’re still in the game, and not let them get two scores out and then it’s very difficult to come back at that point.
On the thought process while the offense was struggling...
We were trying to be aggressive, we took several shots down the field, we were trying to push the ball. We were running the ball pretty well, we had some good runs on the outside zone. I don’t know what it ended up, but the first half we were really good on third down. I thought we moved the ball, we just didn’t score.
Probably two or three shots down the field had a chance to score, we just can’t connect. I said that coming in, you’ve got to be able to connect on some of these shot plays and we hit a couple, Jayden Watkins’ was a big play, and we hit Marshawn, get that one called back, and we had probably three or four other ones that were there, had opportunities, and just didn’t connect.
On completing a low percentage of passes...
We’ve just got to go back and look at the film and see what they are doing. I haven't seen any stats so I don’t really know where we’re at with that. I think last week we had to run the football, and they were defending the pass pretty well. Tonight we were able to do both I thought, run and throw. But when you’re taking more shots in a game, your completion percentage is probably gonna be low if you’re not hitting those. We want to continue to try to take those and see, and you just want to hit them. We just didn’t hit enough.
On Kei’Trel Clark’s injury...
I don’t know, we’ll probably have to go back. It was a lower-leg injury. We’ll probably have to get an MRI on whatever body part it was, I just know it was a lower leg. Seemed to be in pretty much pain, so hopefully it’s not anything too much. We’ll probably know more Monday.
On if Malik Cunningham is reffed differently than other ACC quarterbacks...
I don’t know. That one drive, we got two [penalties called], late hits out of bounds, which was good for us. That’s a good question, because he’s viewed as a really good runner and people are coming after him. But I think the game was called pretty good tonight, I don’t think there was any shots that were taken unnecessarily by [NC State].
Some of it was, at the end of the first half, we gave up some pressures and he got hit low, but if he’s engaged, they’re not gonna call that. He just plays hard and he’s gonna run and fight for every yard, so sometimes you’re gonna have to take some hits.
On what they need to do to break over the hump for a big win...
I just think we’ve got to keep battling. We’re competitive and we’re right there in the thick of things and you’ve got to make some plays. Bottom line, we’ve got to make some plays. Go to the Wake Forest game, the Virginia game, tonight, if we hit a couple of those plays it’s a different ballgame.
We’ve got a bunch of young guys that are playing out there, that are fighting. We’re not gonna throw the towel in, we’re gonna keep fighting, we’re gonna get better and better, and then we’ll start making those plays instead of being a tight ballgame all the way there at the end and we’re gonna find ways to win them, and hopefully you’re up two touchdowns at the end of the game and everybody’s breathing a little bit easier.
But it’s tough. You’re fighting out there and they’ve got a good team that you’re playing against. Wake Forest, Virginia, and [NC] State all have really good records, they’re good football teams. We’re close, we’re right there, we’re hanging with them. We’re gonna get over the hump, we’re gonna keep fighting.
On if the team’s youth plays a factor...
Well I think that’s part of it. Each time we’re going out, we’re learning and we’re learning from things that we did, and different environments. You’ve got to keep going. If we don’t learn anything from them then all we did is go through something bad. We’ve got to keep learning and keep growing as a football program.
On if he’s ever been through anything similar before...
Yeah I have. I’ve had a lot of times where we’re close and then all of a sudden everything starts clicking and then you start winning them. And you get confidence as a program and you just know that you’re gonna win them.
Cause some of the guys that are getting ready to make a play right here, and then you get over the top and you start making those plays and everybody’s celebrating in the locker room. It’s a fine line between winning and losing, it’s a real fine line. To know that we’re right there on the cusp is a good thing. We’re disappointed that we’re not winning some of these games, but we know we’re close. We’ve got to keep fighting for it.
