Close calls bring little comfort for Louisville football's Scott Satterfield

Good enough to barely get beat is an identity that doubles as an indictment. It bespeaks unrealized potential and unseized opportunities.

It goes a long way toward defining the 2021 Louisville football team and it would go further still if not for last month’s tell-tale trampling by the University of Kentucky. To lose four one-possession games during a 6-7 season means self-doubt, sleepless nights, second guessing, third-degree interrogations and, for those in need of liquid comfort, a fifth of Jack Daniels.

It does not mean the situation cannot be salvaged, but time grows short to change the narrative. If Scott Satterfield is to last at U of L, and eventually compete for championships in the Atlantic Coast Conference, he will have to show significant progress and soon.

Though Tuesday’s 31-28 loss to Air Force in the First Responders Bowl was largely attributable to personnel issues, no coach could be expected to camouflage – specifically, a depleted secondary overmatched against an offense that normally eschews the forward pass – that alibi will not appease those fans who wanted Satterfield’s head after U of L’s faceplant against UK. Neither is it likely to spark a surge in season ticket sales or attract a higher caliber of prospect.

More: Three takeaways from Louisville's loss to Air Force in the First Responder Bowl

What it did was add urgency to a 2022 season already understood to be a make or break proposition. By the end of next season, U of L will want to decide whether to extend Satterfield’s contract to reassure recruits of the program’s stability or buy him out of the last two years on his deal for about $4.875 million.

Coming close is not likely to cut it. Satterfield cannot continue to lose winnable games, to watch his team get stopped within a stride of the end zone, to unravel in the fourth quarter or get dominated by his chief rival without endangering his future employment. He cannot expect patience if those patterns continue.

“We are just good enough to be right there in those games and we have to get over the top,” Satterfield said. “We have to make more plays.”

Satterfield has made similar statements throughout the season, and they are just as true as they are tired. Had Louisville been able to prevent either of Haaziq Daniels’ 60-plus yard touchdown passes to Brandon Lewis, Satterfield may well have ended his season on an upswing.

But the loss of safety Kenderick Duncan to foot surgery and Greedy Vance to the transfer portal made Satterfield’s already threadbare secondary so vulnerable that Air Force, which had not thrown a single pass in its previous game, abruptly went airborne. The game’s enduring highlight clip will be of Lewis causing two Cardinals defenders to lose their footing on cutback moves en route to the end zone.

“We’re playing man-to-man, essentially,” Satterfield said. “Our guy’s gotta win. And their guy won.”

More: Who is returning for Louisville football in the 2022 season?

The other play with an agonizing afterlife will be U of L’s Trevion Cooley getting stopped for no gain on a fourth-and-goal run from the Air Force two-yard-line. With a chance to narrow a 28-14 deficit late in the third quarter, Satterfield chose a hurry-up, up-the-middle running play, trying to catch the Falcons out of position, only to get stuffed at the line of scrimmage.

“That was a tempo (play),” Satterfield said. “We had ran it three times earlier in the game and picked up all those. Matter of fact, when (Cooley) scored the other touchdown down there, it was the same play. It was just getting up, snap, snap the ball right now and try to score.”

That it didn’t work does not necessarily mean it was a mistake, but it does fuel frustrations that arose after Clemson’s last-minute goal-line stand last month. The failure to finish long drives in close games is a recipe for heartbreak.

With a high-end quarterback in Malik Cunningham and more freshmen than seniors starting, Louisville would appear to be headed on an upward trajectory. But if Scott Satterfield is to endure, he will need to do better than barely getting beat.

Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: First Responders Bowl was Louisville's fourth one-possession loss