'Scott Satterfield is our coach' Interim AD Josh Heird confident in U of L football coach

In his first press conference as interim athletic director, Josh Heird, took a strong stance regarding the future of the football program.

He believes in Scott Satterfield and doesn't care about the outside noise.

As Louisville is just days away from national signing day and just two weeks from its appearance in the First Responder Bowl, Heird said he spoke to the staff Monday morning and reiterated his confidence in them.

"Scott Satterfield is our football coach and we are happy he's our football coach," Heird said.

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Heird, the deputy athletic director, who is filling the athletic director role in an interim basis after the departure of Vince Tyra, has been heavily involved in the football program for years. It's one of the programs he oversees as an administrator and he knows Satterfield and his staff well.

Being the administrator for football means he's also in the end-of-the-year meetings with Tyra and Satterfield. He was in the meeting just two weeks ago when rumors, many unconfirmed, began swirling regarding Satterfield's job security. Many fans wanted Satterfield fired for Purdue coach, and former Louisville quarterback, Jeff Brohm brought in. But that is not happening this offseason.

Heird said he left their meeting, which was about three hours long, excited about the future of the program. Two things stood out, Satterfield's passion to be successful and his plan.

"We will give him every resource to be successful and I think he will. I really really do. If I didn't think that it would be a different conversation right now," Heird said.

In the meeting, Heird said he saw an emotional Satterfield break down his plans to get Louisville to the expectations he has of the program.

One of those steps is beefing up the recruiting department. That's a staff that Satterfield has mentioned growing since the COVID-19 dead period ended and it sounds like he will add more pieces this offseason.

"We are committed to doing that," Heird said.

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Another piece was player development. In this case, Heird said that would include a former player coming through and helping the current players with whatever they needed.

"Everybody wonders what that is and for us it's going to be almost certainly a former player that has the credibility to get around the locker room and get around the guys and talk to them about competing at a very high level," Heird said. "So that would give you a sense of who we would be targeting."

Regardless of those changes, the strongest statements from Heird in his press conference were about Satterfield. He said, after their meeting, he asked Satterfield, who found out his father Fredric passed away an hour before the Kentucky game, how he was doing.

Satterfield responded, telling him it had been the hardest week of his life.

"It wasn't just because his dad passed away, he knows what happened on that field and he knows they have to be better than that," Heird said.

Louisville is an even 18-18 under Satterfield in three years, which includes an 8-win season his first season, a 4-win season during COVID and six wins this year. Though there's progress from the 2018 2-win team, Heird said he knows the team needs to be better. Satterfield knows it too, he said, and he's confident Satterfield can be the one to get the program to where it needs to be.

"He was very passionate about the fact that we need to be better than we were. that doesn't mean he doesn't feel like we are making progress, if you look back at the results in 2018 to now that is progress, but it's not where we want to be," Heird said. "The eye-opening thing for me was the plan Scott put together as far as how we get better and the emotion he showed. ... How emotional he was at people making sure he wants to be here."

On Monday afternoon, he took some time to make sure fans, and others, know where he stands on the future of Satterfield.

Cameron Teague Robinson CTeagueRob@gannett.com; Twitter: @cj_teague;

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football: interim AD confident in Scott Satterfield