Coaching Carousel Roundup & Rumblings: With Scott Satterfield to Cincinnati, is it Jeff Brohm or bust at Louisville? Deion Sanders makes a splashy OC hire + the Group of 5 gets offensive

How do you outlast an hourglass that’s running out of sand?  Well, if you’re Scott Satterfield, you just smash it and go get a new one an hour up Interstate 71. 

In one of the more awkward exit strategies in recent memory, former Louisville head coach Satterfield — hours after being on a Zoom talking about the Cardinals’ Dec. 17 Fenway Bowl opponent Cincinnati — left for the Bearcats’ very opening Monday. 

In one respect, it was a deft move by Satterfield, who entered the 2022 season on the hot seat, looked like he was going to get fired following a 2-3 start, only to win five straight to slightly cool a combustible booster faction that wanted him gone. 

Satterfield had already upset many of the Louisville faithful by trying to get the South Carolina job in 2021, and wanted an extension, but the Cardinals had no interest in changing his contract after a third consecutive loss to Kentucky on Thanksgiving weekend.

But then Luke Fickell surprisingly jumped to Wisconsin, proving a safe parachute platform for Satterfield to land — a Power 5 job (Cincy goes to the Big 12 in 2023), for similar money and in the same recruiting footprint he’s accustomed to.

Not too shabby, even if Satterfield is now the guy who has to follow the guy.  

Why Cincy was so open to acquiesce such a move is certainly up for debate, but it absolutely makes sense why Satterfield would leave Louisville for a lesser job. 

As for the Cardinals’ opening, all eyes are on beloved son Jeff Brohm. 

Purdue’s head coach turned down his alma mater in 2018, but Brohm was a little too candid just this summer at an alumni event discussing his potential desire to eventually return home. 

It just was too early to leave (Purdue). It just wasn’t right,” Brohm said. 

“But, obviously, now we’re on year six. I love this town, this area. I’m an alumnus of Louisville. So anything can happen in the future.”

Louisville is a good gig. It’s never been a consistent winner, but there’s been a renewed investment in football facilities and recruiting. Satterfield left a potential Top 20 class — one that’s been strongly built around the backing of a big NIL collective. So the potential is there.

Still, it’s not a layup decision for Brohm.

It’s going to come down to money. In six seasons in Lafayette, Brohm is 36-34 and just took the Boilermakers to the Big Ten Championship. He makes more than $5 million a year, and with the league’s new billion dollar TV deal, Purdue can pay him more. Like way more.

So how badly do the boosters at Louisville want Brohm back? How much money is in the banana stand? We’re going to find out, and if they swing and miss on their Prodigal son again they don’t exactly have many other exciting backup options.

DEION SANDERS STARTS TO BUILD HIS COLORADO STAFF

Deion Sanders introduced himself at Colorado in the only way he knows how Sunday, and Primetime has quickly continued making splashes with a few of his initial assistant coaching hires. 

According to the Denver Post, Sanders was promised around $5 million annually for his assistant salary pool, and he put some of that money to good use by plucking Kent State head coach Sean Lewis to be CU’s offensive coordinator, per multiple reports. 

Lewis doesn’t hail from the Baylor tree, but he runs a very similar high-octane, super-fast tempo, wide-hash Veer ’N Shoot, which could be a lot of fun in Boulder if Deion Sanders can deliver on his promise to landing blue-chip recruits. 

Lewis’ Golden Flashes lived up to their name in 2022, running plays on an average of around 30 seconds of “real-time between snaps,” according to ESPN Stats & Information research. 

Lewis was 24-31 at Kent State, with three winning seasons after a 2-10 Year 1. At age 31 — the youngest head coach in the nation at the time — he took over one of the hardest jobs in the MAC and turned the program into an offensive juggernaut the last few seasons. 

The Golden Flashes led the nation in scoring in 2020 (nearly 50 points per game) and reached the MAC Championship last season with the country’s No. 3 rushing offense. This past fall was a bit of a down year, as Kent State didn’t get quite as much consistency from the QB position. 

Still, Lewis was a potential head coaching candidate this cycle for multiple openings, including for Cincy’s brief vacancy, but clearly, the 37-year-old coach believes working as a Power 5 OC is his best path to continue moving up the coaching ladder. 

Elsewhere, there are rumblings that Deion Sanders plans to hire Alabama safeties coach Charles Kelly, a veteran assistant with the Tide, FSU and Tennessee, among others, as the Buffs’ defensive coordinator. 

On3’s Josh Newberg also reported that former FAU head coach Willie Taggart could Sanders’ staff in an unknown capacity but has not been hired as of publishing. 

Taggart did not work out at with the Owls (15-18 before being fired last week), but he does have existing experience engineering tough turnarounds at Western Kentucky (2-10 in Year 1 before two straight 7-5 seasons) and South Florida (4-18 the first two seasons and then 8-5, 10-2 before leaving for Oregon). 

G5 GETS OFFENSIVE 

A trio of Group of 5 openings was filled over the weekend, headlined by Jamey Chadwell leaving Coastal Carolina for Liberty. 

The Chanticleers certainly looked like a team distracted by rumors of their head coach bolting for either Liberty or USF, getting blown out by Troy 45-26 in the Sun Belt Championship on Saturday. 

Still, Chadwell had an incredible run at Coastal, going 39-22 in five seasons, with a 2020 Sun Belt Championship and three straight bowl appearances. 

He’s now leaving for a lesser league — Liberty is set to join C-USA in 2023 — but for more money ($4 million annual salary, which was more than double what he was making at Coastal), way better facilities (perhaps the best in the G5) and a greater path toward upward mobility. 

If Chadwell has the Flames dominating C-USA with his fun spread-option offense, then he’ll get a Power 5 gig at some point, just like Liberty’s last head coach Hugh Freeze.

As for Coastal Carolina, it filled its opening quickly, snatching NC State offensive coordinator Tim Beck as its next head coach. The Chanticleers gave Beck, a 56-year-old veteran assistant with OC experience at Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas and NC State, a five-year deal.

Beck reunites with former CC head coach Joe Mogila, now the chair of athletics for the Chanticleers, who he worked with at Nebraska in the late aughts.  

In a thank you message to Coastal Carolina nation, Chadwell praised the hire of Beck.

pic.twitter.com/crVG3sxTvn

— Jamey Chadwell (@CoachChadwell) December 6, 2022

Broyles Award finalist Alex Golesh will take his ‘Run ’N Shoot’ offense from Tennessee to South Florida, as the Vols’ offensive coordinator became the Bulls’ next head coach Sunday. 

USF fired former Clemson OC Jeff Scott after going just 4-26 in three seasons, but the hope is Golesh’s scheme will produce better results with all of Florida’s athletes. Golesh also has existing Florida ties, spending a season at UCF as Josh Heupel’s OC before following him to Tennessee in 2021.

The potential is there for USF to be a competitive program in the AAC, but the first-time head coach will have his work cut out for him.

“We’ll be the most aggressive team in the country,” he said in a statement.  

Finally, Tulsa replaced Phillip Montgomery with Ohio State OC Kevin Wilson as its next head coach, per reports Monday night. 

The former Indiana head coach (2011-16) has been in Columbus since 2017, working in multiple roles. 

Wilson, 62, wasn’t the play-caller at OSU but has extensive experience in the Sooner State. He spent close to a decade at Oklahoma as an assistant from 2002 to 2010, working with the OL, TEs and as the OC.

NOTABLE ASSISTANT COACHES MOVEMENT

Kenny Dillingham has gone to work quickly at Arizona State, poaching Washington State defensive coordinator Brian Ward and defensive line coach AJ Cooper to the same two positions at ASU. 

Oregon’s former OC also nabbed Cal Poly head coach Beau Baldwin as the Sun Devils’ offensive coordinator. Baldwin is a former OC at Cal and also won an FCS national title as Eastern Washington’s head coach in 2010. 

It’s not known who will be ASU’s primary play-caller in 2023, as Dillingham excelled in that role in his first true opportunity after serving as a non-play-caller OC under Mike Norvell and Gus Malzahn at multiple stops. 

As for Dillingham’s replacement with the Ducks, Dan Lanning found his next OC on Monday, snatching Will Stein away from Jeff Traylor’s UTSA staff. 

Oregon had the nation’s No. 9 scoring offense this fall, but Stein was nearly as effective working with the Roadrunners, which finished the regular season 12th nationally in scoring (38.7 points per game)

At Wisconsin, Luke Fickell reportedly retained defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, whom he beat out for the Badgers’ job. It’s an interesting decision by Leonhard, who would’ve been one of the most coveted coordinators on the market had he opted to leave his alma mater. 

After a disappointing 4-8 season — with six losses by less than a touchdown — Matt Campbell has overhauled much of Iowa State’s staff, firing his strength and conditioning coordinator, offensive coordinator Tom Manning and offensive line coach Jeff Myers. Campbell promoted receivers coach Nate Scheelhaase to OC. 

MORE COACHING CAROSUEL RUMLINGS

Kentucky is rumored to be looking at a potential reunion with former OC Liam Coen, who left Mark Stoops’ staff last offseason to go back to the NFL as the Los Angeles Rams’ OC. The Wildcats had their best offense of the Stoops era under Coen in 2021. Also under consideration for UK’s OC opening Cincy’s Gino Guidugli. The Bearcats’ OC is a potential RB coach for the Cats, too, per KSR. … After a 7-6 season, North Texas fired Seth Littrell Sunday. The Mean Green are looking for a reset after going 44-44 the last seven seasons. One early name to watch, per coaching carousel insiders, former Va. Tech head coach Justin Fuente.