Scott Satterfield continues to combat all sorts of churn amid Cincinnati's transition to the Big 12

For the last five years, Cincinnati was the toast of the Group of 5. 

The Bearcats averaged more than 10 wins a season, played in a New Years Six bowl game and burst through the glass ceiling by reaching the College Football Playoff. 

But after Luke Fickell surprised many by leaving for Wisconsin in December, Cincy enters 2023 facing near-unparalleled transition in college football. 

The Bearcats have a new coach, a new-look roster and are entering a new conference. The former AAC darlings are now a Big 12 member, and Cincy is the only team in the league with a first-year head coach, too.  

Good luck, Scott Satterfield. 

The former Louisville head coach got a fresh start this offseason, bolting the Bluegrass State for greener (in his eyes at least) pastures up I-71 where job security won’t be an issue for several years. Satterfield was 25-24 in four seasons with the Cardinals, but the school’s administration refused to give him a contract extension after a disappointing 7-5 campaign in 2022. 

So Satterfield smashed a dwindling hourglass and reset his career clock. 

But now comes the hard part, and the first-year Bearcats coach is quickly seeing those challenges pile up — and he hasn’t even coached a game yet. 

Satterfield already faced the difficulty of being the guy to follow the guy, so in an effort to combat the snow globe of chaos — a leap in competition for the program, roster upheaval, NIL and the transfer portal — he sought continuity by bringing seven of his 10 position coaches with him from Louisville. 

“The trust and accountability we had with each other, it was extremely important to me to be able to bring that here,” Scott Satterfield said last month according to The Athletic. 

“It speaks to the people we’ve hired liking the way we’ve run the program. A lot of these guys had opportunities to stay at Louisville or go other places. To be able to come here and continue what we’ve been doing together, it speaks volumes.”

With Cards offensive coordinator Lance Taylor now the head coach job at Western Michigan, Satterfield hired former Iowa State play-caller Tom Manning as Cincy’s OC. 

Manning’s addition to the staff — the lone member either not at Louisville in 2022 or someone retained (Kerry Coombs and Walt Stewart from last season — was seen as a critical move by Satterfield, who was given a program-record $7.25 million assistant salary pool with the program jumping to the Big 12. 

Manning spent six seasons as Matt Campbell’s right-hand man in Ames, and while 2022 was a major struggle for the Cyclones, the 2020 Broyles Award semi-finalist was well-versed in Big 12 football. That familiarity was considered a key piece in helping the Bearcats transition into the league. 

Almost as important, Manning, who served as a GA for Satterfield at Toledo nearly 15 years ago, was an Ohio native with a strong background in a competitive recruiting footprint. 

So much for best-laid plans, though. 

Less than two weeks before the Bearcats open spring practice on March 6, Satterfield’s inaugural staff has been shaken up in recent days. Three of his 10 assistants have left for different jobs, with Manning going to the NFL to coach tight ends for the Indianapolis Colts. 

Meanwhile, inside linebackers coach Derek Nicholson accepted the same job at Miami, and outside linebackers coach Greg Gasparto was hired as Troy’s next defensive coordinator. 

All three of these departures were promotions, which speaks well to Satterfield’s ability to hire quality assistants. But that makes the timing — and losses — sting any less for a Cincy program that’s trying to find some semblance of stability. 

Satterfield quickly found a replacement for Nicholson, and early reports are he is “expected” to hire Georgia State’s Nate Fuqua to fill the other defensive assistant opening. But most importantly, Cincy needs an offensive coordinator. Satterfield has been his team’s primary play-caller every year he’s been a head coach, but the late February vacancy is tricky considering the rest of the offensive staff is filled and now he must find a very specific need at OC: A coordinator who coaches tight ends, who ideally has ties to the Big 12 or a strong Midwest recruiting background. 

Cincy’s sudden staff turnover mirrors the team’s roster upheaval this offseason — a revolving door of comings and goings. The Bearcats saw 16 players leave the program since Satterfield was hired — either entering the transfer portal or submitting their name for the NFL Draft. They lost multiple starters in the secondary and offensive line. 

At the same time, Scott Satterfield has done his best to combat the roster shakeup, adding 14 players from the portal and committing record resources to recruiting.

Several guys followed him from Louisville, including likely starting offensive guard Luke Kandra. The Bearcats’ most marquee addition to the roster was former Florida and Arizona State quarterback Emory Jones, who is hoping to resurrect his career with the Bearcats. 

Jones was benched by the Sun Devils’ staff midway through the 2022 season, but perhaps he finally fulfills his blue-chip billing in Satterfield’s run-heavy offense that has thrived best with a dual-threat quarterback. 

We’ll see. 

For now, Jones is emblematic of all the unknowns surrounding Scott Satterfield’s program right now. 

Amid an offseason of constant churn, what will Cincy’s staff ultimately look like? Is the roster settled or is more movement to come after spring practice? How ready are the Bearcats for a jump in competition with a Big 12 schedule plus a non-conference road game at Pitt?