Kentucky HS coach doesn't want Louisville coach Scott Satterfield visiting his school
New Louisville coach Scott Satterfield’s in-state recruiting has gotten off to a bit of a bumpy start.
Franklin-Simpson High School coach Doug Preston has publicly asked Satterfield not to visit the school to recruit his players. Franklin-Simpson’s Jack Randolph recently re-opened his recruitment after Louisville hired Satterfield to replace the fired Bobby Petrino. Randolph had been committed to Louisville and, according to Preston, Satterfield pulled Randolph’s scholarship offer.
What should have happened is this coach should have been honest and up front! Tell these kids this but honor the scholarship if the guy wants to come. The amount of burden now dumped on the families and athlete are my issue. Not playing time.
— Doug Preston (@coachadp) December 10, 2018
It’s not about film room or playing time. It is about doing the right thing. These guys stuck by U of L then they get kicked to the curb. @UofLFootball don’t come our way to recruit. We can’t trust you!!
— Doug Preston (@coachadp) December 10, 2018
I’ve known Pete since he was a kid and played high school ball for his dad. Trust me he isn’t to blame. This coach dumped the dirty work in his lap. Another gutless move by Satterfield.
— Doug Preston (@coachadp) December 10, 2018
@CoachSattUofL pathetic move coach! No excuse! Don’t come our way in the future. I will tell our players they can’t trust you. Then to have Pete call these kids is an even more low class move.
— Doug Preston (@coachadp) December 10, 2018
A pulled scholarship offer in December is now more significant than it used to be. Dec. 19 starts college football’s second-ever early signing period and schools will be aiming to fill all of their available scholarship spots before the holidays. It’s easy to see where Preston is coming from as Louisville’s new coaching staff is evaluating the school’s prior commitments. Especially if it was Louisville recruiting director Pete Nochta giving Randolph the news and not Satterfield himself.
But verbal commitments aren’t binding. Just like there’s nothing tethering a recruit to a school until he signs a letter of intent, schools aren’t bound to their verbal scholarship offers. And Satterfield’s staff would be far from the first new coaching staff to tell a player recruited by a previous coaching staff that he’s not needed by the new coaching staff. Is it better to tell a recruit he’s not wanted before he signs or after he spends time on campus and discovers he doesn’t have a path to playing time and is forced to lose a year of eligibility as he transfers?
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There’s no ideal answer, though the former situation sure seems better than the latter, even if Preston understandably isn’t a fan of it.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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