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Satterfield Introduced as New Mountaineers Head Coach on Friday Afternoon; Motto for the Team: ‘Attack’

By Paul T. Choate

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Athletics Director Charlie Cobb introduces new head coach Scott Satterfield. Photo by Paul T. Choate

Dec. 15, 2012. At around 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 14, Scott Satterfield was formally announced as the new head coach of the Appalachian State University Mountaineers football team, following a unanimous vote to select him for the job by the Board of Trustees earlier in the day.

At a press conference held at the Appalachian Athletics Center at Kidd Brewer Stadium, Athletics Director Charlie Cobb said, “Today, without a doubt, is one of the great days of my job. I get to introduce somebody who, basically gets to fulfill a lifetime dream and that is to be the next head football coach at Appalachian State.”

With that Cobb presented Satterfield with a commemorative “Satterfield No. 7” T-shirt and shook the brand new head coach’s hand.

Satterfield spoke at length to how fortunate he felt to be able to take over head coaching duties at his beloved alma mater. He told attendees of the press conference that, when he left Appalachian to take a coaching job at Toledo, he wasn’t sure at that time if there would ever be a place for him back with the Mountaineers in the future.

“I was fortunate enough to come back and to help out with the offense,” Satterfield said. “My whole deal coming back was the offense. And, again, Charlie said it, I had no guarantees about being the head coach at Appalachian ever. I had a job to do. And that was to come back and run the offense. And, that’s what I did to the best of my utmost ability.”

Asked what he was going to focus most heavily on in the initial weeks going forward, Satterfield replied, “Recruiting.” He went on to say that he plans to heavily recruit from North Carolina high schools, but that the program would be looking at players from all around the region in states such as Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

Being an offensive-minded coach, Satterfield spoke to the aggressive style of play he is going to ask of his players for next season.

“I think if I had a motto to say for our team it would be attack,” Satterfield said. “We want to be an attacking style football team just like we’ve been on offense. We’ve kept the opponent on their heels. I want to keep them on their heels at all three phrases. Those are the things we’re going to try to implement moving forward.

“The three aspects of this program we’re really going to emphasize is recruiting, retaining and developing. Those three things we’re really going to emphasize a plan for all three of those.”

During his introductory remarks, Satterfield thanked former head coach Jerry Moore for giving him the opportunity to coach at ASU, and when asked later what the main thing he took away from coaching under Moore was, Satterfield said it was Moore’s system of values and his belief in “trust and respect” in one another.

“Our expectations are to win championships,” Satterfield said. “They always have been and they always will be. Right now we’re in the Southern Conference. We’re in the FCS. Obviously, our goal is to win conference championships every year and to win national championships every year. That’s our whole focus and everything we’re doing. Whenever we may ever move up to the FBS, that’s our goal. We’re going to win championships at whatever level we may be at and then we’re going to BCS bowls. That’s our goal. When we go out recruiting that’s our goal and what we’re striving to get.”

The new head coach will spend the next few weeks while ASU is on their semester break trying to get everything ready within the coaching staff and enjoying time with his family. He said he is excited for the students to return so they can get to work preparing for next season.

For more information, visit goasu.com.