The last time Marcus Satterfield was in the thick of the recruiting world Zoom was an unknown commodity and he was used to getting players on campus to give recruiting pitches.
Now South Carolina’s newest offensive coordinator is getting thrown back into recruiting from the virtual side of things as he tries to help the Gamecocks add talent and depth at quarterback.
“The recruiting world and press conference world is totally different since the last time in college,” Satterfield said. “The recruiting world as well, guys can’t come on campus. We can’t get out on the road. It’s a bunch of Zoom meetings, phone calls, text messages. It’s totally different. It’s exciting to get back out there and create these new relationships with coaches and players.”
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Satterfield spent the last season in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers away from the recruiting world, but spent the last decade-plus recruiting, most recently for the 2019 season at Baylor under Matt Rhule.
He started his job under Shane Beamer this week and immediately started recruiting and trying to add players to the quarterback room.
The Gamecocks officially offered St. Francis (FCS) quarterback Jason Brown Wednesday night after hinting at potentially exploring the portal for quarterbacks in his Monday press conference.
The challenge with delving into the transfer portal is coaches haven’t seen these quarterbacks play, and Satterfield is having to rely on “trust and relationships.”
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You’re not going to be able to go out and see them throw. You have to find guys that you know and have seen them throw and you trust. You evaluate the tape and get on the phone with these guys. You take them through a psychological test of what you’re looking for as far as communication and if you vibe with this guy and if he ahs a personality you want,” Satterfield said.
“You challenge him a little on the phone and see if he barks back a little bit to see if he’s competitive. The physical traits, you have to rely on the film and trust your eyes on the film. Anybody who you’ve met before that knows what they’re talking about, hopefully they’ve seen him and they can report back.”
Regardless of what the Gamecocks do in this cycle, Satterfield will be in charge of recruiting and bringing quarterback talent to Columbia.
He’s had experience coaching quarterbacks—he was the quarterbacks coach at Temple for two seasons—and knows what he’s looking for on the recruiting trail.
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“You want a guy that can communicate, that’s competitive. You want a guy who has leadership skills both through his work ethic and to be able to be a leader vocally by calling out guys and making sure guys are doing things the right way then (look at) the intangibles. We would love to have Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, but sometimes the best quarterbacks are 6-foot,” Satterfield.
“There’s one down the hall in Connor (Shaw), who was one of my favorite college quarterbacks of all time. He’s not 6-foot-4. Sometimes you have to maybe go against what you wish for and find a guy that has certain intangibles—leadership and competitive and toughness intangibles—who can get the job done for you.”