The Cardinal Countdown: 83 Days Until Kickoff

#83 Marshon Ford

Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-2/240

Position: Tight End (H Back)

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of Ballard High School)

Twitter: @ford_marshon

Thoughts: I love me some Marshon Ford. The young man has come in with a team mentality since day one as a walk-on, earned himself a scholly, earned himself the starting H-back gig in year one under Satterfield, finished the season tied for the most TD catches by a TE in the ACC (7), earned himself a team captain role as an underclassman, stacked up another 300 yards receiving last year, and snagged another 6 TDs while fighting a shoulder injury. My man.

The local kid from Ballard has been a bright spot since he burst on the scene a couple seasons back and has shown over and over again he can make plays at many different levels. Marshon impressed me so much year one that I wrote a piece about the H-back spot and just how key he was to the offense both on the ground and through the air. His back to back performances, even in a shortened 2020 season, have already placed him among the greats at that position in UofL history.

-With an “average” 2021 season Ford will bust into the Top 10 in career receptions for a TE as a Sophomore.

-With an “average” 2021 season Ford will bust into the Top 10 in career receiving yards for a TE as a Sophomore.

-With an “average” 2021 season Ford will move into second place all-time in receiving TDs for a TE as a Sophomore.

Marshon suffered a shoulder injury last year which forced him to miss out on the fun of smacking around the Orange inside Cardinal Stadium, but more importantly kept him out of Spring Ball as he was going through rehab. Satterfield expects him to be back at 100% by the time fall rolls around and he is unequivocally your starter at H back if that’s the case. Marshon said in an interview in the spring that seeing the plays from the sideline has helped him understand the game a bit more and has brought out the leadership in him, coaching up the younger players looking to make a mark this season. I touched on one of them already but there are a few guys in that room who could be studs in the next couple years…..but Marshon is going to leave some big shoes to fill when that time comes.

Sweet Tweet:

Since I write about Louisville football quite a bit I guess I can address the Alabama sized elephant in the room when it comes to Satterfield. My opinion is that I believe Marshon when he says Satt is an honest guy, I also believe he’s handled some things incredibly bad in the last 365 days that could have avoided a lot of the frustrations the fanbase has right now.

The 50-50 games went the way of the Cards almost 100% of the time in 2019, and inversely they almost went 100% against the Cards in 2020. The law of averages says the Cards are going to be in some more tight ones this year and how those “toss-ups” play out could be the difference between a fanbase satisfied with the direction of the program and a fanbase wondering what the future holds. Losing coaches, losing staff members, losing players, misspelling posters….all that stuff is just paper plates on a fire, but a fire that grew much too big after fumbling the South Carolina stuff. It’s not insignificant, but it’s barely a few seconds worth of heat if the fire wasn’t already burning hot.

I think Satterfield is a good guy, who really does love these players, is trying to promote a family atmosphere, and is working to get Louisville back on the map, but he has come across some Louisville sized potholes that he just didn’t see quite as often over at App State and has hit nearly every single one. It’s frustrating to watch for sure, but the fix for it all isn’t a front end alignment, it’s just winning ballgames. Here’s hoping 2021 is that fix.