Jurich: 'Steve will be here next year - if he wants to be'

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich held a press conference Wednesday afternoon where he restated his support for embattled second-year head football coach Steve Kragthorpe.

"I support him totally," Jurich said of Kragthorpe."This is a long-term project, and we're going to take it that way. We're going to continue to work and make progress that way. We want to continue to recruit well and we want to continue to attract the assistant coaches like we have. I think things will fall into place."

Oooo was "continue" really the word we were looking for in the recruiting sentence? I would have either gone with "start," "begin" or just completely left the subject alone.

"He knows what he’s doing," Jurich continued. "I just want him to stay the course. Obviously he’s got to put blinders on because there is a lot of negativity swirling out there. But I think a lot of programs have that. There were a lot of hurdles that people didn't know about that Steve is getting through. I appreciate how persistent he's been, and how the entire staff has pulled together."

Eventually, Juich was asked if missing a bowl game for the second straight season might have an affect on whether or not Kragthorpe would return to U of L for a third season.

"Steve will be here next year," Jurich said. "If he wants to be."

The AD was also asked whether or not he would ever think about leaving, to which he simply replied, "never say never."

Jurich drew heat locally last week for some comments he made to ESPN's Brian Bennett, particularly for a statement he made about how Cardinal fans new to the game of football were harboring unrealistic expectations for the program. He addressed those comments today.

"We've got great fans," Jurich said. "We have great fans and we appreciate them. But nobody wants to win at this school more than I do. I made the comment about the Orange Bowl, I want to go to the Orange Bowl every week myself. That's what we all strive for. It was a great experience, but it takes a lot of work and it is not going to happen every week."

The tail end of the Kragthorpe quote is interesting, and I liked that he went out of his way to try and toss some water on the bridge fire with the fan base, but there's really not much else to see here outside of that.

Basketball in three days.