Louisville fires head football coach Steve Kragthorpe
by Mike Rutherford on Nov 28, 2009 12:19 PM EST
in Football
44 comments
University of Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich announced at a press conference this afternoon that head football coach Steve Kragthorpe has been fired.
"It just didn't fit," Jurich said. "It was never really a good fit from day one."
In three years at Louisville, Kragthorpe a 15-21 record and was 5-16 in the Big East. Stepping into a program coming off of a 12-1 season with an Orange Bowl victory, he failed to lead the Cardinals to the postseason.
Kragthorpe had two years remaining on a contract that paid him around $1.1 million annually.
As for the next Louisville head coach, Jurich said that he didn't have one guy in mind but did have a list of candidates. He added that his coaching search would not impede on anyone's regular season.
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Jurich looked like somebody died.
It was clearly very heavy for him. If you ask me though it should have been much more like the lie you finally admit and get off your chest — one big sigh of relief.
My wife sums up the sentiment many of us share toward the ‘dearly departed’: “He’s a nice man. He just needs to go somewhere else and do better at football.”
What if We Could Have....
A Coach with…
-A .750 Winning percentage ?
-A Coach who has taken his teams to the conference championship game twice?
- A Coach who is 2-0 against Notre Dame?
- A Coach who has beaten V. Tech and Clemson on the Road?
- A Coach who has had his team ranked as high as #2 in the nation?
The answer… We Can!!!
Jeff Jags (former BC Coach) is available, and we should nab this guy… He wins, and is a young dynamic guy… Let’s get this guy!
He has NFL aspirations.
I really don’t want another coach that will bolt the second the NFL comes calling.
by CardinalDude on Nov 28, 2009 12:36 PM EST up reply actions
My Bet is that he has learned his lesson on that one...
He is well worth talking to… The Guy is a proven winner!
Agreed.
He showed he won’t have true dedication to the University. He tried to play with the AD while at BC and got burned.
The one thing I really did admire about K was that he truly wanted UL to be good, and if it had worked out, I believe he would have stayed here through his career. I wish him the best of luck wherever he ends up.
-Dustin
I really think we're better off someone with strong recruiting ties to the south
Not sure about Jag’s recruiting ties, but the area where he coached (new england) doesn’t have nearly the per-capita football talent of the southeast
Jeff Jagodzinski does not have a fundamental understanding of offensive football
He was fired by the Bucs because he couldn’t call plays in time. He was given a second opportunity in the summer but couldn’t cut it. He was offered another position on staff but refused.
The Bucs head coach said that Jagodzinski only had enough understanding to install a zone blocking scheme for the offensive line, that they needed more precision from an offensive coordinator, and added that he seemed more suited to be a head coach (whatever that means).
The running backs coach called the plays at BC.
He is a fraud, same as Kragthorpe and RichRod.
You can Google all of this information to verify
ThreadKiller
Agreed
Didn’t we agree a while ago that his really good year was because Matt Ryan is a really good quarterback? The 2-0 against ND stat was funny, because the last 2 years Syracuse and Connecticut are 2-0 against ND and I don’t want Greg Robinson or Edsall to be the coach
C'mon guys
It’s just not realistic in this day and age to expect a top-flight coach to stay at a school like Louisville for a long tenure. I wish it was likely just as much as y’all do, but like it or not, ours is not a football icon. Seriously, if you could do it all again, wouldn’t you prefer a guy like Petrino, who lies and leaves, than another unproven guy like K who wants to stay all his working life, but lacks the skills to make us anything more than a good homecoming opponent? Gimme the ego with mad skillz over that any day. I’ll take a series of revolving door HC’s and some more BCS bowl trophies.
As long as you have revolving door head coaches you’ll never be a top flight school and thus will not get top flight coaches. It’s a catch 22.
by CARD_G6 on Nov 28, 2009 12:57 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Dude, short memory.
Petrino is a serial rapist of football programs. You would really take that back?
Yes, I would
I honestly think keeping a top coach for decades is old school thinking unless you’re an established powerhouse with a long history. I would rather we go through a series of guys like Petrino. I hated how he did the whole program and fans when he left, but look what he did for the program while he was here. I’m 43. I was around when Louisville football was almost scuttled completely. It’s not even a debate in my mind. Sorry if that rubs you wrong.
I agree.
I don’t expect our next coach to want to stay here forever. But I am wary of the shenanigans JJ pulled with BC.
by CardinalDude on Nov 28, 2009 1:04 PM EST up reply actions
Pease read
this beautiful account of this morning, I think it was the same for all of us. I personally have pleasently derailed myself from 2 hours of law school studying just to enjoy this news.
http://www.sbnation.com/2009/11/28/1176791/louisville-was-a-different-place
by REALISTICCARDSFAN on Nov 28, 2009 1:07 PM EST reply actions
Other names
Report at ESPN:
“Other potential candidates include Texas Tech’s Mike Leach, former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville and former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer. Multiple sources have told ESPN.com that Fulmer is interested in the job.”
This is in addition to Strong and the guy from Houston (Sumlin). I would love to get Leach here, but I think that’s the least likely of all the top mentioned names. I live down here near Dallas, and I can tell you that Leach would bring an entrenched Texas recruiting pipeline with him. That would be huge for the program! Even the 2nd stringers here in high school are some of the best players you’ll ever see coming out of the prep level. I do not like the idea of Tuberville (stale, no offensive mind). Fulmer would bring strong recruiting too, but not nearly as innovative as Leach offensively. Sumlin… I honestly don’t know about other than his one year of success at Houston.
I've been an OU fan since birth
And I can tell you that players LOVE playing for Sumlin. For whatever that’s worth.
"It's not the South, it's not Chicago, and you don't think of it as you think of New York or L.A. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky...For us, Louisville and the surrounding areas are the center of massive creativity and massive weirdness." - Jim James, My Morning Jacket
by ArkansasCard on Nov 28, 2009 1:26 PM EST up reply actions
Leach is my top choice as well
But I’d be happy with Sumlin or Strong too. Tubs and Fulmer don’t excite me nearly as much.
My question is why would Leach want to come here?
What would be his incentive (besides money)? Texas is by far more a football state than basketball.
-Dustin
Agreed
I don’t see Leach leaving Lubbock for another middle-tier BCS program in a weaker conference. I could be wrong. He might be all about the challenge of rebuilding a broken program. A lot of these guys are driven by such things and the accolades that ensue. I just think he’d view it as at best a lateral move. I mean, Texas Tech was a nobody in football before he got there. And he hasn’t finished what he started. If this opening was another 4-5 years down the road, I think he’d be more susceptible because he’d have taken TT about as far as they could expect in this hotbed of football. They’re never gonna compete consistently with UT or OU, which are all within about 2 hours of each.
Well not really
Sorry. Austin and Norman are more than 2 hours apart, but they all three recruit from largely the same pool of local talent (along with A&M and OK State). Granted, that’s a ton of talent, but UT and OU obviously take the cream of the crop most years. I’d love to have a connection to it via Leach at UofL, but I think he’s a few years shy of getting happy feet.
Jurich comment from B. Bennett's blog on ESPN
Jurich, who said he came to a decision in the middle of the week, said fan apathy played a role.
“I watched as the whole season progressed and I feel like we needed a change in culture, a change in scenery,” Jurich said.
In a roundabout way, Jurich gives credit to fans who didn’t show up or who bagged krag at the games. Not exactly sure he meant to justify such actions and I doubt many fans will ever read into it like Brian did but if so, that wouldn’t exactly bode well for Jurich should the next coach have a rocky couple of years. Obviously fans play a role in the business side of things but this type of justification gives the fans a little too much power in swaying his decision, IMO.
by UL is my hot hot sex on Nov 28, 2009 2:30 PM EST reply actions
Maybe I'm too cynical
but I see it more as an economic decision. Seats were emptying by the game, just when the push to expand the stadium is on. Fans are the ultimate bosses. I take Jurich’s comments as about as clear a sign as we’ll ever get from the man that he’s learned a lesson and will be hiring a known quantity with a track record of success at a big-time school. I’ll be surprised if it’s another “up-and-comer.”
Jurich did say during the press conference
that economics didn’t play a role.
Not saying it’s true, just sayin’
ThreadKiller
Hallelujah!
The Kragthorpe Era is over!
________________________________________________
~LK
www.myspace.com/lordkayoss
www.youtube.com/lordkayossrippro
www.welcometomynightmare.tk
Waking up and seeing the news was fanfuckingtastic.
I’m happy Jurich and co didn’t delay the inevitable, and axed Krag today. Hopefully the next chapter of Louisville football will be better written. Unless it’s Fulmer. If it’s Fulmer, I’ll have a Fire Fulmer fan shot up 20 seconds after the announcement.
And I’ll be standing by with a stopwatch.
by SpeedStudent on Nov 28, 2009 3:13 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Doesn't sound like Fulmer will be a top consideration
Just from what I’ve read and the whole “head coaching experience isn’t going to factor into the decision” bit. Looks like Jurich is going to try to catch the next up and coming star, ala Petrino.
At this point though, if I were Tom I would be wanting to shake this city to it’s foundation and knock one out of the park by reeling in someone with some star power. But, as it is, that may not be possible at this time.
________________________________________________
~LK
www.myspace.com/lordkayoss
www.youtube.com/lordkayossrippro
www.welcometomynightmare.tk
Does anyone think Turner Gill could be a candidate?
He was the hotness last year when it came to the Auburn job. I don’t really want him to be the coach, but his name hasn’t been tossed around at all. Probably because Buffalo went back to being irrelevant this year
Not "a good fit"???
“It just didn’t fit,” Jurich said. “It was never really a good fit from day one.”
Okay… can someone explain, if it was a bad fit “from day one”, why we just suffered through 3 years of hell???
Grog
"There is no OFF position to the genius switch" - D. Letterman
i think that 3 years is enough time for a decision on the head coach of whether he should be retained or not. in 3 years the coach should have enough of his players so that you know whether or not the program is going in a positive direction.
here’s just my justification for all head coaches:
year 1: coach gets a pass unless he does something highly illegal
year 2: coach gets his players and coaches who know his system with 1 year of experience. there should be some improvement from year 1 to 2
year 3: coach has enough players in his system that you should see results and a marked improvement from year 1 to 3 and an improvement from year 2 to 3
year 4+: coach must be at minimum bowl eligible every year
kragthorpe speeded up his demise after the rutgers game last year. no, not because he got us embarassed so badly in primetime on national television. it was because he played hunter cantwell,a senior, the entire game knowing full well that he had no experienced quarterback next year and he had a highly touted quarterback recruit who redshirted the previous year and not played anything but maybe 3 or 4 snaps the entire season sitting on the bench.
that was the point where he lost me. how in the hell can you not play your possible starting qb for the next year in the second half of a game clearly out of control? or if not him, why not get some other signal caller some game experience? why are you still playing your senior qb who played every other game and was getting the crap beaten out of him? this was his major fault. i have spoken with someone who is very close to the brohm family. he tells me that kragthorpe’s major problem was that he was stubborn as hell and wouldn’t change for anything. and i believe that explains this entire mess. kragthorpe refused to adjust his style to the players he inherited, he refused to adjust his gameplan despite the input from his assistant coaches and in the end he refused to accept responsibility for the mess that he had created himself and using the situations in colorado and pittsburgh which were clearly different to his as feeble attempts to save his job was very weak milquetost and indicative of how bad of a fit and out of touch he was.
I should have added...............
that i have heard from multiple people that slighting Sims was to force him to transfer.
it's rice.
goes better with curry than football.
Kevin Sumlin is
putting up quite an audition. But how come nobody is talking about Gary Pinkel of Mizzou?, this dude is a winner. His offenses put up huge numbers, and he can recruit.
by ville 606 on Nov 28, 2009 11:12 PM EST via mobile reply actions
U of L's next HC will be:
Bobby Bowden
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
"But How will I know limits from lies, if I never try."
by geoffissiffoeg on Nov 28, 2009 11:39 PM EST reply actions
My hopes are with Charlie Strong
Young, hungry up and comer with no ego to stroke. Don’t have to pay him millions right out of the gate which leaves plenty of room to buy out the remainder of Krag’s contract and then some.
An assistant head and defensive coach from the baddest team in the land can’t be a bust. Go for him, Tom! It’s the best fit, IMO.
________________________________________________
~LK
www.myspace.com/lordkayoss
www.youtube.com/lordkayossrippro
www.welcometomynightmare.tk
Completely agree
Main reason why he doesn’t have a HC job in the SEC is the fact that he’s black and maried a white woman. I would hope we at Louisville are cultured enough to have that be a non-issue and get what could possibly be a bargain deal.
Strong has now been at Florida for 10 years I think (since the Zook era, or whatever his name was), so he’s seen Florida at its lows and helped build them to the highest of highs. Factor in his southern recruiting connections (a region we used to do well in) along with his rebuilding experience, and we’ve got a damn good head coach candidate (at least on paper).
He also used to coach wide receivers early in his career (can’t remember where), so it’s not like he doesn’t have any ties to the offense.
I think Strong with a good set of coodinators could get Louisville back to football relevance in just a few years. In addition, his previous national champion success at Florida would immediately infuse enthusiasm back into the fanbase, something that has been sorely lacking of late.
In conclusion, if you don’t think Charlie Strong is the answer by now, you can go fuck yourself.
by SpeedStudent on Nov 29, 2009 11:19 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
We definitely need
a strong Florida or at least solid Southern prep football recruiter. Florida is clearly the best. TX I’d say is a fairly close 2nd in terms of talent. Strong or Leach, imho, are the best options of those being rumored as possibilities. What I fear is Jurich worrying about the money too much and going with someone between K and a top proven guy, just to save some bucks. We need to leap to the top if at all possible. Or resign ourselves to being a middle-tier football program for the foreseeable future. This is probably the most important hiring Jurich will ever make at the collegiate level. Hope his head is clear and he makes the most rational decision.
Who do we need?
We need a great recruiter and a fan favorite. Someone who can be a rival in the big east to get us to the big games of the BCS in January. I really want to just go back to a bowl game again to be honest. I think most of us are wanting that too.
Who shall it be:
Strong
Fulmer
Leech
Tuberville
"Pitcher has a big butt"
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