PonyFans.com

gosh it is certainly starting to look like Kragthorpe

certainly not our first choice, but I suppose a big upgrade from Bennett

i wonder if we'll ever know why it came down to this?



Wednesday, November 21, 2007

College Football Notebooks

More buzz about SMU considering Kragthorpe

Talk continues to swirl that Southern Methodist University is interested in luring coach Steve Kragthorpe away from University of Louisville.

U of L spokesman Rocco Gasparro said yesterday that neither Kragthorpe nor athletic director Tom Jurich had been contacted by SMU.

"It's not fair right now for him to comment on something that he hasn't been contacted about, and Tom hasn't been contacted," Gasparro said. "We know the rumors are out there."

Jurich, traveling with the U of L basketball team, also said he had no comment.

SMU, which is 1-10 entering its season finale at Memphis, fired coach Phil Bennett on Oct. 28. Athletic director Steve Orsini has hired a search firm.

Kragthorpe is 5-6 at Louisville after going 29-22 in four seasons at Tulsa.

Pat Forde reported on ESPN.com that SMU is interested in Kragthorpe and quoted a U of L source "close to the program" that it's "50-50" that Kragthorpe would leave if the job were offered.

at least he won't have to waste time fixing his hair.


i want a bowden!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Krag sure would not be my 1st. choice

but whoever it is I guess we will just have

to support him because there is nothing we

can do about it.

Woah - tap the brakes there, sir.

There is nothing about Tulsa - the school or the town - that will ever appear "Big Time."

Maybe he'd change my mind down the road, but this hire certainly has none of the "WOW" factor that people keep insisting Steve-O covets.

- The man is ONE GAME over .500 for his career.
- Took a preseason top-10 team and guided it to a losing record.
- Built his reputation at Tulsa by steering that juggernaut to a sizzling .568 winning percentage?

Color me very unimpressed. Or at the very least, very unexcited. Don't know who I want, but Krag ain't it.

Who knows .... maybe he'll change all of our minds eventually. But at the moment: yawn.

If Kragthorpe gets this job and Orsini makes one reference to how he "turned around" Tulsa, a mid-major school similar to SMU, it'll beg the question why Barnett was not offered the job, since he turned around Northwestern, a school similar to SMU, ONLY IN THE BIG TEN.

Corso wrote:Woah - tap the brakes there, sir.

There is nothing about Tulsa - the school or the town - that will ever appear "Big Time."

Maybe he'd change my mind down the road, but this hire certainly has none of the "WOW" factor that people keep insisting Steve-O covets.

- The man is ONE GAME over .500 for his career.
- Took a preseason top-10 team and guided it to a losing record.
- Built his reputation at Tulsa by steering that juggernaut to a sizzling .568 winning percentage?

Color me very unimpressed. Or at the very least, very unexcited. Don't know who I want, but Krag ain't it.

Who knows .... maybe he'll change all of our minds eventually. But at the moment: yawn.

agree 100%. Would be a letdown.

You guys are nuts! Kragthorpe is the first legitimate Div. IA head coach that has even looked at us since Coach Gregg. Orsini has done a masterful job just to get him to consider coming here. We should all do hand stands and give Orsini a raise if he pulls this off.

jtstang wrote:If Kragthorpe gets this job and Orsini makes one reference to how he "turned around" Tulsa, a mid-major school similar to SMU, it'll beg the question why Barnett was not offered the job, since he turned around Northwestern, a school similar to SMU, ONLY IN THE BIG TEN.

Good call, JT. Barnett (who I also don't support) got Northwestern to the freakin' Rose Bowl. Krag won some games at Tulsa, but it's not like he turned the national college football scene upside down, as Barnett did.

The more I think about this Krag idea, the less I like it.

SWC Grey Hair wrote:You guys are nuts! Kragthorpe is the first legitimate Div. IA head coach that has even looked at us since Coach Gregg. Orsini has done a masterful job just to get him to consider coming here. We should all do hand stands and give Orsini a raise if he pulls this off.

No, Barnett was quoted in the media as being interested. If Orsini has truly not limited his pool of candidates as he has expressed publicly, and he chooses Kragthorpe over Barnett based on their "turned around programs" status, then he will have some explaining to do to the ponyfans, it seems to me.

Corso wrote:

jtstang wrote:If Kragthorpe gets this job and Orsini makes one reference to how he "turned around" Tulsa, a mid-major school similar to SMU, it'll beg the question why Barnett was not offered the job, since he turned around Northwestern, a school similar to SMU, ONLY IN THE BIG TEN.

Good call, JT. Barnett (who I also don't support) got Northwestern to the freakin' Rose Bowl. Krag won some games at Tulsa, but it's not like he turned the national college football scene upside down, as Barnett did.

The more I think about this Krag idea, the less I like it.

Barnett is not being considered because he is a pariah. There were 23 openings last year and he did not get so much as a phone call. I might have considered him but I would not fault any AD that didn't.

Well then substitute Bowden, Neuheisel, Mason, or even Fran and the analysis is still the same. Kragthorpe falls below this crowd. Now if he called all these guys and got rejected out of hand, that's one thing. But that's not the vibe I'm getting.

Perhaps its Turner's desire not to have someone with any dirty linen. Kragthorpe may be cleaner than Barnett, maybe not. If that is the reason, they better run one heck of an investigation, or Kragthorpe is going to get the same crap here that he's getting at Louisville, if things don't turn around quickly.

EastStang wrote:Perhaps its Turner's desire not to have someone with any dirty linen. Kragthorpe may be cleaner than Barnett, maybe not. If that is the reason, they better run one heck of an investigation, or Kragthorpe is going to get the same crap here that he's getting at Louisville, if things don't turn around quickly.

Well, then Orsini lied when he said on his blog that the candidate pool was not so limited.