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Pony Fan wrote:If Kragthorpe is the guy, we should be very happy. Petrino didn't leave him much on defense, and that is where they have had their problems. Stallion, does Louisville have a good list of commitments so far? I haven't looked, but I bet they do.

Louisville is #59 with 10 commits.

Incluidng 2 from Texas, One being Bienvides the #33 ranked OG in the Country from Los Fresnos.

Kragthorpe would be a good hire no doubt. But the writer at footballrumormill should not be using adjectives like "huge" and "home run" when describing him.

if K was 7-3 we'd all be having a [deleted] party

Sometimes, and quite often, a coach maximizes their opportunities and leaves a team when he knows theres about to be a downturn -- petrino probably knew he didnt have the horses on defense.

Recall Fran left 28 senior-laden 10-1 tcu, then patterson goes 5-6 the next year. Left 10-2 bama and shula mops up.

PhirePhilBennett wrote:if K was 7-3 we'd all be having a [deleted] party

Sometimes, and quite often, a coach maximizes their opportunities and leaves a team when he knows theres about to be a downturn -- petrino probably knew he didnt have the horses on defense.

Recall Fran left 28 senior-laden 10-1 tcu, then patterson goes 5-6 the next year. Left 10-2 bama and shula mops up.

Will you then become KanKoachKragthorpe?

For a guy to leave a program after one year, would in my view be shocking, but not unprecedented (see Coach Doherty). I'd certainly think that he'd do a great job here, but I am not sure that he would be a WOW, we got Kragthorpe kind of hire. He did great at Tulsa which is like SMU, but he's not like Tommy Bowden who had an undefeated season and some BCS success or Terry Bowden or Tommy Tuberville at Auburn or even Dennis F at TCU. And there are some that feel that Graham was the force for recruiting in Texas not Kragthorpe.

[quote="Stallion"]

I'll say right now that Kragthorpe is a better offensive Coach than anybody SMU is likely to get, If he's the man then go spend some money on a Defensive Coordinator. The problems at Louisville are all defensive related-big deal no Coach really can be a genius on both sides of the ball so get over it.[/quote]................As i've said, he is a good offensive coach, but sinse exGraham his performance has seriously declined..... His Lousiville team is one of the worst managed teams in the country this year........Why take a chance on a guy who is proving himself is a poor Head Coach this year ?

How many ways can I tell that you that Graham had ZERO to do with the offensive success at Tulsa except for recruiting. ZERO. Kragthorpe has a record at Tulsa. 3 bowls and conference Championship from 1-10 record. Its a damn good record. They are 7th in Country in Total Offense this Year. Louisville's defense SUCKS-they have sucked all year. They don't have good defensive players and I've seen the majority of about 5 of their games.

Stallion you've said over and over that recruiting is the most important job a college coach has. Graham clearly helped Kragthorpe. And by the way, Tulsa is ranked #2 in the Country this year in total offense, Louisville is good, they are #7. SMU is in the top half at 45th. In scoring defense, Louisville is #70, Tulsa is #99, and SMU is #112. So, what does that tell you. If SMU could get into the top 10 in offense, our defense wouldn't matter. Or if we could get into the top half in defense, our offense is fine. As I said, I'd take Kragthorpe in a second, he's clearly an upgrade over where we are now. But it is not a hire that would make me go WOW!!

EastStang wrote:Stallion you've said over and over that recruiting is the most important job a college coach has. Graham clearly helped Kragthorpe. And by the way, Tulsa is ranked #2 in the Country this year in total offense, Louisville is good, they are #7. SMU is in the top half at 45th. In scoring defense, Louisville is #70, Tulsa is #99, and SMU is #112. So, what does that tell you. If SMU could get into the top 10 in offense, our defense wouldn't matter. Or if we could get into the top half in defense, our offense is fine. As I said, I'd take Kragthorpe in a second, he's clearly an upgrade over where we are now. But it is not a hire that would make me go WOW!!

Would it make you go hmmmmmmm.....queue the C & C Music Factory theme

mrydel wrote:

PhirePhilBennett wrote:if K was 7-3 we'd all be having a [deleted] party

Sometimes, and quite often, a coach maximizes their opportunities and leaves a team when he knows theres about to be a downturn -- petrino probably knew he didnt have the horses on defense.

Recall Fran left 28 senior-laden 10-1 tcu, then patterson goes 5-6 the next year. Left 10-2 bama and shula mops up.

Will you then become KanKoachKragthorpe?

No, I suggested hiring him LAST year.

But I like your name idea for 5 years down the road.

SMU Football Blog wrote:If Kragthorpe were still at Tulsa today and considering this, we would be high fiving eachother on the Blvd.

http://coachingcarousel.blogspot.com/

Hi, Louisville fan here - I'd like to address the people who say that Krags won't leave the 'Ville for SMU. Here is my reply to the list posted in the link above:

A. Not a "spash." A great hire and would do well, but is in now way a splash
-True, but it would be big news to go from a BCS school to a non-BCS school.

B. Tom Jurich (Louisville AD) and Kragthorpe have been freinds for nearly 20 years. IF Kragthorpe turned on Jurich after 1 year after the deliberate pursut of Kragthorpe last year, then Krag isn't as cool as you think.
- Jurich is getting a TON of pressure on him from the boosters here in Louisville. This is a "win - win" situation for both Jurich (our AD) and Koach. Jurich appeases the boosters and Koach leaves for a lower stress job for probably comperable pay.

C. Orsini is after a bigger fish than that
- Such as?

D. Surely Krag wouldn't bail on Jurich???
- See the answer to B.

E. Why would you leave Louisville after 1 year?
- Again, see the answer to B.

F. If you can't win at Louisville and you were just a few games over .500 at Tulsa why would Orsini hire you?
- The man has shown that he can rebuild a program. His problem in Louisville has been twofold. Firstly, we did not need to be rebuilt. A 12-1 Orange Bowl championship team that was just 3 points from an undefeated season the BCS Championship game that returns 90% of the #1 offense in the country is not a bad place to start. This offense, however, does not fit into the Kragthorp/Stubbs scheme. Koach prefers a spread offense, Louisville's current offense was built for a "Pro Style" more power - less finese kind of game. Rather than adapt, K has chosen to run his offense with Petrino's players. This works against lesser competition, but not when you play teams with a decent defense. I believe that with a few years and the proper players for his system Koach could win at Louisville or anywhere. The problem is that most of us Louisville fans just aren't that patient.

RedRageCard wrote:Hi, Louisville fan here - I'd like to address the people who say that Krags won't leave the 'Ville for SMU. Here is my reply to the list posted in the link above:

A. Not a "spash." A great hire and would do well, but is in now way a splash
-True, but it would be big news to go from a BCS school to a non-BCS school.

B. Tom Jurich (Louisville AD) and Kragthorpe have been freinds for nearly 20 years. IF Kragthorpe turned on Jurich after 1 year after the deliberate pursut of Kragthorpe last year, then Krag isn't as cool as you think.
- Jurich is getting a TON of pressure on him from the boosters here in Louisville. This is a "win - win" situation for both Jurich (our AD) and Koach. Jurich appeases the boosters and Koach leaves for a lower stress job for probably comperable pay.

C. Orsini is after a bigger fish than that
- Such as?

D. Surely Krag wouldn't bail on Jurich???
- See the answer to B.

E. Why would you leave Louisville after 1 year?
- Again, see the answer to B.

F. If you can't win at Louisville and you were just a few games over .500 at Tulsa why would Orsini hire you?
- The man has shown that he can rebuild a program. His problem in Louisville has been twofold. Firstly, we did not need to be rebuilt. A 12-1 Orange Bowl championship team that was just 3 points from an undefeated season the BCS Championship game that returns 90% of the #1 offense in the country is not a bad place to start. This offense, however, does not fit into the Kragthorp/Stubbs scheme. Koach prefers a spread offense, Louisville's current offense was built for a "Pro Style" more power - less finese kind of game. Rather than adapt, K has chosen to run his offense with Petrino's players. This works against lesser competition, but not when you play teams with a decent defense. I believe that with a few years and the proper players for his system Koach could win at Louisville or anywhere. The problem is that most of us Louisville fans just aren't that patient.

Nice post. Question. How did Jurich and Petrino get along? What if Petrino called and said he wanted his old job back. Would this be a further win win for Louisville, and a reason for Louisville to release Kragthorpe from his contract if he wanted and in agreement with his good buddy Jurich?

The main reason I could see Kragthorpe leaving is because he is being attacked by the UofL fans as bad as I've ever seen any coach be attacked. It's ridiculous some of the things that he is being blamed for. Sure, he has made some mistakes in his game time decisions, his game preparedness was suspect earlier in the season and we have lost to some opponents that we should have never lost to.

However, we did lose 7 starters on defense from last year, an 8th in Thomas our safety in the second game (I believe) and Grady our defensive tackle recently. We also lost two other defenders in Alston and Holston in the summer who would have probably made the 2 deep at their respective positions. He also lost 2 guys in the summer from our offensive line who would have started or been in the 2 deep, both of our power backs have been hurt most of the season and our two top recievers have been injured and either not played or didn't play at 100% in many games this year.

Kragthorpe has had the deck stacked against him, but the UofL fans refuse to listen to any reasons. Most fans on the board I go to blame Kragthorpe 100% for the situation we are in. Our defense is actually improving now and it's our offense that has been sluggish, due mainly to injuries and a very thin offensive line. Unfortunately for Kragthorpe, he had to follow the best coach and the best season UofL has ever had. I'm not sure he could have done anything to appease some of the fans, although I do agree that this year is unacceptable regardless of all of the reasons I stated.

So, if he does end up going to SMU, as others said, you would be getting a very good offensive coach and a good recruiter if his performance on short notice upon arriving at UofL is any indication. He talked Brohm into staying, got the #1 rated JUCO, another top JUCO lineman, a top ranked safety (4 star) and two 4 star runningbacks all within about a month or so of the spring signing period. Plus, he kept practically every commit that Petrino had gotten, including Matt Simms.

I've heard different things on the Jurich/Kragthorpe relationship. Some have said that they are good friends and others have said that they only had a working relationship and that Jurich was just impressed with him in the past and that is all. I believe he would be a great hire for SMU and that Uofl fans will probably not be happy with his replacement either, so don't take their opinion of him as a testiment to his coaching ability.