All Entries Tagged With: "coaching controversy"

Getting Motivated The Louisville Challenge

Coaching controversies are tough on everybody.

If the emotional swings of the past week have taken a toll on University of Louisville football fans, one can only imagine how coaches and players have been affected. Coaches distracted by how long they will be around, players concerned about still another possible transition.

More often as not, one’s emotional temprament has a direct effect on a person’s physical readiness. Extra motivation is required to make up the difference. Whether those motivational factors are available poses some issues:

• Up to now, coach Steve Kragthorpe has proven to be less than a master motivator.
• Will the possibility of losing their coach be an adrenaline pumper or drainer?
• Southern Mississippi has been good rival but plays at a lower level of competition. That motivates them rather than Louisville.
• The fan base is emotionally wrought, first believing major change was coming only to be jolted by the reality of more uncertainty during the last seven days.

Take some aspirin or whatever it takes to get you going, enjoy the tailgating, and remember how much you love football before heading out to Papa John’s. This particular game is going to be a trying experience.

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Not Closure, But Open Season

Tom Jurich seems to be going out of his way to make sure the world knows that he stands behind football coach Steve Kragthorpe. The decisionmaker for University of Louisville athletics reinforced his support today for the third time in a week.

Funny, he needed a news conference to repeat what every UofL football fan already knew.

Tom Jurich

Makes you wonder what else is going on. It wouldn’t be the first time an athletic director has given a coach a vote of confidence and then axed him a few weeks later. But Jurich is not going fire a football coach after only two seasons for any reason other than unethical conduct. Doing so would make finding a successor much more difficult now than later.

While Jurich’s assumed purpose was to quell talk of a coaching change, he inadvertently or purposefully — only he knows for sure — may have reignited the speculation all over again. When asked if Kragthorpe would be returning, he replied: “Yes, Steve will be back next year … if he wants to be.”

That may be all the encouragement the Kragthorpe haters need to turn up the heat. My guess is that Kragthorpe has already decided, one way or the other.

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Construction on stadium expansion could conceivably begin as early as Monday. Jurich said only that construction would begin after the football season. This month? Next month? The guess here is the answer will come about the same time as the answer to the coaching question.

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