Comments on: Jurich Owes No Apology To Football Fans

By: cbcard

cbcard — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:35:06 +0000

The common thread of the posts I have read on many web sites is simple.

There are a small percentage of fans who are down on Jurich. In general they are rebuted by a vast majority of posters.

There is a huge percentage of fans who want Kragthorpe gone. There are very few who support him.

Jurich will stay as he should. Kragthorpe will be gone as he should.

Then the healing begins.

By: woody

woody — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:24:01 +0000

Completely agree.

By: woody

woody — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:20:46 +0000

Tom Jurich has done an unbelievable job. While I do not like how he has handled the Kragthorpe situation, it does not erase his otherwise impeccable record as an AD. That said, I do believe he owes an apology to Bobby Petrino and the players who played under him. To characterize the Petrino years as a “mess” is a slap in the face to all of the hard work these guys put in over a four year period. Jurich and his team, by feeding false information to the media (most notably ESPN), have deliberately tried to deceive both Cardinal fans and the nation in order to protect Kragthorpe.

Jurich was fully aware of the happenings of the football program under Petrino. In fact, he praised Petrino for both his on-the-field AND off-the-field work when he gave Petrino a new contract before the 2006 season. He thought Petrino was doing it the “right way”, and indeed he was. How many disciplinary or academic issues did we have under Petrino? Very few if any. Jurich got stung by Petrino and in turn tried to deflect blame on him. It was unprofessional and borderline unethical.

I have absolutely no problem with his hiring of Kragthorpe and giving him three years. No one foresaw Kragthorpe struggling so mightily, and because he hasn’t been absolutely abyssal and has not been in any trouble, it would would have been unprecedented to fire the guy after two years.

By: jason

jason — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:27:42 +0000

I don’t really care about an apology. Jurich just needs to do what needs to be done and fire kragthorpe sooner rather than later. He’s already given him more than enough time.
Fire the guy. Say something brief but nice about him in the farewell press conference, or don’t say anything at all. Nothing at all is actually better because it eliminates the potential for any public sniping at the local media or the fanbase. No “Steve’s a great coach, but he just couldn’t succeed because of the fan’s negativity” or “The Fanbase is just not knowledgeable about football and doesn’t understand the difficulties Steve inherited.” Just say “Steve is a good man dedicated to developing strong men of character.” Because that’s really all that you can legitimately say about Kragthorpe at this point that won’t set the fanbase’s blood boiling.
After that Jurich should never mention Kragthorpe again. And as long as he makes a good hire for the next guy, the fans will do the same.

By: Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:57:43 +0000

Well named, you are.

By: ULTruth

ULTruth — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:35:10 +0000

I want kragthorpe gone as much as anyone and the funny thing is if it weren’t for Tom Jurich and the coaches he brought in here, some of our jerkwad fans wouldn’t have this delusional sense of entitlement. A four year blip doesn’t create tradition. We didn’t even fill the stands for Petrino’s last home game.

By: Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:54:55 +0000

Well, I guess we could dig up a lot of situations but the post was primarily aimed at the folks offended by the Orange Bowl and great coach comments. Since we’re not that close to the former players or coaches, any references to them would have been conjecture. You’ll never hear me complain about an Orange Bowl win. There were enough questions related to the situation you mention, however, to merit serious consideration. Maybe some day we will have more facts about that situation. For now, we will stand by the original intent of the posting. I never once said Tom Jurich was perfect but there’s no denying he has made this a much better athletic program. I guess you could nitpick anyone and anything.

By: Mr. Anonymous

Mr. Anonymous — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:32:34 +0000

Wow. Very convenient of you to leave out his comments slinging mud over our former coaches, players and accomplishments. His comments taking jabs at fans just shows that he is petty, but the ones demeaning former players and coaches crosses the line. He doesn’t owe an apology to the fans, but rather to CBP, Brohm (Jeff Greg and Brian), Wood, Douglas, etc., for slandering their character and hard work. CPB may have been a jerk, but he did his job very well while here and shouldn’t be painted as a criminal to prop up Krag.

Don’t assume that fans unhappy with Jurich’s comments are unaware of all he has done for the university. As a former SA, I have experienced first hand what he has done. Driving by Cardinal Park now even makes me jealous, because they have done so much more there since I’ve been gone.

Getting back to the point, the above posters mentioning Jurich growing thicker skin are right on. Why should he feel the need to go out of his way to insult message board posters and members of the media? Let the results speak for themselves. In our case they have spoken loud and clear.

The rumor reported on the NFL network about the year 2 buyout was very encouraging. However, if Krag returns for year 4, the decision regarding the coaching situation should be removed from Jurich’s hands.

By: Steve Ko

Steve Ko — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:26:58 +0000

In recent years, UofL has won the Big East title and Orange Bowl in football…and gone to Final Four and Elite Eight a couple of times.

I remember not too long ago, Louisville basketball and football were both ranked in the top-10 in the nation.

There are many teams that, year in and year out, are considered national championship potential. (In basketball, many of these teams reside in the ACC –yuck!!) In football, many of these teams reside in the SEC –yuck!!

Examples -
Small Wake Forest (less than 5,000 students) is competitive in the ACC. Gonzaga always seems to do great in b-ball, and it appears to me that UK is heading in the right direction in basketball — new coach and some great
recruits. And their football team isn’t doing too badly.

Cincinnati is playing awesome in football this year.

Much excitement and optimisim around.

How optimistic are Card fans these days? Do we think the football program will be competitive next year? The year after? When will we be a perennial top-20 team, year in and year out?

Are we looking forward to the basketball season? Is Pitinio’s situation behind us? Will it impact future recruits? Can we take it up one more notch and be a contender in the national championship game?

Many questions – hopefully Jurich has the answers. And, bring some excitement and spark to our programs.

It seems lately — and for a long time now — that all I hear about is from Cardinal fans is how bad Kragthorpe is, when will he get fired, how come Jurich isn’t doing something about it NOW, is Pitino going to keep coaching, why did he do it in a restaurant, will Jennings miss any time because he tried to beat up a cop, why did two UofL b-ball players get tased, what were they doing in Indiana anyway..and on and on and on.

I’m ready for the vibe to be about POSITIVE aspects of the program – good recruits, growing the programs, a new basketball arena (no one is talking about that), excitement, growth, and opportunity!!! Oh yeah..I can hear the GO CARDS loud and clear now.

We can all continue to bitch and moan about Coach K – but what good does that do?? We all know he’s terrible…we all know our team isn’t any good…does it really matter if we win 3 games or 4?? I want to know when we’re going back to the Orange Bowl. I don’t want to be mediocre…I want to WIN. Go Cards.

Git R Dun!

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:06:01 +0000

1997 wasn’t all bad. We did go to the Elite Eight that year after all. The football was, of course, beyond terrible.