[stextbox id=”custom”]This from the Rutgers University student newspaper following the team’s 24-7 loss to Pittsburgh in Piscataway, N.J.:
- “The official count of 50,296 tickets sold had to be inaccurate. The actual attendance was probably more in the 35,000-range. For a game that marked a return to Big East play for a 4-1 team at home on a Friday night, it just doesn’t make sense.
- “The students were their usual awful selves, with more than half not showing up until midway through the first quarter and a good amount, though less than usual, leaving shortly after halftime. I guess the fraternity parties opened their doors shortly after 11 p.m.
- “The ‘old guard,’ as they liked to be known as, was not [there]. Rows upon rows of empty benches littered the stadium despite tickets being nearly sold out for weeks for a primetime ESPN showdown that made RU look pathetic on national television.”
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OK, even I have about run out of slack to cut Coach Kragthorpe. But the notion that Tom Jurich owes Louisville football fans an apology for any reason does not fly. Period.
Winning the ’07 Orange Bowl did not turn U of L into the next Notre Dame or Florida, but the part of the fan base TJ was addressing with the crack about expecting to win the Orange Bowl every year thereafter totally lost its perspective. They started howling for Kragthorpe’s head before the ink dried on his contract.
Hiring Kragthorpe may not have worked out, but Jurich owes no Cardinal fan an apology.
If Kragthorpe is here next year you can use this again and just change the name of the university.
But you will have to delete the reference to being on national TV because we won’t be.