What they’re saying about the University of Louisville football coach around the web … and the beginning of the football season is about 12 weeks from now:
- Darrell Laurant, RealFootball365:
- “Part of Steve Kragthorpe’s problem is that he broke a hallowed rule of coaching ascension — never take over a team that’s supposed to be good. After resuscitating a Tulsa program that was gasping for breath, going 8-5 in his first season, Kragthorpe jumped up to a Louisville squad ranked No. 5 in the 2007 preseason by Sports Illustrated and returning 18 starters. The Cardinals promptly finished 6-6, then 5-7 in 2008. Having been given an ever-so-brief taste of life at the top, the UL fans can no longer tolerate mediocrity, and [the coach] has become a lightning rod for dissatisfaction.”
- Jay Skipworth, Blog Critics Sports
- “Kragthorpe is a victim of the hype machine surrounding college football. Position coaches and coordinators experience any modicum of success and they are labeled “genius.†Next, they take a job at a small school, sometimes in a big conference, and they build the resume with a few choice wins, bowl appearances, and the legend grows. Then, a job at a “big†school opens, one where their skill set is either desired for change or to continue standards set by the previous coach, and this up and comer is suddenly thrust into the deep end of the cement pond.”
- Team Speed Kills
- Kentucky vs. Louisville
“It wasn’t long ago that the Cardinals were the annual favorites in this game. But that’s history. This might be one of the more winnable BCS games on Louisville’s calendar — which says more about the rough year ahead for Steve Kragthorpe’s team than Kentucky. Still, this game should be a close one, with the homefield advantage being big for the Wildcats.”
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I hope Kragthorpe is putting this on the bulletin boards in the locker room. If I was a player there, I would be working very hard to make all of you haters look bad.
Some time ago, after the end of football…I took a “love the players, love the game” approach to Cardinal football. With that in mind, I can tell you with utmost certainy that we’ll love that efforts we’ll get from guys like Vic Anderson, Doug Beaumont, Darius Ashley and Trent Guy this year. Whether it will be enough to overcome the pain we get from a probable under .500 season remains to be seen. Stay healthy, fellas. Injuries to key players are a guarantee, given the nature and physicality of the game. I hope we can muster the depth and skills to avoid the embarrassing result of the last five games from last year.
Oh but there is great news on the horizon. We just got two commitments. We outrecruited the mighty powerhouses Akron and Central Michigan for one player and the other must be even more high profile. He has “heard from” UC and Ball State. Wow. Kragthorpe is a phenominal recruiter. I can’t believe USC or Florida hasn’t hired him away to head their recruiting.
I took another look at the schedule myself and the only absolute win on the schedule is terrible Indiana State. UofL could realistically start 1-5. The fighting Cards will struggle mightily against a down Utah team, an average UK team, and an improving Southern Miss team. I mean you know its bad when you can honestly say that every team other than Indiana State is capable of beating the Cards. Kragthorpe is in way over his head, and his poor coaching cannot get this team to .500 record. Its impossible, I’m not sure their is a coach who could. So Hopefully Krags enjoys what should be his last year as a head coach in division 1 football. Who’s got next.
Gotta agree, 2-4 wins looks like the correct bet this season. We’ve been told for two years that we can’t expect any wins after signifigant staff turnover, but we’ve most had the most turnover since Kragthorpe was hired. Along those lines, I don’t understand stability being cited as a reason for retaining Kragthorpe. He’s changed coordinator and position coaches every year, so really, what’s another season of bringing on a new staff? honestly?
Back to the 2-4 win prediction. Looking at our schedule and our roster, the wins simply aren’t there. Anyone with a decent O-line should be able to control our front 4, and we really don’t have much established in the 2ndary, so a decent passing game should be able to cut us to pieces. SO essentially we’re back where we started in 07 with a team that will need to score at least 35 to have a shot at winning. Only this time, we have no QB, and an extremely poor o-line. For the WRs, most people are placing all their hopes on an improved Scott Long, but he’s coming off of major knee surgery, and had fairly severe complications that could greatly slow his recovery. If he comes back at 75% of what you expect, be grateful, but don’t expect too much.
And this is before any major preseason or in season injuries. With our Lack of depth, Kragthorpe himself may need to be bulking up over the summer to put in some late season time at DE.
Folks, this is not going to be pretty. We’re going to lose big to alot of teams. Those predictions of Kragthorpe finishing 0-6 to UK Syracuse and UConn over 3 years are not unrealistic. In fact, it’s a very strong possibility that he will be let go after that last Syracuse loss.
Good Lord…the bases have barely dried from the rain that fell on the Cards California baseball crash and here comes the football machine hype again. And about what? A team that is second worst in the Big East, has no idea who the QB is gouing to be and is even less certain about how it’s going to come up with a defense that can prevent more 50 point blowouts from Rutgers and the like?
Wake me when Women’s Basketball begins. Hyping a team that made a laughingstock out of themselves on national TELEVISION…has a coach that has fired or lost more offensive and defensive coordinators in two years than Schnellenberger did in 10 and should be sent back to Conference USA…no rose colored glasses here…we’re gonna stink, stink badly and three wins will be a miracle.
If the football experts were right every year, there would be no reason to play the games. But they’re not, and we’re not sitting idle, so let’s go ahead play the games.
Of course we’re going to play the games, and of course the experts make mistakes. But this is a thread about what the prognosticators and predictors are saying about the team.
I seem to remember a few years ago, that when several experts were predicting a trip to the National championship game, we didn’t have too many fans saying that pre-season predictions were worthless…