Where is Steve Kragthorpe hiding? Haven’t seen or heard anything from the University of Louisville football coach in months. Someone needs to be talking up the program, but he has been scarce, even as the season ticket renewal deadline approached.

Strange.

Reminds this observer of the silence between weekly football games when fans were kept guessing about the status of key players. He did make appearances during a coukragthorpeple of Cardinal Caravan stops, at Shelbyville and Madison, Ind., but that doesn’t mean a whole lot to the local fan base.

Maybe he’s just taking his cue from Johnny Unitas, believing “Talk is cheap,”  working in the trenches during the summer months. But when you’re coming off a season like Kragthorpe had last year, that doesn’t get you get you any much-needed style points.

Someone in the administration or on Kragthorpe’s staff needs to become more aggressive in promoting not only the program, but Kragthorpe as well. The community still doesn’t know much about him or what makes him tick. Instead of putting a enthusiastic face on the future of U of L football, Kragthorpe is being the recluse.

The image of Kragthorpe, with the seemingly blank stare and his hands on his hips, during football games is hard to erase. Do something. Anything. He needs to come out of his shell, be seen, get out into the community, get media savvy, get on radio talk shows, visit youth leagues, get out there and meet the fans, let them know somehow, some way, that they have a football coach who is busting his butt to return this program to where it belongs.

The silence is deafening.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.

7 thoughts on “Where’s Steve?”
  1. You spelled his name wrong. It’s actually spelled “Krapcooper.” Seriously, does anyone actually have any doubt that he’s hiding out because he has no idea what he’s doing?

  2. Actually he’s hiding and letting his goatee grow. He wants to surprise us at the first game with his new ZZ Top look. He’s very concerned with his appearance.

  3. Charlie, you are absolutely correct on all counts. I can’t believe that Krag isn’t making any attempt to win the fans over. It would be nice to hear him TALK FOOTBALL. Blow some smoke; give us some hope, We are dying out here. I hear you,Brad, about he needs to display more confidence in his abilities and show some pride in his program…wait a minute. Maybe that’s the problem….maybe he doesn’t have any confidence in his coaching abilities and maybe he doesn’t take pride in being at U of L. I have faith in TJ and I believe what he tells me to believe HOWEVER, if Kragthorpe loses the game on August 31, it could be the beginning of the end for him at U of L. He sure hasn’t made much attempt to instill confidence in the fans. If he makes his statements on the field, fine but we sure didn’t get any of that last year.

  4. I’ll take a quiet Kragthorpe. Ron Cooper had comedy and quotes. I don’t want to go back to that island. Shut up and coach, Steve.

  5. We’re going to have start calling him Silent Steve because you rarely ever hear him talk. He needs to display a lot more confidence in his abilities and show some pride in his program. Have a little fun once in a while and maybe people would be more relaxed about him.

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