Louisville Football; Time For a Change

The Louisville football Cardinals are becoming more and more difficult to watch with each passing week.

The latest episode of the ongoing saga, which is the 2009 Cardinals, features an offense moving the ball extremely well, but ultimately deciding to give it to the opposing team. It features a defense refusing to stop a vanilla offense with a marginal quarterback. And my personal favorite, a placekicker who thinks kicking shoeless helps.

I have waited to the last possible second to make a final determination, but I’m afraid I can no longer withhold judgment. Louisville is simply not getting better under head coach Steve Kragthorpe.

For the record, I believe Steve Kragthorpe is a good football coach. His performance at Tulsa was extraordinary, especially when you consider the circumstances that program faced when he took over. However, his job performance at Louisville has been sub-par and in my mind his team is not improving enough to warrant bringing him back for a fourth year.

Sorry coach, but its time

My personal feeling is he should be let go sooner, rather than later. Up until literally this morning, I was of the opinion firing him mid-season does no one any good. And while I still believe that type of move is usually pointless, I do think there is an element that cannot be overlooked and needs to take priority.

The state of the Louisville fan base, which is currently a complete mess.

The people I consider the Louisville fan base are not the ones who trash the coach with personal attacks on message boards. But rather, the people who are educated football fans and have reasonable expectations. Before people get into an uproar about what I mean by reasonable expectations, let me explain.

I believe reasonable expectations for Louisville are anywhere from eight to 10 wins a year, a bowl game, and being competitive every game. Given those boundaries, Kragthorpe obviously has not gotten it done.

Regardless of any off the field or behind the scenes problems with the Louisville program that Kragthorpe inherited, the fan base is directing their disapproval directly at the coach.

Louisville fans are not unlike other fans, except for perhaps a refusal to show up on time and a love for mock turtlenecks, they just want a good product on the field. Fans are currently not getting that and on the collegiate level, the coach takes the blame.

Kragthorpe knows that and readily acknowledges it.

Therefore, considering the state of the fan base and the lack of improvement, I hereby submit this as my proposal to improve the Louisville football program.

At some point in the next two weeks, athletic director Tom Jurich calls a press conference, in which he announces coach Steve Kragthorpe has been let go or has resigned as head coach of the Louisville football Cardinals. Jurich cites a lack of progress on the field as the reason and announces he will bring in the right guy for the job.

In terms of what to do for the remainder of the season, defensive coordinator and former Utah State head coach Brent Guy takes over as interim head coach. Current tight ends coach and former Southern Miss offensive coordinator Jay Johnson takes over playcalling duties for the remainder of the season.

The reason this is done is to unite the fan base once again. I generally do not believe the athletic director should simply do what the fans want because the AD is around the athletics programs much more than fans. However, the moment Kragthorpe is let go, the fan base will immediately come together and the focus can turn to supporting the players and finding the new coach.

On another note, releasing Kragthorpe during the season will allow him to find another job elsewhere. Steve Kragthorpe is highly respected in the football community and will be sought after by many schools. I believe he will be successful again, it just will not be here at Louisville.