Thursday, February 05, 2009

Louisville Can't Be This Bad, Right?


Now, normally, it's considered poor form to chide your opponents after a clear victory. But Lane Kiffin's shots at Florida and Alabama yesterday over the signing of several recruits have paved the way for this little detour off the road to classy. I have just one simple question...

How in the hell did Louisville get so bad so quickly?

I understand their record wasn't great. I get it. The Cardinals, at 5-7 last year, were respectable only on paper. They closed 08 with five consecutive losses, and a shellacking at the hands of Rutgers on national television to the tune of 63-14. For those keeping score at home, they started 5-2. Had to win exactly one more game. And they lost five straight. In the Big East. Shameful.

I'm sure a lot of Cardinals fans were hoping to shore up in recruiting, but the fact of the matter is that the signing day was just as big a failure for Steve Kragthorpe as the regular season. Krags and company landed 23 letters of intent. Of those 23, 8 are Rivals ranked at 3 stars or above. Rivals has the Cardinals 7th best out of 8 in the Big East and 76th overall, behind such powerhouse programs as UAB and Louisiana Tech. It isn't much better on the Scout side of things, as UofL clocks in at 64th overall and 6th in the Big East.

I will give you that Louisville is not a destination that is sexy by any means, and that's coming from someone who's lived there. The weather is not particularly good, the coeds not stunningly beautiful, and the facilities, while good, are not even the best in the state. But somehow, former coach Bobby Petrino was able to recruit there despite all these apparent hurdles.

Kragthorpe was one of the more sought after coaches when he decided to head out of Tulsa. So someone, anyone, tell me how one coach can Hindenburg a program so quickly? Transfers. Arrests. Piss poor signing days. When will the long national nightmare end for Cardinals faithful? Even Elmo is looking for ways to stop the pain.

As a Kentucky fan, I will happily donate to the HireSteveKragthorpeForLife fund, if such a fund exists. My only hope is that UofL gets this ship righted, and quickly, because frankly, you're killing our strength of schedule.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's hard to compare Petrino and Kragthorpe since Kragthorpe clearly doesn't cheat as well.

Anonymous said...

u of l cant take as many partial qualifiers as they could under petrino. i think i saw where thay had 24-25 when krag took over and noe they're allowed 1 per class.

Anything but Gatorade said...

Consider me a charter contributor to the HireSteveKragthorpeForLife Fund.