RE: Ville, what are your (Kragthorpe) thoughts this week?
I would like to make a couple comments.
Charlie Stubbs had no fast WR who could get free deep at Tulsa. But still, if something is not working, why keep running the same predictable thing over and over and over? Opposing teams picked up on Stubbs and that is why Tulsa went into a tailspin at the end of the year. Ironically, the term "dink and dunk" stuff posted here on this board were posted on the Tulsa board over a year ago by TU fans dissatisfied with Stubbs' play calling. And here is where I am going with this post....Jurich didn't do his homework. Ultimately, he is in charge.
Second, I think coaching at Tulsa is a greater challenge than coaching at Louisiville. Tulsa is a small private school of 4,200 students. For example, you don't get walk ons....they can't afford the tuition. Don't give me the argument that CUSA is a small pond. For Tulsa, CUSA is a huge pond....facing giants (for us) ECU, UCF, Southern Miss, etc who have advantages Tulsa can only dream about. Tulsa plays schools against players TU could never recruit....because of TU's academic requirements. Kragthorpe is a good coach and that's my point #2. On the other hand, as posted above and what I posted before, Kragthorpe's two best defensive coaches are in Tulsa, Graham and Patterson. Here, with the benefit of hindsight, Kragthorpe and Jurich made decisions based on friendship....should Jurich taken a look at the defensiv coaching situation? If not for friendship, would both Kragthorpe and Jurich made decision in a different way?
Third, I am basing this comment on the press coming out of Tulsa. In our press, Jurich was praising Kragthore the highest a praise a coach could receive. I think, with the benefit of hindsight, this was probably Jurich's greatest error. Loooieville fans, already with high expectations, were only fueled and gassed up for even GREATER success. God (Kragthorpe) was coming to town! Jurich's mistake set up a no win situation. Jurich's comments poured gas on the fire and, from where I sit, it has blown up big time. Jurich should have stated, when introducing Kragthorpe, that Coach K was a good coach but Loooieville had lost many good players from a defense that was not ranked high to begin with. Jurich should have lowered expectations. Now high expectations make anything less than Top 10 ranking appear as a failure....perception is reality.
Both Jurich and Kragthorpe should have sat down and discussed and analyed the successes and failures experienced in Tulsa and why they occurred. And, if perhaps, given UL's football talent, what in Tulsa was applicable to UL and what wasn't. Instead, based on the Tulsa press, Jurich simply flew a private plane and "swooped" into Tulsa to pick up Kragthorpe, no questions asked. In summary, it all goes back to them being good friends, making decisons based on friendship...and not backing a step back and asking some professional questions.
I hope it all works out for Coach K and UL. It will be a learning curve for both, evidently.
(This post was last modified: 10-03-2007 09:41 AM by Tallgrass.)
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