The New UofL Head Football Coach is Announced

2009-10-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

October 22, 2009
8:00 pm est

An announcement is coming that a coaching change will be made at the University of Louisville. The change will not only include the firing of Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe, but a complete overhaul of the entire staff. You will NOT believe some of these changes.

Here are the details of this breaking news. The changes will take effect after the last regular season football game. Here are the details:

QUARTERBACKS COACH
Jeff Brohm will be leaving his position as the Assistant Coach/Quarterbacks Coach at Florida Atlantic and return as the Quarterbacks Coach.

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR/ASSISTANT COACH
Paul Petrino will be leaving his position as the current Offensive Coordinator at the University of Arkansas and return as the Offensive Coordinator/Assistant Coach.

DEFENSIVE SECONDARY/LINEBACKERS
Ron Cooper will be leaving his postion as the current Defensive Backs Coach at LSU and return as the new Secondary/Linebackers Coach.

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
John L. Smith will be leaving his position as the current Special Teams Coach at the University of Arkansas and return as the new Defensive Coordinator.

AND

The New Head Football Coach at the University of Louisville will be.......

This always happens to me. Have you ever had a dream and you wake up right before the ending or right before something is revealed to you? Well let me tell you that trying to go back to sleep and resume your dream right where it left off does not freakin' work.

The only choice I could think of, based on where my dream was going, is Howard Schnellenberger. And you know what, to be honest with you, who other than to bring our program back to national prominence than the man who really started it all! Schnellenberger had a vision man. He talked about bowl games, National Championships and a new stadium when they were going 2-9 and 3-8, playing in the old 'Redbirds' stadium and handing out free game tickets with the purchase of a Rallys combo meal.

Everyone laughed and thought he had lost his mind.

Guess what...fast forward and the only thing left is a National Championship missing from his vision for this program. That one game kept us out of the National Championship against Ohio State and we 'settled' for the 2007 FedEx Orange Bowl victory.

I say bring him back!

Look at his last 10 years:

In April of 1998 Howard Schnellenberger was asked to consider a project. He was asked to weigh the facts, research the possibilities and explore a community's interest in supporting the addition of football to Florida Atlantic University's sports roster.

By 2008 Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger had welcomed the first recruiting class; climbed the ranks of Division I-AA, including a national semi-final appearance; joined a conference and began playing football in the country's highest classification, the Bowl Subdivision; grabbed a league title and two bowl championships to add to his collection as well as being named the 2007 Sun Belt Coach of the Year.

The 75 year old Schnellenberger resurrected both Miami and Louisville from virtual extinction and has a perfect 6-0 bowl record!

I say bring Howard back and let him finish his last 2 years here as the Head Coach at UofL and retire in his hometown. During this time he can actively work closely with Tom Jurich on a candidate search for the next Head Coach or maybe even groom Paul Petrino to succeed him (wink).

These next 2 years are crucial. We are definitely at the crossroads. Select and hire another bad fit and we could be in for another 3 or 4 years of subpar play and no post season appearances.

Imagine those new 20,000 or so additional seats being empty. Going 3-7 and 4-6 year after year and being able to get your free game tickets at Rallys again. At this point it will become a pretty hard sell to the top football players coming out of high school.

I say get on the phone and have ol' Howard Schnellenberger come back and finish what he started!

Should he resign?

2009-10-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

The question is should Coach K resign? Will he resign or will he force Tom and the University to make the move?

I keep hearing that Coach K's contract has some sort of clause in it that says if he gets fired prior to the 1st game next year, the University of Louisville must pay him $6 million. If this is true does it even matter? How much did they have to give Ron Cooper for that embarrassment?

How do you think this will play out? Will he resign before the last game of the year? Should he? Do you think Coach K and Tom Jurich have spoken and do you think the decision has already been made?

My predictions in chronological order:

a) UofL 20 - Southern Miss 17
Coach K talks about turning the season around and becoming bowl eligible

b)UConn 23 - UofL 16
Coach K says that the blustery conditions in E. Hartford really affected their ummm...passing game

c)Cincy 84 - UofL 10
Coach K says that they just gave up a few too many easy touchdowns

d)Arkansas St. 27 - UofL 24
Coach K accuses Bobby Petrino of getting hands on playbook and giving to his in-state brother to help Arkansas St. stuff the Cards on a 4th and goal 'option pitch' as time expired.

e)West Virginia 38 - UofL 12
Coach K says West Virginia RB Devine's 342 rushing yards was one of the better performances of the year. Goes on to say if Cards would have just tackled him a few more times the outcome may have been a lot different.

f)Syracuse 22 - UofL 21
For the 3rd year in a row UofL comes up empty against the Orange. Coach K cites the difference in this game was the lack of fan support in Papa John's Stadium. A season record low of only 23,000 show up for this one.

g)The day after the Syracuse game. Sunday November 15th. A press conference is announced for the following day, Monday November 16th.

h)Monday, November 16, 2009 at 6:00 pm a news conference takes place at the start of all the local news telecasts. Tom Jurich announces that..... he and Coach K will review the direction of the football program at the end of the season. Coach K promises 'much better' football against South Florida.

i)South Florida 31 - UofL 9
Coach K says his team did play better....in spurts....before halftime. Went on to praise Kicker Ryan Payne for the 3 field goals into the blinding south florida sun giving the Cards a 9-7 halftime lead.

j)Rutgers 26 - UofL 24
Coach K lauds his team for their effort on Senior Night and says he will look to build off this game and the momentum going into the start of next season.

k)On Monday November 30, 2009 just 2 days after the season finale against Rutgers, Tom Jurich announces that...... the program is headed in the right direction and will continue to stand behind Coach K. They do announce that Coach K will ALSO assume the role of Defensive Coordinator next season due to 'poor defensive fundamentals, poor tackling and uninspired play.'

jt

You are firing me?

The New UofL Head Football Coach is Announced

Should he resign?