John Clay’s Sidelines

Charlie Strong

To me, from the outside looking in, Steve Kragthorpe seemed like the plastic man. Sure he is a good coach and a good offensive coordinator, but there wasn’t much else there. He was nice enough, but no personality. No spark. No passion. John L. Smith had personality. Bobby Petrino didn’t have a lot of personality, and he could certainly be a jerk, but he had passion, aggressiveness, fire. Plus, he’s a heckuva football coach, which is what you need at a Louisville, which is trying to get attention in the same state with an SEC school.

Some will tell you that Krags was trying to clean up a program that was riding on the edge with Petrino, and that may be true. But Louisville’s recruiting was abysmal under Kragthorpe. It didn’t follow up on U of L’s bowl trip, nor did it capitalize on the offensive tradition that started with Howard Schnellenberger, encountered a speed bump with Ron Cooper, then picked back up with John L, and was expanded by Petrino. When you go from Jeff Brohm to Dave Ragone to Stefan LeFors to Brian Brohm to Adam Froman as your quarterback, something’s wrong.

Continue reading ‘Quick take on the Steve Kraghtorpe firing’

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• Herald-Leader’s Valarie Honeycutt Spears reports that UK is paying $30,000, plus monthly fees, for John Calipari to join Lexington Country Club.
• Chip Cosby of the H-L reports that Kentucky must avoid early KO against Florida.
• H-L’s Mark Story on Kentucky’s uphill battle.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that Stacey Poole could be a Cat soon.
• Chris Rodgers of Palmetto Sports reports that Poole will make decision very soon.
• Seth Emerson of The State reports that South Carolina knows it trails on Poole.
• Lawrence Journal-World reports that Adreian Payne will visit Kansas on Oct. 31.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Stacey Poole could make choice today’

Some comments from Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe after UK’s 31-27 win over the Cards:

Opening:

I’m proud to walk out of here and say I’m the head coach. I thought they played their tail off today. We have nothing to hang our head about. I’m sick. I’m so sick right now that we didn’t win that gmae. The guys in the locker room are sick. But we will bounce back, we will rebound.

On locker room after game:

We have great guys on our football team. They have a lot of character and a lot of heart. We talked about leaving our heart out on the field and the guys did that today. They played until their tank was empty. There was unbelievable effort out on the field today.

On Trent Guy’s fumbled punt:

I told him not to fell bad. That play did not lose the game. There were a lot of plays where we had a chance to win the game and there was not one play you can point to and say that it was the determining factor. He’s a stud and I’ve got his back. Everything he’s been through and the way he played out there today, the heart tht he showed no one can say anything bad about him.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• My column on how UK’s staff has remained constant, while at Louisville it’s ch-ch-changes.
• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader reports that Kentucky’s kick coverage is worrisome considering Louisville’s speed.
• Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader reports on Louisville volleyball’s win over previously unbeaten UK.
• Jerry Tipton of the H-L blogs that two top 50 hoops prospects will be on campus Saturday.
• Zagsblog reports that West Virginia made a good impression on UK hoops target Tobias Harris.
• CORRECTED: B.W. Jones of the Kentucky Kernel reports that Ridge Wilson plead not guilty to fourth-degree assault.

Continue reading ‘BBL: West Virginia makes push for Tobias Harris’

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• Mark Maloney of the Herald-Leader reports that losses to UK stick with U of L’s Kragthorpe.
• Jerry Tipton of H-L reports that UK is to release report on basketball violation.
• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader reports that UK’s Ricky Lumpkin has seen both sides of the rivalry.
• H-L’s Mark Story offers a Governor’s Cup quiz.
• C.L. Brown of Courier-Journal reports Kragthorpe offers an offensive tease.
• Video of Kragthorpe’s Monday press conference.
• Brett Dawson of the C-J reports that Lumpkin feels Louisville’s pain.
• John Calipari’s comments to Dan Patrick.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Kentucky-Louisville football links (plus hoops)’

Media balloting has been completed at the Big East football media day and Louisville is not too popular with the voters.

C.L. Brown of the Courier-Journal reports that the media has picked U of L to finish seventh in the eight-team Big East.

Pittsburgh was picked to win the league, followed by West Virginia, Cincinnati, South Florida, Rutgers, Connecticut, Louisville and Syracuse.

Cards coach Steve Kragthorpe had this reaction on his Twitter page: “We’ve got our work cut out for us this year, apparently the Big East media agrees. Nothing to do but go out and work hard everyday!”