(I posted this last year and tried to bump but the thread was locked. So, with the consideration of Kragthorpe to replace Crowton - which would be indefensibly stupid - I again offer the following food for thought.)

Check out the comments to these articles from this past April and a couple weeks ago. Very similar to our criticisms of Crowton, if not worse. A few gems:

quote:
You have absolutely no clue as to how bad of a coach Steve Kragthorpe is. He's one of the multitude of non BCS coaches who were overvalued by BCS programs to taking a horrible program to a mediocre one. In 2007, after a horrific first year the program had their most draft picks in HISTORY.

quote:
I have seen NO improvement in our program in any phase of the game. We are slower, and frankly not as talented as our competition. Our offense has gone from top ten to near the bottom. Krags can sure talk the cliched coach talk but sure can't walk it. In my opinion, a good coach can take the talent he has and find a way to win. This coach can not.

quote:
I'm a UK fan and I have to say Kragthorpe is one of the most clueless coaches I've ever seen. Hope he stays for a long, long time. Ha!!!

quote:
"He said he has already received three job offers, including an offensive coordinator's position at a BCS conference school..."

What AD in a BCS conference has watched this guy's play calling and said, "Oh yeah, we need him as our OC."???

quote:
How can you have the players he had, handed to you on a silver platter and do NOTHING???????????

quote:
Krags last chance ..his Alamo...was taking over the offensive play calling duties ....when it turned out to be the teams worst offensive year in a long time...nowhere to hide then ...and no one to throw under the bus...it was the final deathblow ...and thank goodness for that ...some guys just don't fit...head coaches ...successful ones anyway ...need to be dynamic personalities (good or bad).....he is in over his head ...he should only be like a position coach somewhere ..and he'll have trouble even findin work there i'd say ....it will take 3-5 years now to get to a respectable talent level and reach a competitive level...amazing work by the guy really ...he is a demolition expert

Blog: LINK

Editorial from the Louisville Courier asking that he be removed as head coach:
LINK

Louisville Courier story about Kragthorpe firing: LINK

ETA my other posts on what I found:

1. Another to add - it's a Louisville Cards' blog, and the link is an "Open Letter to Steve Kragthorpe."

quote:
You are leaving because you couldn’t recruit, you couldn’t develop winning schemes, you were an incompetent offensive coordinator, you were a poor manager, and you sounded like the football equivalent of Miss South Carolina, presented with a problem that you tried to talk your way through with clichés and platitudes.

You are leaving because you didn’t use common sense on the field. You didn’t recruit well in your home state. You couldn’t show up for coaches association meetings on time. You couldn’t speak without sounding like a mealy mouthed cartoon character.

You are leaving because you didn’t have a plan, didn’t communicate a strategy, and were never clear in what was going wrong or how you were going to fix it.

LINK

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2. Another find on Kragthorpe, again similar to Crowton:

quote:
Even more so than that, Kragthorpe never fully utilized the talent on his team. For example, in 2007, instead of using 6-foot-6 receiver Mario Urrutia as a vertical threat as Petrino had, Kragthorpe's offense often called plays for Urrutia to go over the middle or catch screen passes. An unhappy Urrutia wound up leaving after the season as a junior.

Kragthorpe had three different offensive coordinators and four different defensive playcallers during his tenure. His teams often looked disjointed on the field, repeatedly burning timeouts in confusion early in games or lining up in the wrong formations. Kragthorpe's calls on third and fourth downs prompted a lot of head-scratching.

Perhaps the most damning evidence against Kragthorpe is this: He took over offensive coordinator duties this year, and the team averaged 18.5 points per game, worst in the Big East and the fewest by a Louisville team since 1996. Though he came to town with the reputation as a bright offensive mind, his offenses lacked imagination and paled in comparison to his predecessor.

LINK

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3. And another find - again, sounds familiar:

quote:
Well, throw one of those batteries back into the stands and I think you could hit someone to call a more imaginative offense. I haven't been a proponent of firing Krags during the season before; now I'm leaning that way. Send a message that the undiciplined mess of a game plan is unacceptable, that wasting timeouts when a game is coming down to the wire is moronic, that having a team with good field position look like they've never run a 2 minute drill is pathetic.

LINK
(Link also has photo of "Kragthorpe's playbook", which is a screenshot from the original Tecmo Bowl

)

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4. And more links: one is from the first practice for Louisville for this season. Kragthorpe took over OC duties for 2009, and at this first practice he was working almost exclusively with the offense and the QBs.
LINK LINK

Louisville's offense this year was 92nd in total offense, 90th in rushing offense, 72nd in passing offense, and 110th in scoring offense: LINK

We can do far better than this guy. We need to if we want to compete for SEC and national titles.