Kragthorpe Expected To Be Named New Coach At Louisville

LOUISVILLE, KY. (CBS Sportsline)--Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe is expected to be named the new coach at Louisville, a source told CBS SportsLine.com. <br/><br/>Kragthorpe would replace Bobby Petrino, who

Monday, January 8th 2007, 10:18 am

By: News On 6

LOUISVILLE, KY. (CBS Sportsline)--Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe is expected to be named the new coach at Louisville, a source told CBS SportsLine.com.

Kragthorpe would replace Bobby Petrino, who left the Cardinals after a four-year tenure to become the new coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Kragthorpe was in Tulsa on Monday and had no immediate comment, according to Don Tomkalski, a Tulsa spokesman.

At a press conference Monday, Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said Monday that he expects to move quickly to replace Petrino. Jurich said the list of potential candidates was "very short" but did not identify any specific coaches.

"I'm going to rely on my gut a lot," Jurich said. "I want somebody that's gotten a proven track record. I'm not going to talk about those names."

Jurich met with Louisville players Monday afternoon to assure them a coach would be hired quickly. "The main message was just to trust him," said center Eric Wood. "He said in the next couple days he'd like to have us all looking our new coach in the eye."

Wood said he heard Sunday from former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms, whose son Matt has verbally committed to Louisville, that Kragthorpe was a leading candidate.
"Phil said that with this guy we'll be in good hands with him, and we'll be fine if he comes here," Wood said.

The Louisville Athletic Association Board of Directors' personnel committee has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday at 4 p.m. in case a candidate is selected. Any new hire must be approved by the committee. Sports information director Kenny Klein said Jurich will be interviewing candidates on Tuesday and the meeting could be pushed back if a finalist is not selected.

Whomever Jurich hires must move quickly to convince junior quarterback Brian Brohm and injured running back Michael Bush to return. Both players have until Jan. 15 to decide whether to enter the NFL Draft.

Brohm, the MVP of Louisville's win against No. 15 Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl, is considered one of college football's top quarterbacks. Bush, who broke his right leg in Louisville's season-opening win over Kentucky, has applied for a medical redshirt that would give him another year of eligibility.

"I hope a lot of these guys don't jump to any rash decisions," Wood said. "It's a long offseason ahead of us. This happens at all big programs, and we just have to bounce back from it."

Petrino's departure comes in the middle of recruiting season, and with national signing day less than a month away Jurich knows the sooner he names a successor to Petrino, the faster the new coach will be able to hit the recruiting trail.

Jurich, who said he wants someone he knows in the position, has a longtime relationship with Kragthorpe. Their relationship dates back to 1990, when Jurich was the athletic director at Northern Arizona and Kragthorpe was hired as the quarterbacks coach before moving up to offensive coordinator during the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

Tulsa just played in its third bowl and has a 29-22 record for Kragthorpe, who completed his fourth season as coach of the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa won only two games in the two seasons before Kragthorpe arrived, and hadn't played in the postseason since 1991.
However, after winning the C-USA championship game and the Liberty Bowl and finishing 9-4 in 2005, Tulsa's 2006 was something of a disappointment.

The Golden Hurricane opened the season with a 7-1 record, their only loss coming at Mountain West champ BYU. At that point the roof caved in with three consecutive losses to C-USA West rivals. Tulsa closed the regular season with a win over a struggling Tulane team and then lost 25-13 to Utah in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Petrino led Louisville to a 41-9 record -- including a 12-1 record this season and a victory over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl -- and couldn't turn down an offer to run an offense featuring one of the NFL's most dynamic players in quarterback Michael Vick.