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Was it a big mistake?

  • Many jumped on TJ for the Krag nightmare hire as his one "bag hire". But was it a bad thing in the long run?

    In hindsight, while it can never be cast as a good hire, it had fortuitous consequences.

    Had he hired a successful replacement for CBP, we may well have accepted a B12 invite and be in WVU's hell.

    Instead Krags monumental failure held us back for his tenure; but the timing and success of CCS rendered us available, when the ACC came calling.

    The ACC is looking very solid right now and the culture, proximity, BB and equity (no TX dictator) is a much better fit for UofL academically and athletically.

    Great time to be a Cardinal, and getting better!

    Cajuncard

  • As they say, careful what you wish for. You might just get it. I agree with your sentiment. Definitely like where we are today. The ACC is a MUCH better fit.

    CardinalExpress

  • It was a mistake. It was a bad hire. And he fixed it. And he knocked it out of the park with his fix. A great leader isn't always perfect but they know how to make it right in the end.

    And I'm with you. In hingsight, I like where we are now. I wouldn't change anything,

    cardsguy

  • cardsguy said...

    It was a mistake. It was a bad hire. And he fixed it. And he knocked it out of the park with his fix. A great leader isn't always perfect but they know how to make it right in the end.

    And I'm with you. In hingsight, I like where we are now. I wouldn't change anything,

    Thursday, leaving the stadium after the team returned, me and another fan were talking and Kragthorpe was mentioned, I told him, "If you told me, we'd have to endure 3 years of Kragthorpe to get Strong, I'd do it a million times over...no hesitation at all!"

    Yes it was 3 horrible seasons, but sometimes you have to take a couple steps back to go forward.

    Like Cardsguy said, a great leader isn't always perfect...but they know how to make it right in the end...Jurich has done that.

    AnthonyMR

  • I think before one can answer this question, who else was hired that year and that did good? Was CCS on our list at all to look at?

    Though overall I look at it like relationships, yeah I've had bad ones where I could have missed out on an awesome girl, but it doesnt matter, just gotta enjoy what you have now and not worry about if it could have been better had you done something else.

    This post was edited by ACardAttack on 1/5/2013 at 8:50 AM

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    ACardAttack

  • The hire of HWSNBN was a gigantic blunder.
    If you want to play this "what if" game, let's play both sides of the coin. What if BP had never left? Where would the program be now if he had continued his success? Would the Big 12 have taken WVU over UL?
    One can play this what if game till the cows come home.
    The bottom line is THAT hire was terrible. It's been fixed. Big time.

    jns51 ●

  • cardsguy said...

    It was a mistake. It was a bad hire. And he fixed it. And he knocked it out of the park with his fix. A great leader isn't always perfect but they know how to make it right in the end.

    And I'm with you. In hingsight, I like where we are now. I wouldn't change anything,

    Exactly. At the time, it sucked major ass. End the end, it worked perfectly.

    cardchak

  • It was a huge mistake. Charlie Strong was on my Top 3 list before Krags was hired. It seemed like Tom didn't even have a list though.

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    JtownCard

  • I'm officially over Krag.

    The only thing that still pisses me off about him is the fact that he broke our bowl streak, which would be riDICulous right now, and he also broke the UK streak.

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    bezzle

  • it was a mistake, the worst and best mistake TJ ever made. Because he learned from his mistake and made the best possilbe choice to replace that disaster far beyond anything would could have anticipated.

    Rugersp101

  • bezzle said...

    I'm officially over Krag.

    The only thing that still pisses me off about him is the fact that he broke our bowl streak, which would be riDICulous right now, and he also broke the UK streak.

    And destroyed our APR that one really urks me.

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    RedScott

  • It would have a whole lot easier to live through if we knew the future. But yes, in hindsight, it had to be. A man must go through hell to get to heaven.

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    TheodoreSVader1 ●

  • Rugersp101 said...

    it was a mistake, the worst and best mistake TJ ever made. Because he learned from his mistake and made the best possilbe choice to replace that disaster far beyond anything would could have anticipated.

    Exactly.

    So many awful leaders make a decision and sticks to it no matter what. He learned from his mistake, Every move he's made before hiring Strong and after his hire has been brilliant.

    I am amazed at his leadership skills and his style isn't really that complicated. I would love to work for a guy like that. If I was any of his coaches or anyone on his staff, I would never leader leave.

    cardsguy

  • What's even more incredible is strongs first year. He essentially used the same players krag brought into a bowl. That strong was a great leader from the start. He took a group of kids that krag recruited and brought to a bowl victory. Yea huge mistake. Fire everyone!!!!!

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    urcookin

  • True character is revealed through adversity

    DaVille

  • urcookin said...

    What's even more incredible is strongs first year. He essentially used the same players krag brought into a bowl. That strong was a great leader from the start. He took a group of kids that krag recruited and brought to a bowl victory. Yea huge mistake. Fire everyone!!!!!

    against what was then a pretty darn good southern miss team. That was an awesome win especially after what we heard that USM coach said at the beggining of the game. "there ain't no way a team from that conference can keep up with us" or something like that.

    Rugersp101

  • "These things have a way of working out." -Denny Crum

    OneBadBird

  • Rugersp101 said...

    against what was then a pretty darn good southern miss team. That was an awesome win especially after what we heard that USM coach said at the beggining of the game. "there ain't no way a team from that conference can keep up with us" or something like that.

    Lol, a CUSA coach said that?

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    ACardAttack

  • ACardAttack said...

    Lol, a CUSA coach said that?

    Yes, and I think he coached UNC this year.

    OneBadBird

  • OneBadBird said...

    Yes, and I think he coached UNC this year.

    Yeah he is at UNC now

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    ACardAttack

  • Cajuncard said...

    Many jumped on TJ for the Krag nightmare hire as his one "bag hire". But was it a bad thing in the long run?

    In hindsight, while it can never be cast as a good hire, it had fortuitous consequences.

    Had he hired a successful replacement for CBP, we may well have accepted a B12 invite and be in WVU's hell.

    Instead Krags monumental failure held us back for his tenure; but the timing and success of CCS rendered us available, when the ACC came calling.

    The ACC is looking very solid right now and the culture, proximity, BB and equity (no TX dictator) is a much better fit for UofL academically and athletically.

    Devil's advocate. How do you know UL wouldn't have been one of the team's sought by the ACC when they got PITT and Syracuse?

    DerVille

  • Krags was not only a terrible hire, but the time it took to fire him was too long.

    As for other hires that year...well, Strong didn't get hired that year, but he would've been available as a HC. The guy I wanted to see at least considered was Jim Mora Jr (who Petrino replaced with the Falcons), and he certainly made a splash this year in his first season at UCLA. Imagine 2-3 good years of Mora Jr after the Orange Bowl before he moved-on, followed by the hiring of Strong. Where would we be?

    As for other hires in 2007...plenty of busts around the nation, but Stanford hired a guy away from the University of San Diego that turned out to do pretty well by the name of Jim Harbaugh. Think we might've been a good program to jump to instead of Stanford considering where our program was at and a year of coaching Brian Brohm at his fingertips?

    There are plenty of routes we could've ended up with Charlie Strong now (or even for the past 3 seasons) without going through the debacle of Kragthorpe.

    GCGK

  • Cajuncard said...

    Many jumped on TJ for the Krag nightmare hire as his one "bag hire". But was it a bad thing in the long run?

    In hindsight, while it can never be cast as a good hire, it had fortuitous consequences.

    Had he hired a successful replacement for CBP, we may well have accepted a B12 invite and be in WVU's hell.

    Instead Krags monumental failure held us back for his tenure; but the timing and success of CCS rendered us available, when the ACC came calling.

    The ACC is looking very solid right now and the culture, proximity, BB and equity (no TX dictator) is a much better fit for UofL academically and athletically.

    As others have mentioned, I understand your reasoning, but unless Jurich hired Krags to lose, then it was a bad hire.

    Using your logic, you could also claim that maybe it was a good move to hire Cooper to hold us back further so that John L and Petrino wouldn't have carried us to better records and the Big 12.

    Also, who's to say that hiring someone other than Krags in that first year couldn't have propelled us to another BCS bowl earlier?

    The better way to put it is just to call it a bad hire that ultimately worked out for the best.

    boilercard

  • ACardAttack said...

    Lol, a CUSA coach said that?

    oh yeah it wasn't the head coach I don't remember which one said it, but there was a video of him shouting it right before the kickoff, i can't find it, but it was diffinately said.

    Rugersp101

  • GCGK said...

    Krags was not only a terrible hire, but the time it took to fire him was too long.

    As for other hires that year...well, Strong didn't get hired that year, but he would've been available as a HC. The guy I wanted to see at least considered was Jim Mora Jr (who Petrino replaced with the Falcons), and he certainly made a splash this year in his first season at UCLA. Imagine 2-3 good years of Mora Jr after the Orange Bowl before he moved-on, followed by the hiring of Strong. Where would we be?

    As for other hires in 2007...plenty of busts around the nation, but Stanford hired a guy away from the University of San Diego that turned out to do pretty well by the name of Jim Harbaugh. Think we might've been a good program to jump to instead of Stanford considering where our program was at and a year of coaching Brian Brohm at his fingertips?

    There are plenty of routes we could've ended up with Charlie Strong now (or even for the past 3 seasons) without going through the debacle of Kragthorpe.

    Cincinnati hired Brian Kelly that year too and followed that up with another solid hire three years later. Unfortunately for them it hasn't meant bupkis for their conference affiliation.

    I can't get into the re-writing of history that Crookthorpe could somehow have helped our current situation. The guy was a disaster in every way shape and form, the only thing he did was delay our arrival.

    metro

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