Person with knowledge of the decision to AP: Louisville fired football coach Steve Kragthorpe

AP source: Louisville fires coach Steve Kragthorpe

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville fired football coach Steve Kragthorpe after finishing the year at 4-8, the school’s worst season in more than a decade, a person with knowledge of the decision said Saturday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the university has not announced the move. A news conference was scheduled for later in the day.

Louisville completed its season Friday with a 34-14 loss to Rutgers. Kragthorpe went 15-21 in three seasons after replacing Bobby Petrino in January 2007. He had two years remaining on a contract that paid him about $1.1 annually.

Louisville failed to make a bowl game in any of Kragthorpe’s three years. The Cardinals went 5-16 in the Big East during his stay while fan support eroded.

Just more than 23,000 showed up at Cardinal Stadium for Friday’s finale, the second-smallest crowd in stadium history. One fan brought a sign celebrating “Coach K’s away party” while a small group wore bags over its heads.

The scene was hard to imagine in 2006, when Louisville came within a second-half meltdown against Rutgers from going undefeated and playing for the national title.

The Cardinals finished the season 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl, capping a meteoric four-year rise under Petrino in which the Cardinals went 41-9 behind one of nation’s the most dynamic offenses.

Those numbers faded under Kragthorpe. Louisville’s injury riddled offense averaged just more than 18 points a game this year, ranking in the bottom two in the Big East in nearly every offensive category. It wasn’t the kind of output Kragthorpe was expecting when he added offensive coordinator to his title last spring.

Still, Kragthorpe said Friday he’d seen enough progress to earn one more season, but acknowledged on-field performance wouldn’t be the only factor in athletic director Tom Jurich’s decision.

Cardinal Stadium is expanding from 42,000 to 55,000 next season. Given the precipitous drop in attendance — Louisville averaged 32,450 fans this year, down from 41,482 in 2006— Kragthorpe knew his support was lagging.

“Economics will have some bearing on where we need to go,” he said. “I don’t think we’re far enough away to make a change.”

Kragthorpe pointed to programs that were rewarded by staying the course, including Pittsburgh. Kragthorpe noted he had one fewer win through three years and Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt, who now has Pittsburgh in the top 10.

“I feel like we’re making progress, (but) not at the rapid rate that we want to,” he said. “I want to be the guy that gets this thing back to where we want to be.”

He won’t get the chance, and his quiet departure ends three disappointing seasons in which he was unable to continue the momentum the program built under Petrino.

Jurich called Kragthorpe “a slam dunk” when he made the hire on Jan. 9, 2007, less than 48 hours after Petrino let abruptly for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Jurich joked at the time he’d nearly made the hire three or four times during Petrino’s many flirtations with other jobs.

Kragthorpe appeared to be a more stable alternative. He resuscitated Tulsa’s moribund program in 2003, turning the Golden Hurricane — who won two games total in the two years before Kragthorpe’s arrival — into a perennial bowl contender.

Success proved more elusive at Louisville. His stay began with a top 10 ranking and whispers of a national title shot after Kragthorpe helped persuade star quarterback Brian Brohm to return for his senior season.

Brohm, however, couldn’t overcome a porous defense. The Cardinals quickly tumbled from the rankings following a last-second loss to Kentucky in his third game on the job.

Louisville finished 6-6 in 2007, but the Cardinals appeared to get some of their swagger back midway through the 2008 season. They upset South Florida to improve to 5-2 before the bottom fell out. Louisville dropped its final five games, including a 63-14 loss to Rutgers on national television in the season finale.

Kragthorpe came forward the next day pledging to turn things around quickly. Despite the second overhaul of his coaching staff in as many years, it simply didn’t happen.

This fall looked an awful lot like the last two, with Louisville losing a series of close games because of turnovers, penalties and mental errors.

Kragthorpe’s players defended him, saying he’d made the locker room a better place when he cleaned house following Petrino’s departure. Nearly two dozen players either left or were kicked off the team during Kragthorpe’s first 18 months. The coach said the moves were necessary but robbed the Cardinals of valuable depth.

Kragthorpe went through the junior college ranks to fill most of the holes. While there were several success stories — such as linebacker Jon Dempsey — there weren’t enough to keep Louisville atop the Big East.