Krag Adds to his Staff

Rocco Gasparro - UofL's football media relations director - has given us something to read for the next hour as he details the new coaches Krag has added to his staff in this press release. I'm very impressed with the detail. More on these guys later tonight...

Louisville, Ky - University of Louisville head football coach Steve Kragthorpe has announced three additions to his coaching staff for the 2009 season.

Former University of Tennessee coach Larry Slade, former Utah State head coach Brent Guy have joined the staff as defensive assistants, while former Southern Mississippi offensive coordinator Jay Johnson has joined the Cardinals as an offensive assistant.

Kragthorpe also announced that special teams coordinator Mark Nelson has resigned from his position to pursue other opportunities.

"I'm very excited to add the caliber of coaches like Larry Slade, Brent Guy and Jay Johnson to our staff,* said Kragthorpe. *All three of these coaches have a tremendous amount of experience and will be great additions to our football staff."

*Larry is one of the most-respected defensive back coaches in the nation,* said Kragthorpe. *I worked with Larry at Texas A&M and he is one of the best I*ve ever been around. I*m excited that he has decided to join our staff*

Added Kragthorpe, *Brent has a proven track record playing great defense wherever he has coached. I*m excited to add a coach with the expertise to our staff. He had great success at Arizona State as a defensive coordinator and can add a lot of expertise to that side of the
football.*

*I*ve known Jay for a long time and he has an excellent offensive mind,* said Kragthorpe. *His teams at Southern Miss where verysuccessful and explosive, and we*re fortunate to add Jay to our offensive staff.*

Slade joins the Cardinals* defensive staff after 10 seasons with Phil Fulmer at the University of Tennessee in the defensive backfield and is known for turning out some of the nation*s best secondary units.

Despite a 5-7 record by the Volunteers in 2008, Slade was instrumental in leading one of the nation*s top defensive units. The Volunteers were ranked fourth in the country in pass defense and tied for the third in the country in total defense.

Slade coached All-America defensive back Eric Berry, who was recognized by five All-America outlets -- American Football Coaches Association,Walter Camp Football Foundation, Football Writers Association of America, Associated Press and Sporting News -- becoming the first
Tennessee player to claim unanimous mention since offensive lineman Antone Davis in 1990.

Slade*s 2000 and 2001 secondary units, aided and abetted by the rest of the defense, established school season records with 64 and 72 passes broken up, respectively. It continued a pattern of success that Slade has enjoyed in his 36 years in the coaching profession.

Before coming to Tennessee, Slade spent five seasons at Texas A&M from 1994-98. His 1997 unit allowed a nation*s best three passing touchdowns.

Prior to joining the staff at A&M, Slade spent two seasons at Maryland as the defensive coordinator from 1992-93. Slade also spent six seasons at Washington from 1986-91, which was highlighted by a national championship in 1991, during which the Huskies ranked first in NCAA
statistics for pass efficiency defense.

Slade also enjoyed stops at Southern Illinois (1984-85), Howard (1983), Richmond (1982) and his alma mater Shepherd (1973-81).

Slade, a native of Pelham, N.C., who twice was named All-West Virginia while playing guard at Shepherd in the early 1970s. He was named Little All-America honorable mention in 1971 and later inducted into the Shepherd College Hall of Fame. He received his degree in biology with a
minor in English.

Guy joins the Cardinals after spending four seasons as head coach at Utah State. Under his guidance, Guy had a total of 14 players (four in`05, three in `06, four in `07, three in *08) earn first or second-team all-WAC honors, including WAC Freshman of the Year Award in 2006 in linebacker Paul Igboeli.

Guy came to Utah State from Arizona State where he was the defensive coordinator for four years. In 2004, ASU went 9-3 and defeated Purdue in the Sun Bowl. That marked the Sun Devils* second bowl appearance in three years. ASU*s defense finished 2004 ranked 28th nationally in rushing defense, 32nd in pass efficiency defense and 48th in both total
and scoring defense.

In 2002, Guy*s defense forced 40 turnovers, including 22 interceptions. Those totals ranked third and fourth in the country, respectively. In addition, ASU recorded an incredible 123,tackles for loss, including 52 sacks that season. He coached Terrell Suggs, who set the NCAA record for sacks that season with 24 and was recipient of the Bronko Nagurski Award (nation*s top defensive player), Lombardi Trophy (nation*s top lineman) and Morris Trophy (Pac-10*s top lineman)

Before joining the ASU staff, Guy was the defensive coordinator at Boise State from 1998-2000, helping the Broncos become the cream of the league as BSU won the 1999 and 2000 Big West Championships posting a 10-1 combined conference record in those two years. Under his guidance, Boise State led the Big West in total defense, rushing defense and
scoring defense in both 1999 and 2000.

During his first stint at Utah State from 1992-94, working with the linebackers, the Aggies won a Big West Conference Championship and posted the only bowl victory in school history, winning the 1993 Las Vegas Bowl, 42-33, against Ball State.

Guy, who has been a part of nine bowl teams in his playing and coaching career, had two stints coaching at his alma mater of Oklahoma State. After serving as a graduate assistant (1986-87) and recruiting coordinator (1988) there, Guy coached the Cowboy linebackers from
1989-91 and then again from 1995-97.

Guy began his playing career at Oklahoma State as a walk-on and became a starter at both defensive end and linebacker. As a senior in 1982 he started at linebacker and recorded 106 tackles to rank third on the team. He also had three tackles for loss, recovered one fumble, had one interception and broke up seven passes. Guy graduated from Oklahoma State with a degree in hotel and restaurant administration in 1983.

Johnson spent last season as an administrative assistant with the Cardinals after spending five years at Southern Mississippi, including three as the offensive coordinator, where he helped lead the Golden Eagles to five straight bowl appearances.

Under Johnson*s guidance, the Golden Eagles established a school record for total offense in 2007 with 5,066, eclipsing the 5,000-yard plateau for the first time in school history. The Golden Eagles also finished in the top 25 in rushing offense in 2006 and 2007, rushing for
over 2,000 yards in both seasons for the first time since 1987. The Golden Eagles averaged 27.8 points per game in *07 and 29.6 in *05, the highest totals since 1998.

Johnson also coached the school*s third 1,000-yard running back in school history when Damion Fletcher ran for over 1,300 yards in consecutive seasons, becoming the only back in school history to accomplish such a feat.

Under Johnson*s tutelage in 2005, Dustin Almond, had one of the best seasons ever by a Golden Eagle signal caller in 2005, as he set the single-season record for passing completions (216), passing attempts (392), and total offense (2,762), while throwing 23 touchdowns, the second most in school history.

In 2004, Johnson guided a solid stable of running backs, which averaged 144.9 yards per game, 22.8 more yards per game and six more rushing touchdowns than in 2003. Anthony Harris, Sherron Moore and Larry Thomas carried the majority of the load for the season.

He has extensive coaching experience and knowledge of several positions, including quarterbacks, receivers, defensive backs, running backs and tight ends.

Johnson has honed his coaching skills at a variety of levels and schools. He started his coaching career at Columbia-Hickman High School in 1993, serving as the quarterbacks, receivers and defensive backs coach.

In 1994, he moved to Missouri as a graduate assistant coach, later moving to Augsburg College, serving as the school's offensive coordinator and recruitment coordinator from 1994-95, before moving to that same position at Truman State from 1995-97. He directed Truman State's offense to an average of over 30 points and 400 yards a game during the 1995 and 1996 seasons.

He served as a graduate assistant at Kansas from 1997-99 and became its quarterbacks coach in 1999, serving in that role until 2001, when he moved to coach running backs and coached in that role before arriving at Southern Miss.

Johnson, a three-time All-Gateway Conference quarterback and four-time conference player of the week in his playing days at Northern Iowa, led his teams to a 31-8 record, and won three conference championships, while appearing in three national playoffs. He finished his career with
almost 500 completions and threw for over 8,000 yards and 58 touchdowns.

He was elected team captain in both the 1991 and 1992 seasons. He quarterbacked the '92 team to a 12-2 record, a conference championship and the No. 3 ranking in the final NCAA Div. 1-AA poll.

Johnson also holds a variety of academic honors to go with his on-field prowess. He earned President's Academic Excellence honors in the Gateway Conference and held a perfect 4.0 grade point average while completing his master's degree at Missouri. That earned him a Superior Graduate Achievement Award from the Department of Health and Exercise Science,
and he was a Dean's List scholar at Northern Iowa where he compiled a 3.47 GPA. He also taught several courses while at Truman State and Missouri.