Strong & Jurich Talked in October?

According to those in attendance and a fellow blogger, Tom Jurich said he talked to Charlie Strong about the Cardinal head-coaching job back in October. Jurich and Strong were speaking at a Churchill Downs Turf Club meet & greet Wednesday night. Jurich was introducing Strong and spilled the beans a little. From Paul Sykes of UofLCardGame.com...

The plan to replace Steve Kragthorpe as football coach intensified after
former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy repeatedly confirmed Jurich’s
beliefs about Strong as the ideal candidate to take over Cardinal football.

U of L maintained contact with Strong during his final season as
Florida defensive coordinator. Strong told Jurich after the Florida vs. Arkansas
game in October, “There comes a time when you have to make a change in your life and Louisville is the place I want to be.”

Tony Dungy just went up 265,456 spots in my favorite people on Earth list after hearing that. Louisville fans should send that guy a Christmas card and when Strong wins a BCS bowl, Dungy should get a ring.

Although extremely awesome, this is in sharp contrast to the way the Louisville athletic department treated a story I wrote on OCTOBER, 7th for LouisvilleSportsBuzz.com. I was told by people that would have no reason to lead me wrong that Jurich had been searching for potential replacements for a coach who's name I won't make you cringe with. The story and I were then called "bogus" "erroneous" and "irresponsible" by everyone sans a few friends and truth bearers. These comments from Jurich further reassure that in October he was looking for new coaches, basically letting Kragthorpe ride-out the season as a lame-duck. Any claims to the contrary are bogus, erroneous, and irresponsible.

Did a meeting take place during the season? Yes. Was Kra..err...that coach present? That I am not sure of now. From what I understand, he was a gone after the PITT debacle on October 2nd. Jurich then told the in-the-know people that the mess was going to be cleaned up. The story was written October 7. The details thereafter are irrelevant.

I know it's like beating a dead-horse, but I want to reassure that when there's a report on here, it doesn't come out of thin air. We take a lot of pride in not writing rumors and innuendo unless we indicate that. The good thing is the Cards have a so-far spectacular new coach in Charlie Strong and that coach going to be out of sight, out of mind.

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