[Quality88]

The day Steve Kragthorpe was hired as the University of Louisville's football coach he said, "I feel like I'm in the middle of a great dream right now. And I don't want to wake up."
It's fair to say now that the alarm clock is blaring. It has been since the first game of the season, in fact, when he was booed late in a 73-10 victory over Murray State for not letting backup quarterback Hunter Cantwell throw a pass.
The grievances have escalated the past two games.
And now that the Cardinals have lost to the University of Kentucky for the first time in five years, I don't want to say that a significant number of U of L fans are calling for Kragthorpe's head -- but I will say that many of them are carrying around platters to put it on.
I don't know the numbers. I don't know the approval rating. But turn on talk radio, look at message boards, read the e-mails to this newspaper or -- truth be told -- look at Tom Jurich's inbox, and you'll see that some have moved well past the honeymoon being over to the marriage being in question. After only three games.

"I can't believe it," said Cardinals fan Matthew Sparks of Bagdad, Ky. "I listen to some of our fans, and you know what they sound like? Kentucky basketball fans. He's been the coach for three games, and you've got people talking about giving up on him? I mean, I'm hurting. I'm down. But I never thought I'd see the day when U of L football fans sound like UK basketball fans."
Sparks makes an interesting point -- and gains extra points by bashing a rival in the process.
But there are fair questions on all sides.
You have to question the staying power of a fan base that is shaken after three games under any new coach, even if U of L's undersized group paid its dues by enduring years of having virtually nothing and by footing the bill for a new stadium itself.
Still, they've reaped great rewards lately, and their response to this speed bump on the "collision course" might be a telling sign of the program's future.
When Bobby Petrino took the U of L job, it was seen as a place where you could win eight or nine games a year and fans would love you forever. He didn't beat a ranked team in the regular season until his final year in Louisville, and few complained.
The message to the U of L fan base is this: Yes, you've paid your dues. You have many more to pay.
But the message of this upheaval to Kragthorpe is just as clear. Fans aren't just upset at losing a game. It's far more. They're worried about seeing a defense that can't even get lined up properly. They're confused by a lack of candor from the coach. The national championship aspirations for this team were out of line -- but the team's own media guide this year trumpeted that the team has "the talent to repeat as Big East champions and a return to a BCS bowl game."
At the moment, those projections seem in serious doubt. And though frustration is high over what happened at UK, it's just as high over what might happen in the next nine games.
"It falls on me," Kragthorpe said of the responsibility for improving the situation. "Because I'm the ship's captain. In a situation like this it's time for me to make sure the ship is going in the right direction."
Folks around here don't know much about sailing. They'd settle for a discussion of the secondary. But the question facing fans, players and coaches alike is this: What kind of ship will it be?
Maybe they should replace that train whistle at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium with a fog horn. Because right now it's pretty tough to see.

[Quality88]

And they say KY fans are picky.

[Lefty Noob]

Originally Posted by Quality88

And they say KY fans are picky.

Losing to a rival is never easy, and even harder when the experts say you're supposed to beat them, and harder still when you're a rookie head coach replacing the guy who pretty much brought life to that football team. I guess the fans are venting, but that's the danger of high expectations.