Boosters, rumours and Rutgers

Everybody, it seems, has a “prominent booster” friend who is telling them that Steve Kragthorpe will resign at the end of tonight’s game.

I guess it’s time to review how these types of things work.

But first, let’s not bury the news. It isn’t going to happen. U of L athletic director Tom Jurich remains firm in his support of Kragthorpe. There’s no effort whatsoever from the university end to facilitate Kragthorpe’s departure. That genre of rumors has been categorically denied by Tom Jurich in a discussion with U of L beat writer C.L. Brown, and by others within U of L athletics.

And a Kragthorpe resignation at the end of this game would be a career-killing move for the U of L coach. Even if you leave a school, you do so with your next job lined up, you don’t run off the field, throw down your clipboard and walk away. That’s not how Kragthorpe does things, and not how they’ll go down tonight.

Now, Kragthorpe will face some questions about his future tonight, because I’ll be asking them. But Jurich told C.L. Brown that Kragthorpe remains committed to U of L for the long haul, and the athletic director is reciprocating.

As for the rumors, I can think of three, maybe four prominent supporters of this university who would be in on that kind of deliberation before the fact, maybe. Nowhere near the hundreds that seem to be materializing on the web.

In fact, I’d say if your booster friend doesn’t have a building named after him somewhere on the U of L campus, I’d be a little skeptical.

I’m skeptical anyway. Of the major boosters I know, and we’re talking about a pretty prominent handful, all support giving Kragthorpe significant additional time.

A portion of the rank and file fans, however, would appear to be a different story.

So this is where we are. Enjoy the game. I’ll be live blogging in a bit.