Intern Parrish chronicles the rapid rise and fall of Louisville football.

Two years ago, Louisville was on the precipice of becoming one of the new powers in college football. Bobby Petrino brought his potent passing attack to horse racing country and rode the sick combo of QB Brian Brohm and RB Michael Bush to national notoriety. Then Petrino took the money and ran to Falcons … for three months.

What was a program on the rise to do after their star coach bolted for the NFL? Hire Tulsa head coach Steve Kragthorpe after 48-hours of searching. Having already fixed a once-pathetic program using a spread attack, Kragthorpe seemed like a natural fit. Fans rejoiced.

Oops.

Since Kragthorpe took over, Louisville has gone 7-7 with losses to rival Kentucky (twice), Connecticut, Utah and 2-10 Syracuse. Louisville opened this season on national television with a 27-2. If the heat was on Kragthorpe going into the season, he must feel like he is sitting in hot magma.

The remaining schedule has only two games in which the Cardinals should win, so another 6-6 season could be in the works. How did this hire go so wrong so fast? Kragthorpe was known as an offensive guru and to his credit, the offense has done well with the exception of the Kentucky stinker. The defense, not so much. [Ed. How about landing a Top 100 player, coach?]

The year Petrino guided Louisville to the Orange Bowl in 2006, he had the pleasure of fielding a solid defense led by first-round pick Amobi Okoye at DT (the year before, he had relentless DE Elvis Dumervil). Last year, Kragthorpe had no one near that caliber on defense, and they finished 84th in the country, meaning Brian Brohm could lead them to 31 points each game and lose.

If the defensive struggles continue, and Hunter Cantwell isn’t leading the Cards to 40 points a game, Kragthorpe could surpass Petrino’s four-year loss total (nine) in the first month of his second season as coach.