Less than 24 hours after completing a joyless 4-8 campaign with a three-TD home loss to Rutgers, Steve Kragthorpe became the recipient of DI-A's least surprising pink slip, with Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich announcing the dismissal at a noon press conference. Thus concludes the Cardinals' least successful three-year stretch since Ron Cooper's equally brief tenure in the mid-1990s, which directly preceded breakout successes under John L. Smith and Bobby Petrino.

Kragthorpe's stint with the Cardinals was one of the more puzzling coaching faceplants of the past decade, as he'd just come off a stunning resurrection of the Tulsa program -- the Golden Hurricane went from two total wins in the two years preceding his arrival to 17 wins, two bowl bids, and a Conference USA title -- and was taking the reins at a program that Petrino had managed to establish as a contender not just in the Big East but on a national level. But Kragthorpe debuted in Louisville with a 6-6, bowlless season in 2007 and managed to get worse by even increments each year -- 5-7 in 2008, followed by this year's 4-8 record. He will be remembered for going 0-3 against in-state rival Kentucky (right on the heels of Petrino's 4-0 mark) and 4-17 in Big East play (including providing Greg Robinson with two of his three conference wins at Syracuse).

Kragthorpe had two years left on his contract and stands to receive a golden parachute worth about $2.4 million; possible candidates for his replacement are said to include Ken Sumlin (17-7 at Houston), perpetually cranky Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach, and perpetually overlooked Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, any one of which would throw interesting new wrinkles into an '09 coaching carousel already poised to revolve at warp speed.