Louisville fans just can’t catch a break lately. Whether its recruits decommitting, assistant coaches dropping like flies, a coach’s public infidelities, or hiring Steve Kragthorpe, nothing seems to go the way of the Ville. Cardinal fans secretly rejoiced when John Calipari came to UK 2 years ago. “Now we just have to sit back and wait for the probation to occur”. They assumed not only WILL Coach Cal get in trouble, but rather it was just a matter of WHEN. Well, it’s funny how things work out sometimes, huh?
When he’s not drinking bottles of the goose that are larger than himself or eating suckers, Nevin Shapiro (Seriously? Nevin? That’s the name you’re going with here?) is busy telling everyone how many rules and violations he broke with the Miami Football program. This proverbial bus is loaded full of information and details and everyone that was involved in this mess is now being thrown under said large automobile. One person, mentioned by name in this [URL=”http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=AoWMtlFo5R12EnVBODL6JupPMuB_?slug=ys-clint_hurtt_allegations”]Yahoo story[/URL] just happens to be the current Defensive Line coach at Louisville, Clint Hurtt.
Clint Hurtt was described by Nevin (SMH) as the liaison between him and the recruits. Hurtt brought the kids to certain restaurants where Shapiro (that’s a little better) was paying for the meals. He also brought recruits to Shapiro’s mansion at times. Lastly, he received a 5k payment from Shapiro that was called as a “loan” and this “loan” was allegedly paid off. I know if I were making a 6 figure salary I would need an occasional 5 grand loan too.
But that was Miami, not Louisville right? Maybe. There are some dots to connect, but all the Calipari haters do this same thing. Teddy Bridgewater was huge get for the Louisville program. He is a Florida kid, and everyone expected Charlie Strong to recruit well out of Florida, it would just be a matter of time. [URL=”http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Teddy-Bridgewater-87781″]The problem here is Clint Hurtt was the guy who recruited Bridgewater[/URL]. This by itself means nothing, but when you put all the “facts” that have been stated about Hurtt about bring recruits to restaurants and mansions, it makes you start to wonder.
The University of Louisville has a decision to make. Do they wait this out and let the NCAA hand down its usual mildly retarded punishment or do they preemptively let Hurtt go and call it a day. Who knows? This all could result in nothing in the end, but I think this teaches us all a very special lesson here.
When UK hired Gillispie, Kentucky fans learned how to be humble, how to lose to Vanderbilt by 40 points, and how it felt to be treated like an irrelevant program. UK fans didn’t complain anymore about not scoring x amount of points against a lower tier team, they screamed Hallelujah and were happy to win ANY game. Some of that has worn off with the new frame of mind Calipari has brought to town, but those old feelings remain.
I encourage Louisville fans to realize how this feels right now. For so long they have rooted for a certain coach’s demise and hoped for an imaginary probation. Ironically, if the NCAA digs deep enough they may find something that brings both of those results they hoped for UK to their very own school. Good luck with this whole thing Louisville, I hear the NCAA’s butt doesn’t taste so good.
