After several days of being vacant, LSU has hired a replacement to Gary Crowton as offensive coordinator. Per ESPN:
Former Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe has been hired as LSU's offensive coordinator, a source at the school confirmed Thursday.
Kragthorpe, a former Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach earlier this decade, was 44-43 in seven seasons as head coach at Tulsa and Louisville after leaving the NFL.
Admittedly this one seems like a fairly strong hire. Even though he crashed and burned at Louisville, Kragthorpe nevertheless have seven years of head coaching experience on his resume, his offenses have generally always been very good, and with him having spent over ten years coaching at Texas A&M, North Texas, and Tulsa, he'll almost certainly benefit LSU's recruiting attempts in the state of Texas. If nothing else, this seems like a pretty big upgrade over the outgoing Crowton, and with Zach Mettenberger set to be the starting quarterback next season, well, I hope everyone enjoyed those three years of watching horrendous quarterback play supplemented by terrible coaching for the Bayou Bengal offense. Things will probably be different in 2011.
On the bright side for 'Bama, though, even with Gary Crowtown and the tag team of Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee at quarterback last season, LSU nevertheless managed to rack up over 300 yards of offense in the second half alone, including that little 3rd and 13 debacle. Even with Kragthorpe and Mettenberger around, it really cannot get much worse than that, can it?