busuncle said:
Freelance Hack said:
John L. Smith is having a long overdue meeting with karma.
In taking the Louisville job, he refuses to make a clean break from the Utah State program prior the Humaitarian Bowl, in which the Aggies get stomped by Cincinnati.
Of course, we all remember how most Louisville players found out Smith was taking the Michigan State job. They found out on the sidelines during the GMAC Bowl. Then Smith has the gaul to say complain about Louisville fans and the program.
He's getting just what he deserves.
Oh, please. Loyalty, shmoyalty. Virtually every coach gets fired eventually. The smart ones leave for better places while they still can. So what if he didn't give enough hugs and kisses on the way out.
John L. Smith is one of the quirkiest, most original coaches in football and he's fairly media-friendly to boot. Yes, MSU is crashing and burning, but it's not even close to the disaster that was the Bobby Williams era.
Maybe he did leave at the right time (most U of L fans thought that at the time anyway), but the way he went about it was poor. Yeah, coaches get fired, but he could have waited a day or two after the bowl to announce he was going to East Lansing. He also didn't have to say that Louisville was never going to compete for a national title or that fans there were being unrealistic.
Yeah, John L. has his quirks. Louisville fans liked him for that. They liked his running with the bulls in Pampolna. They liked his mountain climbing. They liked his lust for living life to the fullest.
What they didn't like and what they grew tired of was the undisciplined style in which his teams played. You almost always expected a penalty on every play.
John L. Smith brought the Cardinals out of the doldrums and back to respectability, but he plateaued. He probably realized that more than anyone else and that's why he left. No Louisville fan I know had a problem with John L. Smith leaving the program. They were just upset at how he handled it and how he treated the program afterward.
He didn't have to kiss ass or feign gratitude, but he didn't have to make the disparaging comments that now make him seem like a fool.