Louisville Follows Rival in Hiring Coach

Taking a page from its archrival’s playbook, Louisville turned over its sagging football program to someone with a pedigree for producing high-powered offenses.

Coach John L. Smith will bring his wide-open, one-back offense to christen Louisville’s new football stadium next season.

His first opponent as the Cardinals’ coach will be a fellow disciple of passing-oriented offenses -- Kentucky coach Hal Mumme.

“It might be like a spring game and it might last six hours,” Smith said in his first assessment of next year’s Kentucky-Louisville game.

Louisville Athletics Director Tom Jurich said Smith has the ingredients for success -- personality, integrity, and recruiting and coaching skills.

“A 1-10 program needs somebody at the rudder,” Jurich said. “And we found the right somebody.”

Smith brings a strong Western flavor to Louisville football -- all the way down to his trademark cowboy boots.

Like Mumme, Smith has ties to a master of the pass.

Mumme patterned his offense after those at BYU under coach LaVell Edwards. Smith tutored as an assistant under Dennis Erickson.

The 49-year-old Smith still compares strategy with Erickson, now coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

“We visit at least once a year,” Smith said after his hiring this week. “We get together ... with Dennis and his staff, trying to keep up on things that they’re doing, things that we’re doing.”

The passing game gets top billing, but Smith said he won’t abandon the running attack. If the defense is aligned to stop the pass, Smith said, he will turn his running back loose with the ball.

“We believe you still have to be able to run the football and have done so with a one-back offense,” he said. “I think you will find it is a very exciting offense.”

Excitement was missing during the Cardinals’ collapse this past season. Louisville’s 1-10 record was the worst in school history.

Smith has just one losing season in his nine years as a college head coach -- six at Idaho and the last three at Utah State.

His first Utah State team went 4-7 in 1995 but lost four games by a total of 14 points. His last two teams each finished 6-5, and this year’s team won the Big West championship and will play in the Humanitarian Bowl on Dec. 29.

The Aggies ranked ninth nationally in total offense this season, averaging 448.5 yards per game. They were 14th in passing offense (280.5 yards) and 19th in scoring 33.6 points per game.

But in his self-deprecating style, Smith said he didn’t have any magic cures for the Cardinals. He promised a blue-collar approach.

“We’re not geniuses by any means,” he said. “We’re going to hopefully give them a scheme that they will run. But our kids are going to sweat, our kids are going to work hard, our kids are going to go on the field and play hard.”

Until his arrival at Utah State, the Aggies had just two winning seasons in the previous 15 years.

“I think any time you throw it you have a chance,” Smith said. “Fast-break football is a lot of fun.”

At Louisville, he will build his offense around quarterback Chris Redman, who completed 261 of 445 passes for 3,079 yards and 18 touchdowns this past season as a sophomore. Redman said he liked Smith’s offense.

“He seems like a coach who’ll come in and work us hard,” Redman said. “That’s what we need -- to get in the trenches and start working our way back. We’ll be lethal once we put things together.”

Smith also will have to repair the football program’s frayed relations with some in the community. Attendance at home games dropped sharply late in the season as the team struggled. But former coach Ron Cooper had a corps of supporters, especially in Louisville’s black community. Cooper, who is black, was fired after three seasons.

Smith commended Cooper’s supporters for their loyalty and said all he wanted was a chance to prove himself.

He said he was uncomfortable about the timing of his hiring -- at a crucial time for recruiting and as Utah State looks ahead to its bowl game.

“It’s one of those situations that you wish the timing had been different but there’s not a lot you can do about it, so we just try to make the most of it,” he said.

Smith said Jurich was a factor in his taking the Louisville job. The two formed a friendship while rivals -- when Jurich was athletics director at Northern Arizona and Smith was coach at Idaho. The friendship and rivalry endured when Jurich went to Colorado State and Smith to Utah State.

“This game is tough enough that if you’re not working for and with good people, it’s not worth it,” Smith said. “And just having Tom, a friend, a confidant, someone I believe in that I know is a head coach’s AD, that made a big difference.”