ESPN College Football

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe was introduced Tuesday as the new head football coach at the University of Louisville, less than 48 hours after Bobby Petrino left for the NFL.

Kragthorpe at Tulsa
Steve Kragthorpe changed the culture at Tulsa. He took over a program that had lost 21 of 22 games before he arrived in 2003 and led the Golden Hurricane to a 29-22 record and three bowl appearances.
Season	Record	Bowl
2006	8-5	Armed Forces
2005	9-4	Liberty*
2004	4-8	None
2003	8-5	Humanitarian
* -- Won bowl

Kragthorpe and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich agreed to a five-year, $1.1-million deal on Tuesday that runs through the 2012 season. The contract was approved by the Louisville Athletic Association's Board of Directors on Tuesday afternoon.

The agreement was first reported by ESPN.com's Pat Forde.

"This truly is a destination for us," said Kragthorpe, 29-22 in four seasons at Tulsa, at a news conference. "There's no question that we feel like this is a place that we've come to stay."

The deal caps a whirlwind courtship. Jurich said he flew to Oklahoma on Monday night to interview Kragthorpe. On Tuesday morning, Kragthorpe and his family joined Jurich for the plane trip back to Louisville.

"We might have just completed the shortest search in the history of the NCAA," Jurich said. "I thought we needed to move quickly."

It wasn't fast enough to keep running back Michael Bush, though. Bush, who broke his right leg in September, said Tuesday he planned to enter the NFL draft.

Junior quarterback Brian Brohm has until Jan. 15 to decide whether to bypass his senior year and join Bush in the draft. Brohm is expected to meet with Kragthorpe in the next few days before making a decision.

Brohm's decision could rest on whether any of the current staff stays with the program. Older brother Jeff was the team's quarterbacks coach under Petrino.

For the players that remain, Kragthorpe's easygoing personality is proving to be a stark contrast to the button-downed Petrino.

"He gives off a really good vibe," said defensive tackle Adrian Grady. "I felt a lot more comfortable around him than the first time I met the other guy that was here."

The Cardinals finished 12-1 in 2006, won the Big East, defeated Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl and were sixth in the final AP poll. Petrino resigned Sunday to coach the Atlanta Falcons.

"I don't want to be a guy that moves around, I want to be a guy that stays in one place," Kragthorpe said.

It's a phrase Jurich had heard several times from Petrino, who flirted with other jobs after each of his four seasons with the Cardinals. Given the personal relationship between the two, dating to 1990, when Jurich was Northern Arizona athletic director and Kragthorpe was hired as the Lumberjacks' quarterbacks coach, Jurich feels this will be different.

"I said 'Steve, I've heard all these things before, that you want to be here forever,'" Jurich said. "But he said 'Tom, you've never heard it from me.'"

Kragthorpe helped resurrect a Tulsa team that had won just two games in the two years before he was hired in December 2002. He led the Golden Hurricane to three bowl appearances in four seasons. Tulsa finished 8-5 this year, losing to Utah in the Armed Forces Bowl.

"We wish Steve well in his next endeavor," Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. "He has done a marvelous job of rejuvenating the Tulsa football program and rekindling the spirit and excitement for Golden Hurricane football within the city and state of Oklahoma, as well as putting Tulsa back into the national limelight."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.