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Steve Kragthorpe: University of Tulsa
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Having not had a winning season since 1991, Steve Kragthorpe rolled into Tulsa two years ago and led the Golden Hurricane to an overall 8-5 record. In the process, Tulsa played in the school’s first bowl game in 12 years. His coaching job helped produce the biggest turnaround in Division I-A in the 2003 season and Kragthorpe was named WAC Coach of the Year. While Tulsa slipped to 4-8 last fall, optimism is high this season as the Golden Hurricane begin their first season as a member of Conference USA.

The 26th head coach in Tulsa history, Kragthorpe came with 15 years of experience as both a college and professional coach. His experience goes much further. His father Dave was an assistant coach at Montana, South Dakota State, and BYU and then head coach at Idaho State. The elder Kragthorpe then went on to coach at Oregon State after serving as athletics director at Utah State for two years.

The younger Kragthorpe came to Tulsa after spending the previous two years as quarterbacks coach of the Buffalo Bills. Prior to his NFL stint, he spent four years (1997-2000) as an assistant coach at Texas A&M, serving the last three seasons as offensive coordinator. Kragthorpe also coached the wide receivers (1997-99) before becoming the quarterback coach for the 2000 season.

Kragthorpe broke into the coaching ranks in 1988 as a graduate assistant on his father’s Oregon State staff. He then coached at Northern Arizona, North Texas, and Boston College before joinging the staff at A&M. We recently spoke to Coach Kragthorpe about Golden Hurricane football from his office on campus. More specifically, what it’s like being the head coach for Tulsa and what goes on behind the scenes?

AFM: What was the feeling like when you were named Tulsa’s Head Coach and became ultimately in charge of the program?

SK: I felt I was well-prepared and ready for the challenge. I worked as an assistant under Dan Henning, R.C. Slocum and Gregg Williams during the last decade. My dad, who was a head coach at Idaho State and Oregon State, also helped prepare me. The one thing I’ve learned as an assistant is how important it is to have a great staff…a head coach can’t do it all and you have to delegate as much as you can. As a head coach, I’m involved in many outside activities – fund-raising, working with the community, academics, and media-related activities. You’ve got to delegate and check your ego.

AFM: Tell me how your office is used..staff meetings, visiting with recruits and their family, watching tape, phone and computer time?

SK:
I have the ability with our lap-tops to watch tape and cut-ups on my computer which I do a good deal of the time. The office itself is multi-functional and used in a lot of ways – one-on-one meetings, seeing recruits and players – but we have another meeting room that’s used for staff meetings.

AFM: What coaches and players have come by and visited you during your tenure as Tulsa’s coach?

SK:
Tulsa has a tremendously rich tradition as a football program and a number of alums have come by – former Cowboys Wide Receiver Drew Pearson, Hall of Fame receiver Steve Largent, and two All-Americans from the mid 1960’s – end Howard Twilley and quarterback Jerry Rhome. Arkansas coach Houston Nutt has also visited with us.

AFM: What are some of the treasured items in your office? How have you set it up?

SK:
We’ll be moving into new offices soon but we’ve set up this office, in part, as a shrine to former players and the great tradition of Tulsa football. We’ve reframed a number of pictures of Tulsa players and I have pictures and game balls of players I’ve coached around the office. Both Drew Bledsoe and Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills are some of them.

AFM: If you could invite three coaches into your office for a meeting – living or dead – who would they be?

SK:
Clearly Coach John Wooden would be one of them. I met him when we played in the Humanitarian Bowl and he is truly a great coach. Coaching is coaching no matter what the level. I would also choose him for his impact on young people. The other two would be two coaches I’ve respected my whole life – Bear Bryant and Vince Lombardi.

AFM: If you were allowed to take only one item from your office, what would it be?

SK:
It would be the ‘Daily Devotional’ prayer that I keep in my office.

AFM: If you could start over once again and learn from one coach as a GA, who would it be?

SK:
It would probably be Dan Henning whom I worked with when he was head coach at Boston College. He has great character and I learned a lot from him in how he handled specific situations. If I could name another coach it would be R.C. Slocum who came up through the ranks and, even as successful as he became, never changed.

AFM: What thoughts or advice would you give to the person that eventually will replace you?

SK:
I’ll always remember what Dirk Koetter – now the coach at Arizona State – said to me when we were at Idaho State. He said that in coaching there will be some tough and lonely days ahead and sometimes you don’t quite understand ‘why’ when you’re walking down the hallway at about 10pm. But it will all come together. It takes perseverance and when it does come to fruition it will be worth it and feel great.






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