Petrino - not riding solo (and fired at Louisville)

I don't understand how his issues have never been coaching when he has left a mess everywhere he has been.

Either he's the greatest coach ever and no one can win with his leavings, or he milks everything he can from a program and bails when thinks look like they will turn sour.

 

Petrino rides again

 

His teams at Arkansas got progressively better every year he was there and the team he had lined up the year he got fired was ranked preseason #10 in both polls. They may have been a bit overrated, but would have easily won 9 or 10 games had he still been there. The timing of his incident left the AD in a bind and he wound up hiring John L Smith to a one-year deal that was a disaster.

He went 5-7, 8-5, 10-3, and 11-2 his four seasons in Arkansas.

 

It's amazing how many third, fourth and fifth chances some people seem to get (Lane Kiffin as well), while others are crucified for a one-time mistake.

 

Next things that could make this story even better would be if Petrino hires Jessica Dorrell-Whateverhername to a position on his staff and hires freqposter as his director of security.

 

He had a ton of talent at Louisville when he left, so I don't think it would have turned sour there had he stayed.

 

I'm in the minority in that I never thought Arkansas should have fired him in the first place. It hasn't worked out too well for them either...

Petrino was a douche long before the scandal happened, but he's probably one of the top 10 coaches in college football, but it will seem unlikely that he'll ever be able to get a top job. Louisville is a very good job, but it's not a top job. Louisville appreciates what Petrino did for them the first time around and I think he'll be successful the second time around.

 

Then again, you think Shanahan is still a viable NFL coach, so......

 

Arkansas with Petrino - 34-17

Arkansas since firing Petrino 7-17

 

So Western Kentucky is the college football equivalent of a re-education camp. Gulag 42101.

 

It's not just that they're 7-17. They are an AWFUL 7-17, with lopsided losses. Bielema probably isn't the answer and they'll be at least five years from playing at the level Petrino had them at in 2010 and 2011, when he had them as the CBS afternoon national TV game on a somewhat regular basis.

Now Arkansas may not be in a position to recover in the SEC anytime soon. They're in a state that is attached to Louisiana but probably has about 6% of the NFL talent of Louisiana.

Yet, from a legal basis, Jeff Long had to fire Petrino.

If he kept Petrino, the university would have had massive exposure for harassment/wrongful termination claims going back many years. Petrino is worth millions for a football program but would he have been worth the tens of millions of dollars from punitive damages from other campus (or even state) cases?

 

We should probably wait a full recruiting cycle until we decide Bielema "probably isn't the answer." Just sayin' ...