Pat Forde Rips Bobby Petrino A New one

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In the coming days and weeks, the disingenuous drifter will say what Arkansas fans want to hear.

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22 Responses to Pat Forde Rips Bobby Petrino A New one

  1. WTNY 12/12/2007 at 10:19 AM #

    Arkansas was desperate.

    They will worry about Petrino leaving when next season ends. For now they can engage in delusions of grandeur, like all fans do (until September).

  2. Texpack 12/12/2007 at 10:39 AM #

    That is about as harsh an article as I’ve ever seen written about a coach. If Ole Miss hammers the pigs next year there will be suicides across the state of Arkansas. Don’t think that Houston Nutt won’t run up the score if he gets the chance.

  3. SuperStuff 12/12/2007 at 10:44 AM #

    Every coach that recruits against this guy should photocopy this article and hand it out to the kids they are after. LOL…

  4. LRM 12/12/2007 at 10:54 AM #

    I was completely suprised by this hire. It seems to me a good indicator of how desperate Arkansas had become to land a “name” coach to protect whatever credibility to which they feel entitled.

    As an Arkansas fan, even with the very capable Felix Jones returning, my chief concern would be his offensive strategy — will he attempt the spread without a QB?? — and more importantly his complete mismanagement of the running game in Atlanta. Warrick Dunn (196 carries/46.4 ypg/3.1 ypc) has gotten almost three times as many carries but averages half the yards per carry as Jerious Norwood (75 carries/35.6 ypg/6.2 ypc).

    Nothing about Petrino would excite me, least of all his instability.

  5. ADS95 12/12/2007 at 11:13 AM #

    Scathing article, but it makes a number of fair points.

    However, ask yourselves this: How much worse would it have been for word to leak out that Arkansas declined interest in Petrino (known commodity head coach with a lot of experience and success) and instead went after an assistant someplace.

    It looks like he fell into their lap – they weren’t courting him.

    But if I were them I’d put a BIG buyout in that contract. HUGE.

  6. McPete 12/12/2007 at 11:21 AM #

    “But if I were them I’d put a BIG buyout in that contract. HUGE.”

    and it still won’t prevent him from taking the USC job when Pete Carrol leaves. someone else will pay that, and gladly, since he’s a fine college coach.

    but to make parallels with the nc state coaching search, i’d never want a guy like petrino at nc state. he won’t stay long and turmoil is almost never good for your program. look at what virginia tech has been able to do with beamer. if he’d left 7-8 years ago, would they still be as good? i doubt it. hiring a good coach is still a crapshoot and when you have a good one, you don’t want him to flirt with every opening every year.

  7. packbackr04 12/12/2007 at 11:48 AM #

    ahhh chi wa wa! yeah Petrino is a total toolbag

  8. packbackr04 12/12/2007 at 11:50 AM #

    i do feel bad though, the fallout from the Vick situation keeps on coming.

    speaking of, i hear Mike Vick just started a shoe comp…. do you know what hes calling his new shoes?
    .
    .
    .
    .
    HUSH PUPPIES!!!!

    too soon

  9. Noah 12/12/2007 at 1:03 PM #

    I’m not sure I understand what the problem is. Some guy wanders in and offers you TWICE your salary to do what you do….you don’t interview with him or talk to him?

    I do.

    Is your current job every_SINGLE_thing you want it to be?

    Mine isn’t.

    And I say this as someone who likes his job.

    Larry Brown is the same way. He hangs around long enough to satisfy his curiousity and then moves on. It’s not like any of this stuff is a secret.

  10. tooyoungtoremember 12/12/2007 at 2:08 PM #

    LRM, nice points about Petrino’s mismanagement of the running game in ATL. Too bad (for Petrino) Felix Jones will probably jump ship as a first round pick in the NFL this year too. IIRC, almost all of their star players from this year are either graduating or leaving early for the NFL

  11. tooyoungtoremember 12/12/2007 at 2:19 PM #

    Sorry for the double post, but this situation really sheds light on how bad it was for Petrino with the Falcons. He leaves them high and dry in the middle of the season, essentially ruining any chance for him to ever jump back to the NFL (regardless of if he will actually ever have the desire to) to go to a middling SEC team at best that won’t have any of the key players returning that brought them moderate success this year. But he’s Bobby Petrino, so Razorback fans will expect him to produce in year 1 even though we all see how that worked out for Saban this year.

  12. PamlicoPack 12/12/2007 at 2:30 PM #

    I’m with Noah…what’s the big deal? sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime for Petrino. Were he going from Louisville straight to Arkansas, nobody would be saying a word, cuz that is a no-brainer. How was he suppposed to know when he took the Atlanta job that the cornerstone of that franchise’s offensive system was going up the river for two years? Were the shoe on the other foot, the Falcons wouldn’t have hesitated to cut him loose in the middle of the season. The NFL is a business.

  13. BoKnowsNCS71 12/12/2007 at 2:31 PM #

    Total agreement with Noah’s comments. If you are an alumni or fomer coach — you usually “love” the school. That’s a nice feel good concept but even loving your school doesn’t mean they will always love you (e.g Amato, Bunting, etc)

    Petrino is a paid employee. Pay him a nice salary and he will work his butt off to make your school a success. But after he does — and someone wants to offer bigger bucks for essier recruiting and a faster road to National Championships and it’s a no brainer — he’s gone.

    In the working world, you have a nice job at IBM but dang this new company comes in and offers to double your salary — and per Forde you would be a jerk to even consider it? Wait till Fox Sports asks him to come on over. He’s leave faster than Petrino.

    There is this weird altruistic theme among some of these writers that ignores the fact that money often drives motivation. Not always — see Coach K and $30 mill from the Lakers who opts to stay with what he loves. It’s each man’s choice. Petrino’s bad choice was going to the NFL where the players are not driven by the love of the team but by money and personal gain.

  14. PamlicoPack 12/12/2007 at 2:38 PM #

    and one more thing…in the current dog-eat dog world of recruiting, his rivals would have had him for lunch if he HADN’T said things like “my kids are going to graduate from high school in Louisville.” I’m sure nasty whispering about Amato’s future were the reason his last two recruiting classes went in the crapper. Are any of you completely honest and upfront with everyone at your place of employment as to your looks elsewhere? Of course not, because it would ruin your effectiveness. What would Forde, et. al have rather Petrino said?

  15. wolfbuff 12/12/2007 at 3:23 PM #

    Look, Petrino is what he is. He’s going to keep moving until he lands a job like USC or Notre Dame where there is no more upward movement. Arkansas and Louisville knew (or should have known) that going in. Arkansas should enjoy the ride – assuming there is one – while it lasts. Just like we did with Lou Holtz. Lou didn’t jump quite as often as Petrino, but his career plan all along was to get to Notre Dame. He executed that plan, and we, and Arkansas and Minnesota were stepping stones along the way. ‘Tis better to have won for a short period of time than never to have won at all.

  16. wufpup76 12/12/2007 at 4:17 PM #

    to be fair to Pat Forde, i think the article doesn’t get written if Petrino has not made a habit of this behaivor (looking for a new job after EVERY season?)

    while it’s valid to point out that some decisions just make good business sense (more money, better perks etc.), i think it’s also valid to say that Petrino’s behaivor is overall bad business … after a while no one’s gonna want to dance with you for fear of being jilted

  17. the_phisherman 12/12/2007 at 4:28 PM #

    ^ the same thing can be said for an employer when they see that you have held 5 jobs with different companies in 7 years

  18. tvbman 12/12/2007 at 5:03 PM #

    BTW, Petrino didn’t leave for Arkansas to make twice what he was making in Atlanta, he left to make HALF of what he was making in Atlanta. Another thing to note is that he knew that Michael Vick was being investigated by the feds when he took that job, so he knew (potentially) what could happen. Of course, at that time, no one knew the extent of his involvement and that he would plead guilty.

  19. MatSci94 12/12/2007 at 11:41 PM #

    I’m not sure I agree with the ripping of Petrino.

    The Falcons offered him the opportunity to coach one of the best athletic quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. All of the people saying that he couldn’t win with Vick may have fueled his competitive spirit.

    But the Falcons traded away the backup QB to satisfy Vick, and those are hard to come by. Does anyone thing that Petrino was going to last in Atlanta in this situation? If you know you are in a bad job situation, and something else good comes along, why would you not take it?

  20. Noah 12/13/2007 at 8:27 AM #

    “BTW, Petrino didn’t leave for Arkansas to make twice what he was making in Atlanta, he left to make HALF of what he was making in Atlanta.”

    I was referring to the move from Louisville to Atlanta. And then the move from Atlanta to Ark. would be because the job is more appealing.

  21. packgrad2000 12/13/2007 at 10:10 AM #

    I think Forde still has a valid point. This guy’s a mercenary, not unlike Butch Davis. Sure, if you just look at the Atlanta to Arkansas move, it doesn’t look that bad. But when you look at the last 7 years, it’s easy to see that he has no loyalty.
    For me, I’ll take TOB any day over these guys.
    It’s not that you expect every coach to be like Jim Grobe and be satisfied and loyal with where he’s at, because money is surely ONE motivating factor. But it sure does appear that the Petrino’s, Butch Davis’s, Nick Saban’s, etc. are driven primarily by one factor: money. Well I’d probably throw in their ego too, but I digress.

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