 |
| Petrino's injuries were evident in his news conference last week. |
Just days after announcing he would be taking an indefinite, but paid leave of absence, Petrino was fired Tuesday by the University's athletic director Jeff Long. This is just the aftermath of irresponsible relationship.
Petrino, 51, was involved in a motorcycle accident back on April 1, suffering numerous injuries that caused him to be hospitalized. However, he wasn't riding alone that Sunday evening on Highway 16.
Former Arkansas All-SEC volleyball player Jennifer Dorrell was also involved in the crash, but Petrino tired to hide her presence in what Long called "knowingly misleading" the university. Dorrell, 25, had been hired by Petrino just days earlier to be the student-athlete development coordinator, but was also engaging in an inapporiate relationship with the now-former Arkansas head football coach.
At one point, Petrino also gave Dorrell $20,000, but it hasn't been disclosed what exactly it was for. Her job status has yet to be addressed.
As for Petrino, his coaching career begin in 1983 as a graduate assistant at Carroll College in Montana. He spent 15 years in college football before Tom Coughlin hired him to the his quarterback coach in the NFL, joining the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1999.
After serving as the quarterbacks coach for two seasons, Coughlin promoted Petrino to the team's offensive coordinator, calling him an "offensive mastermind". But after the team finished last in the AFC Central at 6-10, Petrino headed back to the college game. He spent one year as the offensive coordinator at Auburn until he landed his first head coaching job at Louisville.
In his four seasons as a Cardinal, Petrino accumulated a 41-9 record, but was offered a job to return to the NFL, this time as a head coach, and ran with it.
On Jan. 7, 2007, the Atlanta Falcons made Petrino their 13th head coach in franchise, bringing him in to add to then-quarterback Michael Vick's already electric and dynamic ability. However, that failed before it even got started.
Prior to the start of the 2007-08 season, Vick was suspended indefinitely by the NFL for violating the league's conduct policy for his involvement in a dog fighting scandal.
Petrino was doomed from the start.
With the team floundering in the NFC South at 3-10 through the team's first 13 games of the season, Petrino abruptly resigned and took the head coaching job at Arkansas.
Considering the Razorbacks lost all three of their running backs (Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis) to the 2008 NFL Draft and prior to his arrival, Petrino's career at Arkansas was pretty good, continuing to win and live up this "offensive mastermind" nickname. He watched quarterback Ryan Mallett break school records, made Tyler Wilson a first-team All-SEC quarterback and the main reason why Arkasnas' offense has had the top passing attack in the SEC the last three seasons.
Petrino won 34 games during his four year stay in Fayetteville, including a 21-5 record the last two seasons.
This last season, Arkansas finished the year 11-2 after defeating the Kansas State Wildcats in the 2012 Cotton Bowl. Both of Petrino's two losses this season came at the hands of conference rivals and teams that played in this year's BCS National Championship Game, Alabama and LSU.
Those accomplishments have now been wiped way and find Petrino without a job -- a job he thought he'd have for long time after he signed a seven-year extension in Dec. 2010.
Long has said Petrino was fired "with cause", making his departure not a costly one. In other words, the University will not need to give Petrino a multimillion dollar buyout.
In the end, this is just another black eye of the NCAA.
No comments:
Post a Comment