
Originally Posted by
Eric Crawford
[B
Atlanta, we could have told you all about Bobby[/B]
Oh, baby.
That was my exact thought when I found out Bobby Petrino had left the Atlanta Falcons with three games left in his first season to become head coach of the University of Arkansas.
Not coincidentally, those were the same words Tom Jurich said to me on a November night four years ago. I had called to tell him the people on an Auburn booster's jet that had flown to Sellersburg, Ind., to meet with Petrino weren't, as the coach had told U of L officials, members of a headhunting firm, but the Auburn president, athletic director and trustee chairman themselves.
Oh, baby.
Petrino is lucky Jurich didn't fire him that night. If he had, Petrino wouldn't have accomplished all that he has today. And by that I don't mean his top-10 rankings, coach- of-the-year awards, Orange Bowl championship and impressive wealth.
I mean this: He managed, somehow, to come off as less honest than Michael Vick and more conniving than Nick Saban. I don't know which is more impressive.
At least he won't be as reviled in Atlanta as its most hated man -- Union Gen. William T. Sherman. All Petrino burned were bridges.
Oh, baby.
Atlanta, we could've told you. We've seen it all before. The assurances of loyalty. The indignation when doubted. The departure in the night. The only surprise is that Petrino is leaving before ever establishing that he could succeed, even a little, in the NFL.
Few people seriously held this season's struggles against him, least of all team owner Arthur Blank.
Amid the dark cloud of Vick's sentencing Monday on a federal dogfighting conviction, Blank offered Petrino as a ray of hope in interviews, calling him the team's CEO and praising him for "dealing with the set of cards that unfolded this year."
A little low on honesty
Blank should have known Petrino is usually bluffing. According to reports, the coach assured Blank earlier that day he'd return to coach the Falcons. Now it's being reported that he (or his agent) already had been in contact with Arkansas. When Petrino coached the Cardinals in the Orange Bowl, he had spoken to at least one prospective Falcons assistant several days before the game.
To steal a line from the late Atlanta humorist Lewis Grizzard, if honesty were oil, Petrino would be a couple of quarts low.
Oh, baby.
Arkansas? Let me guess, it's always been his dream to have unlimited access to Wal-Mart. You buy something, return it three months later, they don't care! It's a place, no doubt, that his family members can call home. They have to call home, just to find out where it is.
In January he said coaching in the NFL was his dream. I hope somebody at Arkansas, for the school's sake, asked Petrino just how many teams he's dreamed of coaching.
Let's get this straight. Arkansas now has Petrino, John Pelphrey coaching basketball and ex-U of L coach Tom Collen coaching women's basketball. If they come for Bill Keightley, there's going to be trouble.
Oh, baby.
A remarkable coach – if only …
The sad part of this is that Petrino was, and may still be, a remarkable college coach, if he can just get recruits and their parents to stop laughing. Though all of a sudden, all of these off-the-field messes that U of L has been hinting that he left here are much more pertinent, now that he's returning to the college game.
Maybe Arkansas knows what it is doing. It did hold an unusual late night news conference to announce him, lest he bolt before the ink was dry. As if that would stop him. It took him only a week to talk to Louisiana State after signing one of his U of L extensions.
But seriously, the man can coach. Razorbacks fans, you're in for a treat. His tenure may well be the most exciting few weeks in your program's history.