OT: Petrino Fired (per Joe Schad twitter and ESPN)

Submitted by orobs on

https://twitter.com/#!/schadjoe/status/189851517203914752

 

 

Bobby Petrino is out at Arkansas

 

UPDATE (ESPN):

 

Bobby Petrino will not return as head football coach at Arkansas, multiples sources have told ESPN.com's Chris Low.

The university has called an 8:15 p.m. ET press conference at which time athletic director Jeff Long will announce Petrino will not be back.

ixcuincle

April 10th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^

Guess you shouldn't ride motorcycles with alleged mistresses. 

He turned that program around, but his motorcycle accident and the allegations were too much. Happy Trails to Petrino

 

xcrunner1617

April 10th, 2012 at 7:26 PM ^

It is not that I think other conferences such as the Big 10 are free from scandal.  I believe the last year has proven this point.  If you make a mistake in the Big 10 vs. the SEC, the chances of receiving a significant punishment for the offense just seems to be much more likely in the Big 10.

aaamichfan

April 10th, 2012 at 7:26 PM ^

"the Big Ten has no moral high ground on inaction after scandals of this (or higher) magnitude."

 

Penn State and Ohio State have no moral high ground. Don't lump the entire Big Ten into that shit.

FrankMurphy

April 10th, 2012 at 8:24 PM ^

WTF?!?!? No, they didn't handle that situation "about as well as they could have". That's the whole point. The inaction of Paterno, Schultz, Curley, and Spanier after learning that they had a potential child rapist in their midst is exactly the reason why that situation became such a huge scandal. Not until the Board of Trustees stepped in did someone in a position of authority at PSU actually do the right thing and halt the staggering breakdown of leadership within the administration. And by that time, the damage had been done. 

detrocks

April 10th, 2012 at 8:27 PM ^

The line "once the scandal surfaced" makes it appear as though once the grown-ups found out they cleaned house.   A graduate assistant, head coach, athletic director, the president of the university and others all had prior knowledge and did nothing for years.   The only reason Penn State was forced to act was because law enforcement moved in and indicted Sandusky.   Now, once that happened, they moved quickly, but if an indictment hadn't happened do you really think PSU would have done anything?  

brandanomano

April 10th, 2012 at 8:38 PM ^

On the very inside, yes, everybody handled it poorly. It's been a while, but if I'm not mistaken, and I very well may be, the only people who knew about it were that grad assistant, his father, JoePa, and the police; all of whom did relatively nothing. Once it was out in the open, it took the University 4 days to fire an iconic coach and face of their entire university despite knowing they would get a ton of backlash from irrational fans and students. I don't know exactly what happened in that case or everybody who knew for that matter, but firing Paterno was a ballsy move on their part. They made the right decision, but it was ballsy.

PatrickBateman

April 10th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^

I hate to keep going back to this scandal, but one thing I'm always struck by that others don't seem to be as offended by.  Of the four entities  listed above, which one is the most responsible to catching criminals and pursuing justice, an 80+ year old senile senior citizen, a mid-twenties underling, said underling's dad, or THE POLICE?  I feel like that is the most offensive part of the entire saga, the complete and utter ineptness of the police force in charge of the investigation.

BlueZoo

April 10th, 2012 at 9:14 PM ^

You've got to be shitting me.  The cover up by Penn State was astonishing. Once the scandal surfaced Graham Spanier told everyone everything was super peachy and everyone in the athletic department was super awesome.  

Comparing it to some random football related crap at OSU is pure homerism.  What happened at PSU is truly sickening.

Butterfield

April 10th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^

I agree.  I was only using Moeller situation as an example of the moral standards that most of the B1G institutions hold themselves to.  Gary Moeller got drunk at a restaurant and lost his job over it.  If that's not a "no tolerance policy", I don't know what is. 

Every Roh Has …

April 10th, 2012 at 7:11 PM ^

I'm kind of conflicted on this. I'm not surprised that he was fired based on the nature of his offense, but I am surprised he was fired because Arkansas is in the SEC, where indiscretions don't seem to matter

Stike A Pose

April 10th, 2012 at 7:26 PM ^

It would complete the circle.  He used Atlanta to go to a higher profile college now.  Except he wouldn't be stepping up in college, he'd be stepping back down.  At least if he goes to NO he wouldn't have to leave notes on the players lockers to let them know he's leaving after a year.

 

UMxWolverines

April 10th, 2012 at 7:18 PM ^

Back to mediocrity for Arkansas.

In today's USA Today sports section, there was a picture of a guy protesting with a sign that said "What's wrong with scoring in the offseason?" I lold.

Jivas

April 10th, 2012 at 7:15 PM ^

But I really couldn't see how you could go on with him as the coach.  Would the athletic department be able to go on with Petrino, his mistress, and her fiance all under the same roof?  Would keeping Petrino have meant somehow buying off both the mistress and her fiance?  In buying them off would you effectively throw them under the bus for what happened?

I figured the AD would take more time to work through everything, but I couldn't see a reasonable avenue to go forward with Petrino as coach.

JHendo

April 10th, 2012 at 7:17 PM ^

Wow.  The football fan in me is saying, "Why the holy hell would you get rid of a guy who turned your team into a perennial national competitor for something that wasn't even any sort of football violation!!!"

The rational human being in me is saying, "Kudos to Arkansas for choosing character and morals over wins."