This is also bogus. The man stayed at Louisville for four years before accepting a better job at Arkansas. He stayed at Arkansas for four years before he was fired. Western for a year and then back to Louisville for the last four (which by the way probably says a little something about the guy that Louisville took him back after he left and after the scandal). Petrinos recruiting classes were also consistently better than Nutts or Bielemas. You are not going to have a top 5 recruiting class at Arkansas. This also shows that the guy did more with less. He has some character flaws no doubt but he will win. Someone in the SEC is going to pick him up. IF Butch gets canned I would rather it be us than one of our rivals.
Actually, that's not entirely correct. His career path pretty much goes as follows:
2001 - Was the OC for the Jaguars before leaving for the OC job at Auburn. Then-HC Tom Coughlin wasn't even aware the Petrino was looking at / considering the job until Auburn announced the hire publicly.
2002 - Auburn OC, left that job at year's end to become HC at Louisville.
2003 - Had interviews with boosters at Auburn about the negotiating a deal to replace the HC there both behind Louisville's back as well as behind the back of still-HC / his former boss Tommy Tubberville. He then repeatedly lies about it (even when faced with evidence from reporters of the Louisville paper that had gotten flight records showing Auburn's president and AD to pretty much have been visiting him)...until Auburn finally fesses up to the whole thing. At which point Petrino finally admits to it, claims it was a mistake he made because he was a "young coach," and begs to be forgiven. Louisville gives him a pass because they went 9-3 and "his offense blew up scoreboards."
2004 - Petrino had interviews with Notre Dame, as well as discussions with UF and Ole Miss about their jobs, before "pledging his loyalty" to Louisville in December, signing a new contract with the Cardinals Dec 21. Five days later (Dec. 26), he interviewed to replace Saban at LSU, pulling out of consideration at the start of next year (when Miles to LSU became obvious). Lousville's department started getting sick of this repeated game, but no way to really fire someone after a 12-1 season.
2005 - Petrino interviewed with the Oakland Raiders (after repeatedly telling Louisville he never had any interest in coaching in the pros). He turned down the job and professed Cardinal loyalty once again.
July 2006 - Petrino signed a 10-year contract worth up to $25 million. Afterwards, saying that Louisville was his home. (He even insisted on the $1 million buyout, saying that he did so to tell teams not to pursue him.)
January 2007 - Five months later, he left Louisville to coach the Atlanta Falcons. His players were shocked, having had no idea it would happen.
November 26 2007 - Petrino says that he isn't considering leaving the Falcons, having not given any of the college coaching vacancies a single thought.
Dec 10 2007 - 14 days later, Petrino announces he's resigning from the Falcons. He informs his team of this by a
70-word letter that he had
posted in the Falcons' locker room. He's introduced as Arkansas' HC that night.
April 2012 - Motorcycle crash happens. It's discovered that not only is he having an affair with a current team assistant (and volleyball player), but that he also hired his side squeeze (possibly illegally) in a shortened 16-day interview process (30 days being the required period) over other more qualified candidates...opening up Arkansas (a state institution) to possible legal matters if he was kept. (Petrino also tries to hide her presence, asking a witness not to call 911...Arkansas eventually releases a statement saying Petrino was alone.)
April 11 2012 - Petrino's fired at Arkansas (among other things to come out between then: he lied the AD and he also paid his mistress $20,000 that she used to buy an Acura).
Dec 20 2012 - Petrino is hired by WKU for the 2013 season. He pretty much lets it be known he's not planning to stay with the program.
Jan 8 2014 - Petrino leaves WKU for Louisville.
Nov 2016 - The Wake Forest playbook scandal happens. Petrino claims he has no idea of this happening, then suspends and fires an offensive assistant coach who allegedly shared it with all the defensive coaches...meaning HC Bobby would have pretty much have had to be the only one on the whole staff that had no knowledge of it.
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Also worth some note, this has been comments by two of the programs following his departures:
2008 Cardinals AD on cleaning up Petrino's mess following his departure:
Bobby went to areas where he thought he was strong recruiting and some of them panned out and some didn't. That's the nature of it. But listen, we had to clear out a lot of discipline issues. And our numbers suffered. We cleared 21 kids out of here, and that's a lot. That's a big hit for anybody to take, Eric. I don't know anyone that has. But we want to do things the right way.
2013 SEC coach regarding the state of Arkansas cleaning up the post-Petrino mess:
They are going to be slim in a lot of spots. It's going to take them three years to get a good foundation. It's a product of bad recruiting - which is typical of a Bobby Petrino school. It's the same thing that happened at Louisville that got Steve Kragthorpe fired. Petrino didn't leave him any players. It's the same thing at Arkansas. They have no players on defense. Petrino would load up on offense and leave the cupboard bare. That's why he can't ever get over the hump.
