Bobby Petrino abruptly called Falcons owner Arthur Blank on Tuesday afternoon and resigned to take over the head coaching position at Arkansas.
Did I just hear a collective nation say: “Huh?”
Looks like Nick Saban, Tommy Tuberville and the Liar’s Club have a new SEC member. This is absolutely stunning news.
Petrino’s year in Atlanta has been rife with thuggery, fan fallout, the Vick saga, players publicly calling out their coach and questioning play calling and personnel decisions. Now, it ends with the biggest city in the Southeast hating his guts.
This is HIGH COMEDY! Let the comments roll…
Here’s an updated story.
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This reminds me of something…Every good coach in the country turned them down, some of which were not even contacted. Then they get lucky and a great coach falls into their lap. If Saban was a great coach this would be the exact same scenario.
I’m curious. There has to be some sort of fallout from this. In the NFL, they actually take contracts seriously.
i say good for bobby petrino. he found himself in a horrible sitation in which the player that made his team work was taken away from him…leaving him screwed. as for loyalty, coaches forgot that word a long time ago. there’s also a big difference between bailing on millionaire cry babies (who wear “free mike vick” shirts), and bailing on 19 year old kids.
Houston Nutt just aged 20 years after hearing this news.
I agree with gerry dorsey. Too many good coaches have lost jobs to appease “franchise” players in the NFL, and really, all pro leagues. If college baseball were the money cow that football is, Joe Torre would be wearing a Cal State Fullerton Titans cap right now. I honestly don’t hold it against any coach that floats between the NFL or college. Not just because Saban is our guy now, but because the jobs are entirely different, and I’ve had to learn a few lessons like that myself.
Bah - What’s Petrino done that so great?
Two conference championships - one in C-USA, and one in the Big Least. 2-2 in bowl games. 41-9 is a good record, but is not very telling when put up against sub-par competition (such as exists in C-USA and the Big East).
Also, it bears noting that he did all this while his major in-state rival (in both recruiting and actual football) was on probabtion.
Now, after a one-year burn-out in the NFL he’s going back to college, but instead of going up against a bunch of softies, he’s in the friggin SEC West - which has, at the very least, two very solid schools in LSU and Auburn - and we can only hope to add Alabama to that list, soon. Not to mention the physical, upset minded squad at MSU. Plus a giant or two from the SEC East on a yearly basis - and even if he navigates this, he’s still got the big dog of some stripe or another waiting in the SEC Championship. Let’s see him field a swiss-cheese defense like he did a Louisville and come out on top.
Maybe this is a recruiting hire… one could argue that’s all that Saban has brought to Bama so far. And if that’s what they’re going after, well, I suppose he’s a big name, and will be able to bring some strong recruits. Still… I’m not that impressed, and honestly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.
I mean, hell, at least Saban won a MNC, so folks could at least pretend the hype was warranted. But Petrino? He’s just a creation of the media, nothing more; smoke and mirrors, and all that…
Er… that probation, not probabtion.
VTTW, very little about a coaching search is luck. Especially in the sense that you are implying. Try this sentence on for size: “Can you believe it? Alabama actually found some guy willing to sign the richest contract in college football. They are so lucky.” There’s just too much that goes into the search. If I was an AD, first on my list would be “coaches who were great in college but are struggling in the NFL.”
That being said, “almost won the Big East” isn’t quite the currency you’d think it would be.
okay, effinacotton and I posted at the same time, and so now I have to reverse field and argue that I’m wrong which I didn’t realize until I saw him say the same thing differently. First, I didn’t realize they won the Big East. Second, I don’t think it’s fair to knock a coach for winning any conference, especially since he if he did win the big east (I don’t remember and I’m too lazy to look it up) he did so with Conference USA recruits. Typically, winning any conference means that you did so with the approximately the same level of talent as the other teams in your league. And it’s not fair to say that their in-state rival was on probation. It is fair to say that their in-state rival is Kentucky. Yes, THAT Kentucky.
Petrino is a good hire. The fact that he’ll bring NFL headlines in the process means he’s the exciting hire they wanted. I don’t think Arkansas is the job he probably thinks it is.
Also, this search has been pretty entertaining so I’m sorry to see it go. What I’m clinging to right now is the fact that Petrino and Arkansas don’t actually have a deal right now. How interesting would it be if Arkansas insults Petrino, Miles goes to Michigan (don’t laugh…he’s still talking to them), Petrino to LSU, and Arkansas finally has to admit that hiring a coordinator would be a smart move.
You guys are going to get absolutely no argument from me about Saban or Petrino bolting million-dollar titty babies for college kids who (sometimes) care whether they win or lose.
After I watched the Falcons last night and saw those absolute thugs supporting their Fallen King Dog-Killing Thug and future Shower Ankle Grabber Vick after scoring one of the few touchdowns they’ve scored all season, I automatically felt sorry for Petrino.
I thought, “Good Lord, this guy needs to get out of Dodge.”
He absolutely should have bolted and he did. Good for him. Screw the Falcons. I used to LOVE those guys, and I bought a $75 pullover that’s hanging in the back of my closet that forever will until they get some more class guys in there like Warrick Dunn. But, you know, they’re drafting standup citizens like DeAngelo Hall, Roddy White and Jimmy Williams. And there have been rumors Pacman Jones may joint them next year.
Dunn is like the Atlanta Falcons’ Tim Tebow. He’s a standup guy on a team full of idiots. And they took turns bashing Petrino in print and in person all season. You wouldn’t bolt for college?
And as for Saban, who I hate with a white-hot passion, um, have you seen the Dolphins? He helped build that monstrosity, and he saw the writing on the wall. He wasn’t exactly a great pro recruiter, and he’s not done so badly in college so far as far as February championships. So that’s something, right?
I mean, wouldn’t you have bolted for Bama? The dude wanted a job.
From the Arkansas press conference to Bobby Petrino:
To Petrino: “Coach, this (support) is just the tip of the iceberg. You haven’t seen nothing yet.”
Translation: “You better freakin’ win, Petrino, or we’ll have people with Wal-Mart money flying crop-dusters over the stadium with Fire His Butt written on the banner. We’ll slander you through message boards and act like you’d better win immediately, because we’re freakin’ Arkansas. Who wouldn’t want to come to Fayetteville.”
Well, the two Arkansas fans I know are very excited. I think this is the best hire they could have made given the coaches that were out there. And I don’t really fault Petrino for wanting out of Atlanta so soon either. Not having a number one quarterback on a roster is a killer. Just ask Cam Cameron.
But seriously, can the SEC get any tougher? If LSU wins the BCS title, that’ll mean the SEC will have 5 coaches that have won a national title, plus another that went undefeated. Then factor in Petrino, Nutt, Croom. Man.
As for Saban at Miami, personnel decisions weren’t exactly all his. How much turnover did that roster have from the time he got there to the time he left? Very, very little. He missed out on Drew Brees, but honestly, he based that on a doctor’s opinion and it may or may not have even been his decision to begin with. Same goes with Culpepper. I can’t explain Harrington at all. Not that he’s easier to explain in Atlanta. Bottom line with Saban’s pro career is he took over a big loser, turned them into a little loser, and since then, a team made up of almost exactly the same roster is losing at a historic pace. Either Saban took a team of losers and made them almost-not-losers, or we learned absolutely nothing about him in his NFL career. I lean toward the latter in that the college game and the pro game are almost different sports altogether from a coaching standpoint.
No offense, TideFan, but it’s very predictable that a Bama fan would take up for Saban under any fire at all. Saban’s a fine, fine college entity. He was horrible in the pros, and this year proves it, in my opinion.
We all have opinions though, and yours is valued.
It’s also very predictable that a UT fan will try to turn anything into something negative towards Saban.
How does this year prove that he was horrible in the pros?
Look at the Dolphins’ record the two seasons prior to his arrival and this season, and compare it to Saban’s two years. He also helped make Jason Taylor defensive MVP.
He took over a very old team that didn’t have the draft picks to get younger cause the previous regime had traded them away to get Ricky Williams.
Dude, seriously, he was the coach and freakin’ GM.
Who do they have to build around??? Ronnie Brown? Maybe. Who else? That whole franchise is in shambles. He did NOTHING to help it. Nothing.
Saban’s doing a fine job recruiting at Alabama, and I’ve said as much. He hasn’t done much else other than beat us, but it’s early. He ran Miami in the ground. Sorry. I’m just stating the facts here.
Cam Cameron has made awful decisions this year, but he was a great coordinator, so I doubt all this is his fault. The way I see it, Miami may have a couple wins if Saban was there, but that would be it and he’d be looking for a job this winter.
He got out while the getting out was good, and the match was there, and Bama got fortunate and Saban felt the same way. What do you want me to say? That he was a great coach at Miami??
OK. I will say that. I will lie. He didn’t help that franchise. My father-in-law is the biggest Bama fan in the world and a huge Miami fan, too, and he says the same thing. Sue me for trying to speak the truth.
I’m also a big Dolphins fan. And no way am I saying he should’ve gotten coach of the year. He did make a bad decision on not taking Brees. But I’m still not totally sure that was 100% his decision. Besides that, what else could he do? He didn’t have many draft picks and the few good players on the roster were too old to be trade-able.
But saying that this year’s Dolphins team is totally his fault isn’t true. Did Saban trade Wes Welker and Chris Chambers? Did Saban use the number one pick in the draft for a returner/project wide receiver?
Ran Miami into the ground? Where do you think they were when he got there? Sorry. I just fail to see any logic behind saying that he’s responsible for the decline this season, but not responsible for the improvement while he was there.
He certainly didn’t help matters, and he is as much a part of it as anybody.
Bottomline is that Miami was a disaster when he got there, and everyone wants to hang him up by the ankles for not performing an absolute miracle in only two seasons. Miami is still 3 years removed from even potentially coming back and that would involve aggressive dealing that Huizenga (Saban may have been the GM, but Huizenga’s name is on the credit card) is unwilling to pay for. Of course, three years from now, it will still be Saban’s fault.
Honestly, the situation wasn’t much better than what Petrino is leaving: star player unexpectedly suspended from the team for an entire season or more and excessive cap dollars tied up in aging vets who are on their retirement tour. The only difference is that Atlanta will at least have decent draft position that wasn’t traded away to get that star player who can’t play for you.
There’s no question Saban wasn’t a fit for the NFL. But he didn’t ruin that franchise. That’s tantamount to buying a house that was burnt to the ground and then wondering why it hasn’t increased in resale value a week later.
See TideFan, that’s not the “bottom line.”
That’s the Alabama fan’s “bottom line.” My bottom line is somewhere else, and the actual bottom line falls somewhere in between.
Miami’s record the two years prior to Saban and this season: 14-31 (0.311)
Saban’s two year record: 15-17 (0.469)