Since pulling the trigger on the Bobby Petrino dismissal two weeks ago, Arkansas AD Jeff Long has received support from the vast majority of the Razorback fanbase, from some cash-tossing big boosters, and now from members of the UA football team.

Because of Long’s willingness to talk with the team about the situation, quarterback Tyler Wilson has been singing the praises of his school’s AD:


“He acted like he was the man in charge, and he is.  I appreciate that from him.  He’s an athletic director, not a football coach, but he has been (a coach) in the past.  I think that’s great.  I’m proud of the leadership he’s displayed.  Absolutely.”


Wilson brings up an interesting point.  As athletic departments have evolved into multimillion dollar business entities, more and more of the men (and women) running those departments have come up through the sales, marketing or accounting ranks.  There are fewer and fewer ex-coaches at the tops of big-time athletic departments today because schools want proven business people overseeing what amounts to big business.  Hard to blame them.

But in situations like this with Petrino — scandals, coaching changes, etc — it’s probably good to have an ex-coach at the helm.  Long knows how to talk to a team.  He knows what the men (or women) in a locker room are looking for in terms of answers from him. 

Long has proven to be the best of both worlds for UA — an ex-coach (at Miami of Ohio, Rice, Duke, NC State and Michigan) and a seasoned administrator.  This seems to be especially true in terms of dealing with the current football team in the midst of this current upheaval.

Now if he can just find the right coach to finish what Petrino started.

Bobby Petrino had an affair.  He also lied to his boss and hired his mistress and tried to cover-up who was with him during a motorcycle crash… but the big news is he had an affair!  Oooooh.  Scandalous.

And that’s why there’s still a big dig going on for any document tied in any way to Petrino’s ouster from Arkansas.  Late yesterday, the University of Arkansas released 300 pages from the personnel file of its ex-coach following a Freedom of Information Act request.  A full 131 of the pages were added during the review that eventually led to the coach’s ouster earlier this month.

In the notes we basically learn three things:


* Jessica Dorrell was more forthcoming than Petrino.

* Petrino tried to deny everything right up until the end.

* AD Jeff Long was skeptical of Petrino from the beginning of the process and he didn’t find many of the coach’s answers to his questions to be believable.


Aside from that, most of the info that’s being talked about today regards the affair – when did it start, when did it end, did it ever really end, etc.  And that’s where I lose interest.  When Petrino first kissed Dorrell doesn’t matter nearly as much to this writer as does the fact that he hired the woman and gave her $20,000 in gifts. 

The AP’s version of the story actually includes this bit:


“At one point last October, Petrino and Dorrell were sitting in a car, eating lunch and talking and ‘she said are you going to kiss me,’ according to Long’s notes of his April 10 conversation with Petrino.”


Ah, important to know.

We said we’d cover the news of this story when it first broke.  For soap opera coverage, you can find plenty of other outlets.  Paul Finebaum, for example, has had a bevy of sex experts and urologists on to discuss ED and sexual addictions.  Ha-ha.  Several lives are ruined so let’s all laugh about it.  (Until of course we’re the ones caught with our flies open and then we have to beg for forgiveness and mercy and understanding.)

Eventually this story was going to bring out the gawker in all of us.  That’s happening now. 

We know why Petrino was fired.  We know why Dorrell is gone, too.  Sorry, but I don’t care to know how many dinners or evenings the two shared together before were exited from the UA campus.

Former Arkansas and Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt made an appearance on Tim Brando’s radio show yesterday.  Not surprisingly, he was asked for his take on the decision facing Jeff Long — hire now or hand it the UA job to an interim for a year:


“Arkansas is a good job.  It’s a hard job, but it’s a good job. … I don’t know exactly what’s going on and you hear different rumors about (Long) going out to go get a big-name coach, which he probably could do.  But the problem is the timing.  The timing of everything now, as you know, it’s right here in the middle of April.  Most coaches are getting ready to finish up a spring game and get ready for recruiting in May and all of these things.  It makes everything very tough.  The interim position, there’s been talk of Tim Horton, who is a former Razorback, who has held recruiting together.  I know when we left he did an unbelievable job there of keeping all the recruits there at home.  So there’s been talk about him, what people have told me…

If you keep the interim, if you keep a coach there an you’re talking about now taking over the responsibility of being the voice, being the face, talking to the media, and your time is divvied up, it’s almost better if you ahead and say, ‘I’m going to hire another coach to take my spot and now I’m going to concentrate on being the manager.  On gameday I’m going to be the face.  I’m really going to take care of and get close to these players and take care of the media.”


That, of course, ties back to what we wrote just a few hours ago suggesting that UA promote an interim from withing and then hand a grad assistant some of the duties currently held by the coach being promoted.

Nutt also said that his heart went out to Arkansas players and fans in their time of hurting.  Yeah, I’ll bet.

As for possible big-name hires for the Hogs, how ’bout this name that was just tossed into the ring by an Arkansas sportswriter yesterday — ex-Kansas coach Mark Mangino.

Make cracks all you like, the guy won games at Kansas.  In football. 

It was only a matter of time before Jessica Dorrell and the University of Arkansas parted ways.  The only questions were: How much would she be paid to disappear and how ugly would the episode become?

Turns out, not too much and not too ugly.

Dorrell — the young UA staffer who Bobby Petrino has admitted to having an “inappropriate relationship” with and who was on the receiving end of a $20,000 gift from the coach as well as a $50,000-a-year job — has resigned as the football program’s student-athlete development coordinator.  The University of Arkansas will pay her “approximately $14,000″ as part of a “settlement and resolution of all matters between the parties.”

In other words, the buy-off was cheap in terms of avoiding some form of potential sexual harassment suit.  Kudos to AD Jeff Long and the UA legal team and quite possibly to Dorrell herself for ending things quickly and somewhat amicably.  There certainly could have been a lot more mud slung in all directions and thankfully the school won’t be forced to endure that.

Long’s press release said:


“While Ms. Dorrell had a legitimate right to apply for and accept a position within the football program, the circumstances surrounding the former coach’s decision to hire here compromised her ability to be effective in such a position.  She and I believe she should have the opportunity to move on.”


Most importantly, the 14-page document Dorrell signed includes an “irrevocable release and covenant not to sue.”  When asked about her exit, “Ms. Dorrell covenants and agrees to state that any and all disputes were resolved amicably or words of similar effect.”

Meanwhile, some big money Arkansas supporters have shown their approval of the administration’s handling of this mess by turning over donations equaling $1.25 million in honor of “the courageous leadership demonstrated by Jeff Long in the course of recent events” saying his actions have “further affirmed our confidence in his leadership and his vision” for UA’s athletic future.

Meanwhile, the search for a new head coach — or a new interim coach — continues.  Yesterday that search took an interesting turn as a former Phillip Fulmer assistant told Nashville radio station WGFX-FM that the coach and UA have spoken in some fashion.  According to Doug Matthews:


“I know Phillip has had conversations with them.  And when I say with them, all that is going to take place behind the scenes.

But everything I’m hearing from Arkansas is the spring game, I think, is this Saturday.  ‘Let’s get through spring.  Let’s see where we are.’  But I think they’ll either go with a guy that they’ve got on the staff or they’ll bring in someone to be — caretaker’s the wrong word — but bring someone in who has been through it all before.

If there is a place for Phillip, that will be the place.”


Matthews made no mention — apparently — of who exactly Fulmer had spoken to and who it was that had done the initial contacting.  The former Tennessee head coach last led a team onto the field in 2008.

Those of you who’ve read this site know that we are firmly of the opinion that Arkansas and Long should rely on an interim coach for the 2012 season and use the next eight months to identify, target and land a perfect long-term solution for the Razorback program.  From Jack Crowe’s resignation after one game in 1992 — a loss to The Citadel — to now, UA has had more ups and downs than an elevator. 

And more and more people seem to be arriving at the same conclusion — there will be more and better candidates willing to jump to Fayetteville in November than there will be now.

That said, it will be interesting to see where Long turns if he indeed decides to go the interim route.  Fulmer makes as much sense as anyone.  He knows the Southeastern Conference and current Hog defensive ends coach Steve Caldwell was a long-time Fulmerite at Tennessee.  So the interim coach would have some insight into the personalities on the team and on the staff.

But it might be better for Long to simply promote from within to maintain some semblance of stability.  Bringing in an outsider — whether that be anyone from Fulmer to Ron Zook to Sean Payton to Lou Holtz to Frank Broyles himself — could create unnecessary turf wars and friction within the staff, within the team.  (And no, we’re not serious about Payton, Holtz or Broyles.)

It might be wiser to promote an existing staff member to interim coach for 2012 — as Ohio State did last year with Luke Fickell — and hand some of that coach’s duties off to a grad assistant who is already working with and familiar with the current roster.

And for those who’ll point to Fickell’s 6-7 record in 2011, remember, the Buckeyes lost a number of players in their dust-up with the NCAA, including their star quarterback.  That won’t be the case at Arkansas.  Whoever takes over in Fayetteville — be it Paul Petrino, Paul Haynes, Taver Johnson, Tim Horton, Fulmer, or the reanimated body of Knute Rockne — will be taking over a roster primed to win double-digit games in 2012.

We believe promotion from within is the simplest, quickest solution.  But the school could do worse than Fulmer if it’s looking for an outsider.

When Bobby Petrino hired Jessica Dorrell as the student-athlete development coordinator for his football program, he did more than hire a woman he’d been having an “inappropriate relationship” with… he put his own boss, athletic director Jeff Long, on the hot seat.

A review of the 159 resumes Arkansas received shows that Dorrell was not necessarily the most qualified candidate for the job.  That happens.  If resumes were the only things that mattered, interviews would never be conducted.  However, a review of the hiring process shows that it was actually sped up at Long’s request, despite regular UA hiring procedures.

And that is a big deal.

According to the school’s policy — in accordance with an affirmative action policy — the interview process cannot begin until 30 days have passed from the time a job is posted.  The job Dorrell eventually landed was posted on March 4th.

But on March 9th, Arkansas’ AD wrote to the assistant director of affirmative action at Arkansas, Danielle Wood, and asked that the process be sped up in this case.  On March 12th, Wood asked the human resources manager for the UA athletic department, Carrie DeBriyn, why the process should be fast-tracked.

“Coach Petrino would like to request to interview early due to needing a Player Development Coordinator as quickly as possible,” DeBriyn responded in writing.  “Fantasy Football Camp preparation, Red White Game preparation and all recruiting coordination is falling short due to not having this position filled.”

Later that day, Wood approved the speed-up.  Dorrell — it turns out — was already interviewing for the job by the time the fast-track plan was actually approved.

Sex and motorcycle wrecks and phone records and bikini models make for big headlines.  So do coaching searches and the decision whether to go with an interim coach or hire a brand new man in April.  We get that.

But eventually Long will have to explain how Petrino’s actions took place right under his nose.  And in the case of the hiring process acceleration, with his actual blessing and aid.

Long has done a tremendous job at Arkansas.  He’s raised money, built facilities, and excited fans with his big name hires.

In this case, however, the University of Arkansas could face several potential lawsuits due to the actions that took place in a department that he is charged with overseeing.  Yes, Petrino is the man who tied a noose around the UA department.  But it was Long who gave him rope enough to do so.

At some point you can bet Long will have to address the subject and that he will say new safeguards have been or will be put in place to better monitor the hiring practices of his subordinates.  But that won’t save his department or the university the cost of legal fees tied to the hire Long allowed Petrino to make on a sped-up schedule.

Arkansas’ Jeff Long has shown in the past that he knows how to make a splash (targeting and hiring Bobby Petrino for football and Mike Anderson for basketball).  For that reason, the fact that a couple of pro coaches’ names were tossed out on the internet/grapevine over the weekend might make some amount of sense.

The site CoachingSearch.com claimed Sunday that sources had told writer Pete Roussel that ex-NFL head coach “Steve Mariucci is interested in the Arkansas head coaching job.”  Also, “Yet another source tells me that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels would be willing to talk if contacted by Long.”

Mariucci was tracked down by the better-known Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com and according to the ex-49ers and ex-Lions top man, the report was news to him:

“I just had a few phone calls from my son and few friends asking what’s going on and to be honest I hadn’t heard about (the report).  It comes as a complete surprise to me.”

That said, “Mooch” — who once coached California for a season prior to his NFL stints and who is now working for NFL Network — didn’t rule the Razorbacks’ job out… or in:

“It has to be the right situation.  I haven’t ruled (coaching again) out.  I enjoy what I do now.  If something that comes up that makes sense, but I’ve had no contact with Arkansas.”

Or it could be that like — say — Jon Gruden and his agent, Mariucci and his reps just like hearing the coach’s name tossed about in connection with high-profile jobs.

The McDaniels rumor seems a bit more far-fetched.  McDaniels just returned to his old post as New England’s offensive coordinator after the Super Bowl, replacing Bill O’Brien who departed to become Penn State’s head coach.  He just had a big hand in luring receiver Brandon Lloyd — who he’d worked with in Denver and St. Louis — to Foxborough.

His only head coaching experience came with the Broncos, lasted less than two years, and left his name somewhat tarnished.  Like another ex-Belichick assistant named Charlie Weis, McDaniels was viewed as being a pain in the rear without delivering Belichickian results on the field.  Many believe he returned to New England as some sort of unnamed coach-in-waiting for the Patriots.

Mariucci is basically a total free agent when it comes to coaching so if we had to pick him or McDaniels as being the most believable unbelievable rumor, we’d go with the former.  But we think both are longshots.

Now back to Long for a second.  Not only has he shown that he can make a splash, but he’s also proven that he doesn’t worry about people disliking him for raiding another team for their coach at a bad time (taking Petrino from the Atlanta Falcons midseason, for example).  And that brings us to UAB head coach and ex-Arkansas O-coordinator Garrick McGee, current Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville, and current South Florida head coach Skip Holtz.  All have been rumored as possibilities to pull up stakes and move to Fayetteville this spring.

Holtz denied interest in the job last week.  Tuberville would most assuredly love to get out of Lubbock while the getting’s good — and don’t think he wouldn’t enjoy taking the job of a former assistant who once tried to snake his Auburn gig — but he doesn’t seem to be the kind of “wow” hire that Long needs to make.  Remember, the AD’s job could be on the line depending on his hire.

At some point — once all the sex and phone records talk ends in the Petrino scandal — someone’s going to ask how Petrino was able to bend the school’s rules and quickly hire his mistress into a job in a department belonging to Long.  Wait, we just did ask that didn’t we?

Again, how did Petrino manage to speed up the hiring process and put his honey in a job right under Long’s nose.  If Long was giving him that much autonomy, he wound up getting burned because of it.

Long needs to please the fanbase or else some will turn on him if the UA program starts to backslide a bit.  (Deny it all you like, Hog fans, but that’s how the business works.  If UA starts to lose, more folks will claim that Long overreacted with Petrino and it’ll happen long before any cock crows three times.)

Tuberville and Holtz aren’t going to excite Razorback fans.  Mariucci and McDaniels might.

But McGee — who’s been at UAB for just about four months — might please some Arkansas fans who want this season saved and want the school’s recruiting efforts shored up quickly.  On Saturday, McGee told Al.com that he wasn’t going to directly comment on the Arkansas situation saying only:

“I really enjoy the job that I have.  I trust the kids, I think they have bought into what I’m thinking about.  My family loves the city and I’m not interested in talking about me or my employment with any other university.”

Meanwhile, more than one source in Fayetteville has told us that it’s looking less and less like McGee will be Long’s rapid-fire solution.  Readers of this site know that this writer is of the opinion that Arkansas should tab an interim coach for 2012 and spend the next eight months looking for the absolute perfect fit for it’s head coaching position.

After all, if the school grabs someone who would be willing to walk out on his current school post-spring, wouldn’t that require bringing someone who will have just proven to be rather untrustworthy?  Personally, I’d be a bit concerned about hiring someone who’d just bailed on his last program at the worst possible time.

Of course, that didn’t stop Long from hiring Petrino.  Nor did Petrino’s reputation for back-stabbing ex-bosses — Louisville’s Tom Jurich, Auburn’s Tuberville, and the Falcons’ Arthur Blank.

New Arkansas linebackers coach and assistant head coach Taver Johnson has been handling the interim gig in Fayetteville during spring drills.  Offensive coordinator Paul Petrino — Bobby’s brother — and new defensive coordinator Paul Haynes are also possibilities for the interim spot this fall.

Over the weekend, we heard the name of running backs coach Tim Horton kicked around as a possibility quite a bit, too.

If Mariucci is available and interested it would could be a clean, big-name hire for Long (with no clue at all of how he would get along with the UA staff or players he’d inherit for the fall).  If not Mariucci, we still believe the school will go the interim route and we’ll put our money on Horton for the moment.

But our feelings could change by dusk.  Stay tuned.

The University of Arkansas has announced this morning that Jessica Dorrell — the UA employee with whom Bobby Petrino shared an “inappropriate relationship” — has been suspended and placed on paid administrative leave.

Facing a possible sexual harassment suit from Dorrell, you can be sure that UA attorneys have done their homework on this matter before okaying her suspension.  Petrino was suspended immediately after the story became public while Dorrell’s situation remained up in the air until today.

It will be interesting to see if UA has enough goods on Dorrell to sever ties with her permanently or if the school is forced into some sort of payoff to prevent her from filing a lawsuit against the school.  After all, she could claim that Petrino — being in a position of power and representing the University of Arkansas — “forced” her into having a relationship with him. 

Arkansas is swimming in some mighty murky waters on this one. 

When news of Bobby Petrino’s motorcycle crash took off late last week, we wrote that if the coach lost his job it would be because a) he lied to his bosses, and/or b) he put the University of Arkansas in a position to be sued.  It would not be because he had cheated on his wife.  Hiring the person he had an inappropriate relationship with would be the much bigger problem, in our view.

The longer AD Jeff Long dug into the situation, the more clear it became that UA didn’t want to can Petrino unless the outlook was just too bleak.  Yesterday we wrote that if the coach were axed, it would be “because there’s so much dirt behind the scenes and on the horizon” that the school couldn’t keep him.

Turns out, the lie to his superiors, the hiring of his mistress, and a we-all-just-learned-about-it $20,000 gift from the coach to Jessica Dorrell did indeed go on behind the scenes.  Oh, and he hired her over 158 other candidates.  And that could open the school up to lawsuits from 159 people including Dorrell herself for sexual harassment.

Also, Long said last night that Petrino’s relationship with the UA employee had lasted for “a significant period of time.”  In other words, he’s been lying about that relationship — we assume — for quite a while.

Add it all up and you’ll understand why Petrino was shown the door last night.  Despite the fact that he was worth millions to the school.

Now, to any rational person there’s no question Long and the UA administration did the right thing — you can’t have an employee openly lie to you and put the university in jeopardy from a legal standpoint.

As Long said last night:

“He made the decision, a conscious decision, to mislead the public on Tuesday, and in doing so negatively and adversely affected the reputation of the University of Arkansas and our football program.  In short, coach Petrino engaged in a pattern of misleading and manipulative behavior designed to decieve me and members of the athletic staff, both before and after the motorcycle accident…

Coach Petrino abused his authority when over the past few weeks he made a staff decision and personal choices that benefited himself and jeopardized the integrity of the football program.”

Aside from a few saps, there’s not a boss in the world who would have retained Petrino.  As ever, it was the lie that got him, the cover-up.  As we said Friday, Jim Tressel and Bruce Pearl learned that lesson in 2011.  Petrino either doesn’t have ESPN or he didn’t pay attention to those coaches’ sagas.  How else could he lie to the press and to his bosses?  And how could Long or UA chancellor G. David Gearhart ever trust him again after he’d lied to them?

And let’s be clear to the “we all fib every now and again” crowd, Petrino didn’t lie about who drank the last gulp of coffee in the break room.  He lied about a police investigation and a relationship with a subordinate.  UA had no choice but to dismiss him.

Unfortunately, the departure of Petrino only raises more questions for a program that had clearly been on the rise.  Here are a few:

1.  Will Long suffer a backlash?

On Friday, Andy Staples of SI.com warned that Long was in a precarious situation.  Having lived in both East Tennessee and Central Ohio, this writer told you that there was considerable backlash against the men who fired Pearl at Tennessee and Tressel at Ohio State despite the fact that those ADs and those schools really had little choice otherwise.  (You can find both articles here.)

Anyone who saw the riots at Penn State when Joe Paterno was sacked knows that there will always be a portion of fans who worry only about wins, nothing else.  If Vladimir Putin could coach ball, there’d be plenty of folks more than happy for their school to hire him.

So how much trouble is Long in after making this move?  As of last night the messageboards were already lighting up with some folks calling for the AD’s head rather than Petrino’s.  In the end, will Petrino take Long down with him?

CBSSports.com’s ever-excellent scribe Tony Barnhart clearly believes it’s possible:

“As hard as it was for Long to step up and do the right thing and to show extraordinary leadership, the really hard part is just beginning.  In the aftermath of Tuesday’s press conference, Long and Arkansas will be praised for their integrity and deservedly so.  But if Long can’t hire another coach as good as Petrino who can keep the program on an upward cycle, he could be gone by the New Year.  And that would be a shame.”

Long needs the strong support and backing of UA’s chancellor right now.  Last night all he got was a statement from his boss that featured more legalese than “we’re behind ya” comments:

“This is a sad day for the University of Arkansas and Razorback sports.  After a thorough review, Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long has made his decision.  Mr. Petrino’s contract establishes a process by which he may have his termination decision reviewed.  Under that process, the review would ultimately come to me for consideration and action.  Given my role in the review process as Chancellor, I must decline further comment on today’s announcement.”

Translation: “We’re doing things the buttoned-up way.  Petrino’s contract says he can bring his firing to me if he feels it was an unfair decision and I would have to make a ruling supporting him or supporting my AD in that case.  So I can’t say anything about it lest it appear that I’m already biased against the coach.”

Long must have known before dismissing Petrino that he would have Gearhart’s backing if push came to shove.

How far that will go with Razorback fans if UA’s program starts to dip is anyone’s guess.  But if the Hogs do take a step back, Petrino should get the blame… not Long.

2.  How much will this move cost Arkansas financially?

Well, according to the letter that Long sent to Petrino — yep, he fired him with a letter, not in a face-to-face meeting — the school is ditching the coach with cause.  Meaning no multimillion dollar buyout.  That’s a plus because there could be millions that will need to be coughed up in other directions shortly.

The school could face a sexual harassment suit from Dorrell (more on that later).  The school could face a wrongful termination suit from Petrino (more on that later).  The school could possibly face lawsuits from some or all of the 158 people passed over when Petrino hired Dorrell for a $50,000+ job in his football department.

The school is also on the hook for a multimillion dollar football complex that’s being built.  Will those who’ve committed cash to the project suddenly pull their dollars now that Petrino’s not in charge of things anymore?

Also, bringing in a new coach might not be as easy as one might think.  Arkansas was a program on the move and the school has great fan support.  There’s money all around and the school’s in the SEC, the launching pad to national championships.  At the same time, the school’s in the SEC.  As good as Petrino had been, he hadn’t even reached Atlanta from the cutthroat SEC West (which is now adding Texas A&M).  He’d had just two years of Top 10 success.  That’s it.  Prospective coaches won’t confuse Arkansas for Alabama tradition-wise.

Also Petrino’s offensive system allowed him to win without five-star recruits.  Any new coach would know that Arkansas is a talent-poor state, so he better have a darn good system of his own.  And he would also know that living up to Petrino’s success and popularity would be a difficult challenge.

Someone will jump at the Arkansas job, sure, but they may ask for a bit more than the going rate to take over a program that’s in a real bind at the moment.

3.  So who will Arkansas hire?

Many names are already floating around: Butch Davis (would you hire a man who lost his job in a mess to come clean up a mess?), Gus Malzahn (would Arkansas want an unproven head coach from lil’ brother, Arkansas State?) and Charlie Strong (Louisville’s coach is a defense-first guy, just the opposite of Petrino).  South Florida’s Skip Holtz has been mentioned.  Ditto Mark Hudspeth of Louisiana-Lafayette.  Inside the SEC, James Franklin and Dan Mullen are viewed as up-and-comers.

And we’ll throw out Jon Gruden’s name just because someone always throws out Jon Gruden’s name.

But the name most mentioned at this point is that of Garrick McGee.  Former Hog quarterback Ryan Mallett was already campaigning for the ex-Razorback offensive coordinator via Twitter last night.  “GM only coach Ark should look at if they wanna win now,” he wrote before following up to make it clear he was referring to McGee, not Malzahn.

McGee is in his first spring at UAB.  Would he leave that school so quickly?

Are you kidding?  For Arkansas?  Yes, he’d leave.

But he might not take the gig right now.

4.  Will Arkansas hire a new coach after the spring or use an interim for the year?

Many Razorback fans believe this is the year they’ll vault past LSU and Alabama and into the SEC title game.  Maybe so.  If not, they can blame Petrino.

Currently, Long intends to keep the current staff in place through spring — including Petrino’s brother, Paul, the Hogs’ offensive coordinator.  (Tell me that’s not going to be uncomfortable.)  Taver Johnson — just hired from Ohio State — will continue to run the team as it completes spring drills.

It is believed Long will then open a search to see who might be available.  In late-April, early-May.

In our view, Arkansas would be better off bringing in an interim coach for one season than making a hasty move.  Stealing McGee from UAB — if Long chose to do that — would only lead to catcalls from the national press.  The AD would have taken the high road with regards to Petrino… and then backdoored another school’s season.  (Of course, he also backdoored the NFL’s Falcons’ season when he grabbed Petrino, so he’s not above such a move.)

The Razorback program has had its ups and downs.  It should be looking for someone who can bring consistent ups.  The longer the vetting process, the better.  Imagine if Long could spend the entire fall scouring the country for the right person, the right fit, the right coach?

Long — and Hog fans are gonna scream about this take — must be willing to sacrifice the 2012 season for the long-term stability and good of the program.  Perhaps an interim coach can win big with the unit Petrino’s put in place.  If the ex-coach’s brother stays on to run the offense, all system’s should still be go for UA this fall.

Better to take the time to find the absolute best fit than to make a rushed decision.  The last school to do that in the SEC was Tennessee following Lane Kiffin’s surprising exit (more on him later) and that landed UT Derek Dooley.  Dooley hasn’t exactly torn things up as of yet.

5.  What’s Petrino’s next move?

The coach released a statement last night apologizing for his behavior:

“As a result of my personal mistakes, we will not get to finish our goal of building a championship program.  My sole focus at this point is trying to repair the damage I’ve done to my family.  They did not ask for any of this and deserve better.  I am committed to being a better husband, father and human being as a result of this and will work each and every day to prove that to my family, friends and others.”

So he’s walking away quietly?  Not necessarily.  His statement also included this paragraph:

“I’m sure you heard Jeff Long’s reasons for termination.  There was a lot of information shared.  Given the decision that has been made, this is not the place to debate Jeff’s view of what happened.  In the end, I put him in the position of having to sort through my mistakes and that is my fault.”

That suggests Petrino might choose to “debate” Long’s view of what happened somewhere else at some other point.  That could mean in a review with Gearhart in which he angles for some type of buyout.  Or it could mean in a courtroom if things get contentious enough.  We doubt Petrino will sue because it doesn’t appear he has much of a case — he was rightfully terminated — and he surely won’t want to put his family through a court fight.

But it’s possible.

6.  What’s up with Dorrell?

Dorrell was a consenting adult in all of this mess, but as Petrino’s subordinate, she will be harder to fire than her boss. Long would not comment on her situation last night.  Friends have said that she’s basically gone into hiding after all of this.

Personally, I feel for Dorrell… and for Petrino.  They’re human — whether you like him, her, neither or both — and they failed.  There’s no one reading this who hasn’t failed at one time or another in terms of their morality.  And in case you feel like commenting that their failures are greater than your failures, congratulations, you just failed.  “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”

Petrino earned his ouster.  Dorrell — from what we know — earned one, too.  That doesn’t mean they should be taken to the city gates and stoned.

7.  Who will give Petrino his next shot?

In his career, the book on Petrino is that — at best — he’s an opportunist.  While at Louisville he went behind his AD’s back to try and grab the job of Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, his former employer.  With the Atlanta Falcons, he skipped town midseason leaving goodbye notes for his players and egg on the face of the owner who’d hired him.

Now this.

But Petrino wins football games.  He turns programs around quickly.  He can even do it in college football’s toughest division.  And he doesn’t need Top 10 recruiting classes to do it.

There will come a time when another AD will step to a podium and introduce a “changed” Petrino who is deserving of a second chance.  It’ll happen.  Guaranteed.  Start the clock.

8.  Who will be the next SEC coach to flame out?

The book on Petrino when he was hired was that he was a bad dude.  Long and the Razorback faithful looked the other way, defended their coach, and then got burned.

Kiffin — who we mentioned above — was called an out-and-out liar by former employer Al Davis when Tennessee hired him.  Davis said he would screw up the UT program.  Vol fans called Davis a kook, defended their coach, and then got burned.

Tressel — also mentioned above — had a history of NCAA transgressions while winning national titles at Youngstown State.  When John Cooper didn’t beat Michigan enough, Ohio State called Tressel back to Columbus.  Buckeye fans defended Tressel even as ooze began to leak out regarding Maurice Clarett and Tyrelle Pryor.  They too got burned.

Coaches with bad reputations tend to have bad reputations for a reason.  So who in the SEC fits that mold today?  How ’bout John Calipari at Kentucky?

We always take a beating from fans of the other SEC schools whenever we point out that UK’s coach has never been found guilty of any wrongdoing by the NCAA.  None.  Well, today we’ll take a beating from Kentucky fans for pointing out that that school looked the other way regarding Calipari’s reputation, they’ve defended him against all attacks, and — if history repeats itself — they could wind up getting burned at some point down the line.

Now, some Petrino/Arkansas national headlines:

Arkansas’ Long does right by the school as Petrino does wrong by everyone

With Petrino out, who’s next at Arkansas

Arkansas was ultimately left with no other option but to fire Petrino

Right call: Losing Bobby Petrino

Petrino ouster leaves huge hole for Hogs

And now for some headlines out of the Natural State:

Petrino Fired After Jeopardizing Integrity Of Program

Long did what he thought was best for UA

Long has had this task before

What Arkansas Players (Past, Former, Future) Are Saying

Bobby Petrino Is Out, Now Where Does Jeff Long Turn For A Razorback Coach?

(If you read an early version of this story, please re-fresh.  A “draft” when up with multiple errors.  Apologies.)

Ya gotta love double-standards.  Trust me, at MrSEC.com, we see ‘em everyday.

If Team X’s coach jaywalks, Team Y’s fans want him drawn and quartered.  But if Team Y’s coach takes a family hostage, burns down a church and Roseanne Barr’s the National Anthem — yep, used that as a verb — then their coach deserves a second chance.

And then there’s the double-standard within that double-standard.  Team Y’s fans’ look-the-other-way attitude only exists if Team Y’s coach is winning.  If Team Y’s coach is losing, then they — like the fans of Team X — will yelp for the man’s dismissal.

That very scenario is playing out in Arkansas right now.  Some fans want Bobby Petrino gone because he apparently messed around on his wife.  But another group want him to keep his job ’cause — let’s face it — he’s led the Razorbacks out of the wilderness!  Arkansas is winning football games again.  And even some of those who told ESPN over the weekend that they want Petrino to keep his job, admit they might have a different take if he were losing games:

As we discussed last week, we don’t think the “moral” clause of Petrino’s contract will be his undoing.  There is a line of thinking that goes like this: “If you don’t invoke the moral turpitude clause now, when do you?”  Makes sense, but see the bit about double-standards above.  You invoke it the next time a losing badminton coach urinates in public.  Who cares if people say UA has a double-standard?  Everyone does.

It’s clear at this point that Arkansas wants to keep Petrino if at all possible.  He’s worth millions of dollars in cash and exposure — the good, football kind — for the university.  If they find a way to hang onto him, yes, the school will take a few kicks to the ribs from rival recruiters and the national press, but if Petrino keeps winning — and here’s betting he would — that’ll all go bye-bye.

I watched Louisville reach the Final Four this season and I didn’t hear anyone bring up the school’s 2009 decision to stand by Rick Pitino after his sex scandal.

And Arkansas wouldn’t be the first group to be right out front with its double-standard.  See: Newt Gingrich backers who once went after Bill Clinton.  And see: Democrats who now throw low-blows at Gingrich for doing what Clinton did.  Happens every day.  “My guy can do anything he likes, your guy better mind his Ps and Qs.”

At this point, Arkansas AD Jeff Long is likely dealing with a number of groups as he tries to find his way out of mess he didn’t make.  Those people include:

1.  Jessica Dorrell and her betrothed.  Both work for the University of Arkansas.  She can sue the school and/or Petrino for sexual harassment.  Right now the school is most likely trying to find out what it will cost to keep Dorrell and her fiance quiet.  (Sidenote — The folks who initially found Petrino and Dorrell on the side of the road stated that Petrino was alone.  Now they’ve gone into silent mode.  Do they have more dirt to share about what the coach and Dorrell told them?  Might they want some hush money, too?)

2.  Petrino himself.  More than likely the school’s PR wing is cooking up a statement this instant that the coach can read at a presser should he be retained.  At the same time, Long has to be grilling Petrino to come clean on everything that the coach did wrong in this situation.  He’ll also want to know if there are any other skeletons in Petrino’s closet.

3.  The UA legal team and some additional group of private investigators.  The school needs to be thinking of every possible lawsuit that could come its way and it needs to be ready with a defense for each should it hang on to Petrino.  And remember, from Clinton to Tiger Woods, when dirt is found on a celebrity, more and more people tend to come out of the woodwork with new stories, true or not.  If Arkansas keeps Petrino, the school will want to be sure tales of another “inappropriate relationship” aren’t just around the corner.  Also, if Petrino stays, the school will no doubt penalize the coach with a tougher contract worth less cash.  All this is tied to the schools’ lawyers.  (If Petrino’s wise, he’ll take whatever lifeline the school may throw him… winner or not, it would be hard for another school or NFL team to bring him in anytime soon thanks to his various past actions.)

5.  The police.  The Arkansas State Police are now asking questions about the handling of the initial accident.  Just how inappropriately did the officer from Petrino’s in-season security detail act in order to keep Petrino’s dirty laundry in the hamper, so to speak?  If a police officer loses his job over all this, it’ll be an even more difficult sell to keep Petrino.

6.  UA chancellor G. David Gearhart and the school’s board.  This is a group that’s well aware of the money Petino has brought into the school.  It’s also a group that will want to protect the University of Arkansas’ name from being dragged through the mud.  As a prominent booster of another school told me last week, “Usually the ‘he wins’ crowd holds sway over the ‘he’s damaged our good name’ crowd.”  That said, some/many/all of these people might be so ticked that Petrino lied to them and put them into this mess that they’re ready to part with him regardless of the fallout.

7.  The school’s biggest boosters.  Long and Arkansas are raising money with ease these days.  A new football facility is going up thanks to Petrino’s on-field success.  If the biggest boosters at the school threaten to hold back some of their cash pending the outcome of the Petrino scandal, that’s an additional headache for Long.  And it’s likely that some of the biggest boosters will want the coach to stay while a few others might worry more about UA’s reputation.  Long probably won’t get 100% backing from the Razorbacks’ top boosters regardless of what he decides to do.

At this point, like Long, you should probably be keeping tabs on the police investigation into this matter.  If heads roll and charges are filed on that front, Petrino’s probably finished.

If the police investigation yields no further damage, we at MrSEC.com expect the school will do everything possible to keep the coach in the fold, double-standards be damned.

A couple of sidenotes on the situation this morning:

* Robbie Neiswanger of ArkansasNews.com writes that Long is in new territory with this mess.

* “Team Petrino” has formed as a support group for the coach and has launched a Facebook page calling for the school to keep him.  They’re also planning a Monday rally for Petrino.  (See all that stuff about double-standards above.  Gotta wonder how many of these “Team Petrino” folks have ripped, Clinton, Gingrich, Pitino, Woods and others?)

These are the kinds of stories that get great headlines.  They draw in big pageviews.  They’re scandalous.  They’re hot.

And they make this writer frickin’ sick.

Bobby Petrino has been placed on paid leave after University of Arkansas officials learned he failed to disclose that a female UA employee was riding with him when he wrecked his motorcycle over the weekend.

As ESPN.com so gleefully put it in the story linked to above, the employee was “half his age.”  Petrino is 51.  His passenger is 25.

The Hogs’ football coach apologized Thursday for keeping that part of the story a secret.  He claimed he was trying to protect his family and wanted to keep an “inappropriate relationship from becoming public.”

Arkansas AD Jeff Long said during a late-Thursday press conference that he was “at the beginning of the review” into Petrino’s actions and that he did not know “what I’m going to find.”  Long gave no timeline for Petrino’s return to the Razorback football program that he has so quickly rebuilt.

Via press release, Petrino said: 


“I will fully cooperate with the university throughout this process and my hope is to repair my relationships with my family, my athletic director, the Razorback Nation and remain the head coach of the Razorbacks.”


At the moment, assistant head coach Taver Johnson has been placed atop the Arkansas football program.  Johnson joined the Razorback staff from Ohio State in January.

The passenger on Petrino’s motorcycle was 25-year-old football program employee Jessica Dorrell.  Dorrell is a former UA volleyball player who was hired on March 28 — yes, just about a week ago — as the football program’s student-athlete development coordinator by Petrino himself.  That fact could prove to be the ultimate downfall of the coach.  As a state employee, hiring one’s mistress is most likely a no-no.

Long was reportedly unaware of Dorrell’s involvement in the accident until Petrino called him just minutes before a police report was released to the public on Thursday evening.  That report said Petrino was riding with Dorrell when he lost control of his motorcycle.

The coach suffered broken ribs and various other cuts and abrasions in the accident.  He returned to the practice field Tuesday wearing a neckbrace.  Part of the coach’s Thursday statement read:


“I have been in constant pain, medicated and the circumstances involving the wreck have come out in bits and pieces.  That said I certainly had a concern about Jessica Dorrell’s name being revealed. 

In hindsight, I showed a serious mistake in judgment when I chose not to be more specific about those details.  Today, I’ve acknowledged this previous inappropriate relationship with my family and those within the athletic department administration.”


Initially the coach told the press that he was alone on his bike at the time of the accident.  Lying to the press will only add to Petrino’s misery.

Petrino is married and has four children and those two facts will help kick this story into absolute hyperdrive.  Everyone loves to jump on the sins of others and Arkansas’ head football coach is about to learn that lesson the hard way. 

A motorcycle crash?  That’s a top story for one episode of “SportsCenter.”  An “inappropriate relationship” with someone “half his age,” is day-in, day-out fodder for all the shows featuring talking heads (who’ve likely engaged in worse behavior themselves).  Hiring the person with whom you’re having said inappropriate relationship? “Ugh” is the only word that comes to mind.

Sadly, this writer isn’t a fan of the moral majority in this country.  I feel a bit queasy whenever the time comes to jump on someone else for a moral failing.  (Do a quick site search of our Damon Evans coverage and you’ll find that we tried to handle the dismissal of Georgia’s AD as a sad story rather than as a joke.) 

All that said, please, don’t take the above paragraph as a defense of Petrino’s actions.  He acted stupidly.  And he has his own family to answer to for those actions.  He also owes his boss, Long, and the University of Arkansas’ president an answer.  He represents the University of Arkansas.

But he sure as Hell doesn’t owe me, you or any other ESPN, CNN, FoxNews or Twitter-using smart ass an explanation.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a closet full of my own skeletons to worry about without trying to destroy someone else for his.

But the fact of the matter remains — Petrino’s contract with Arkansas features a clause that could allow UA to dismiss him for “engaging in conduct, as solely determined by the university, which is clearly contrary to the character and responsibilities of a person occupying the position of head football coach or which negatively or adversely affects the reputation of the (university’s) athletics programs in any way.”

Not good. 

In fact, the only thing working in the coach’s favor is his rapid-fire success in Fayetteville.  If Petrino were a .500 coach at this point, he’d already be on his way out the door.  Still, his on-field success to date might not be able to save him from the whole, “you hired your mistress” angle of the story.

Make no mistake, this is a home run of a topic.  And you can bet which trash sites will jump all over it with snarky comments and judgmental attitudes.  What could be funnier than a man ruining his life with a bad decision, after all?

Too bad you won’t get that type of coverage here.  Oh, we’ll cover this crap because it could lead to the firing of one of the SEC’s best football coaches.  We can not ignore that fact.

But we won’t rejoice in it, either.  And as a result we won’t get the pageviews cooked up by those sites that do pile on with five stories per day on this sad tale.

So be it. 

Billy Joel once sang he’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.  Well, I’d rather empathize with the sinners than laugh with the bloggers.

Here’s hoping Petrino can rebound from his failure.  Lord knows he’s not the first person to have one.