Every year in college football there are certain stories that seem to dominate the headlines and start to have a life of their own. This year it’s the Bobby Petrino scandal and now the Arkansas search for a coach. I’m sure it’s tough on Arkansas fans to read about this everyday but let’s face it, they signed on when they hired Bobby Petrino away from the Atlanta Falcons in the middle of the season. The Arkansas brass knew what they were getting with Petrino, a great college football offensive mind who was devoid of character. The pre-nuptial agreement that Arkansas and Petrino entered into told you that they knew what they were getting into.
Are the Hogs interested in one of these guys?
The divorce between Petrino and the Hogs has happened but everyday you can look for and find multiple new takes and information on the relationship between Petrino and Jessica Dorrell and the Arkansas coaching search. If you aren’t an Arkansas fan, it’s really quite fun. Let’s take a look at some of the very recent findings in the “gift that keeps giving”.
Today, the four-letter network posted an AP story about the relationship between Dorrell and Petrino including discussing twenty-five pages of notes taken by AD Jeff Long. Petrino, who is a documented liar, told Long that the relationship was over in February. This would be prior to him hiring her. Long wrote down this question in his notes “Why would she say she expected the relationship to continue if the motorcrash didn’t occur?”. Good question. I think we all know the answer to that one.
Another interesting part of the story is Jessica Dorrell quiting her job and taking a whopping $14,000 as a settlement payment. What? Either this woman is really, really dumb (she was dating Bobby Petrino after all) or she’s got a book deal waiting around the corner.
Now let’s talk about where this gets really interesting. Where the soap opera ends and the football begins. A ton of coaches have been linked to the Arkansas job. We even made up our very own list right here. Let’s take a quick jog around the Twitter machine to see what the “rumors” are….
Further confirmation today; 2 sources say to look for Garrick McGee to be announced at Arkansas no later than Monday footballscoop.com/the-scoop
— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) April 18, 2012
According to this Arkansas News report, Philip Fulmer has been contacted about Arkansas job arkansasnews.com/2012/04/18/for…
— Chris Hudgison (@ChrisHudgison) April 18, 2012
Steve Mariucci doesn’t rule out coaching Arkansas wp.me/p14QSB-2knm
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 16, 2012
Even the Fake Isaiah Crowell dropped by with his take:
arkansaw tryin 2 get pete carroll??? well crow wanna crack at oprah…tha diffrence is crow might have a chance.
— Fake Isaiah (@FakeIsaiahCrow1) April 19, 2012
Arkansas reportedly contaced @PeteCarroll about coaching job, but he said no. Keep your tentacles away, Razorbacks! blog.seattlepi.com/football/2012/…
— Nick Eaton (@njeaton) April 19, 2012
I still love the Arkansas fight song… But Mooch is the man… Go Razorbacks!
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) April 19, 2012
My personal take on this situation is that Arkansas should stand pat with what they have and then hire the best candidate for the job in December. Arkansas has some solid veteran leadership on offense with Knile Davis and Tyler Wilson and they would need to take the locker room and lead their team.
The other two ways they could go are to hire UAB’s Garrick McGee (although discussion have apparently ended for now on that front) or to hire a figure-head who would come in and basically be the “Head Coach” for a year without messing with the playcalling. Personally, I would stay away from a desperate hire right now. Don’t end up with someone that you want to kick out of bed in the year or two.
No matter what happens, the spotlight is on the Razorbacks and the entire Nation will be watching this play out all spring, summer and fall. Arkansas, you’re on the clock and that clock is going to be ticking for a while.
To make it easy for Razorback fans, you can just send your hate mail to collegefootballzealot at gmail.com. Consider it your vent.
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