They love me, they love me not
After Bobby Petrino suddenly left the Atlanta Falcons in December, national columns and broadcasts were filled with such words as “coward” and “quitter” when describing the new Arkansas head coach.
ESPN’s Sean Salisbury even went as far as to so slyly recommend that recruits looking at Fayetteville should look the other direction with Petrino in town.
But, as the talking heads move on to talk about more pressing issues — like Tom Brady’s ankle — there are a few in the national media finally talking about what Arkansas fans have been clamoring for. And that’s Petrino’s fantastic collegiate coaching credentials.
Today, two writers with FoxSports.com named Petrino one of the year’s best college football hires.
“For a place like Arkansas,” Pete Fiutak writes, “which hasn’t been any sort of a BCS player, this could turn out to be a Nick-Saban-to-LSU like move.”
“Set aside your personal feelings about Petrino,” writes Richard Cirminiello. “The fact is he can coach, and has a history of success at this level, something the Hogs had to have after cutting ties with Houston Nutt.”
Maybe it was the transfer of Michigan quarterback Ryan Mallett that has sparked some in the national media to write what many Arkansas and Louisville fans already knew — he’s one of the best at recruiting and molding future NFL quarterbacks.
Check out Petrino protege Brian Brohm.
21 Responses to “They love me, they love me not”
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Well how about that. Some in the sports news media finally understand that the more you harass someone, a school and a state, the more you GALVANIZE their collective determination to prove everyone wrong. I’m ready to buy season tickets in Fayetteville.
Anyone else??
Well said! I can’t believe how much our coach and and our state have been belittled by the national media for the past year. I am extremely excited to hear the change in opinions next year. I am going to buy season tickets when i can.
GO HOG!
I don’t think Sean Career Backup “slyly” mentions anything. Why he is still employed at ESPN is beyond my comprehension. He has no skills as an analyst like Jaws and he has no people skills or sources like John Clayton and Mortensen, so all he does is shoot off his Career Backup mouth with no reliable credibility. Wait, I do see why he employed at ESPN; they don’t care about credibility. They used their last shred of credibility when they used celebrity dumpster-diver TMZ.com as a “source” for one of their “news” stories. Can you believe that? I am cool if they want to go that route as long as they stop pretending to be a credible newsgathering establishment and admit that they are nothing more than the WWE. They fabricate the news so that they’ll have something to report. Take the Dallas Cowboys for example. Do you want to know the source of the “Wade Philips will be fired if he loses in the playoffs” rumour? None other than Skip Bayless. Bayless first mentioned it on ESPN First Take while he was running off his “never played sports” mouth; by the way, he never mentioned a source and admitted he was speculating. The next afternoon, Sportscenter runs it as a legitimate story–again with no sources. The whole event was completely fabricated by the “Worldwide Leader” in news making, NOT reporting. I have finished my rant now. Down with ESPN.
I believe Bobby Petrino will win at Arkansas. I also believe he will leave for a bigger job after a few years. Let’s face it, Arkansas is just not a “destination” job, where a coach goes to spend the rest of his career to retirement, except to a very few coaches (Houston Nutt being one). I’m also not going to get too excited about passing the football all over the field, until I see better play from our quarterbacks and receivers. Because, let’s be honest, the general play of our receivers this past year would have made Peyton Manning look like a scout-teamer. Just passing the ball won’t work; you have to pass it accurately, and you have to have receivers who can and WILL catch the ball. D-Mac, Felix, and Hillis got the ball so much last year because they were our best players. That’s why we had a winning season. If we had passed the ball a lot, we would have lost twice as many games. Even Paul Petrino was quoted in an article as saying that his brother adhered to an offensive philosophy of “feed the stud.” That’s exactly what we did last year.
You made a great comment, ua87.
The more you harass someone the more determined they are to prove you wrong. Well, get ready for Houston Nutt to prove all you folks who persecuted him
WRONG ! !
Salisbury is a joke without a punchline. Dude… I would suspect your journalism credentials are about as impressive as your NFL “career.”
With all due respect UA65 regarding Houston Nutt, I say “Bring it on!!” He only wishes he had the skills that Bobby Petrino has.
ua65 Lanny Dauksch of West Memphis High School whom happens to be head coach of the East All Star Football Team this year could outcoach and beat Houston Nutt at Ole Miss with High School Talent on the East All Star Team. Face HDN is a very predictable and one dimensional coach that is why he has never been anything more than an average coach. High school Coaches across the state of Arkansas have adjusted their coaching philosophy to an ever evolving sport, to which the athletes keep getting more and more remarkable year in and year out. If HDN was capable of doing this he would still be the coach at UA instead of coaching the SEC cellar dwellar!!!!
“High school coaches can outcoach HDN”, “HDN can never win a big game” Why keep riding HDN, that is history! HDN can never win a big one??? Wasn’t there a road game kinda late in the season, who was that little team we beat, oh yea LSU. Wonder what ever happened to them, oh yea they won the national championship!!! Ok I agree that HDN didn’t win enough of those games but he was a good coach. But now can’t we please move forward, be positive, supporting the current players and coaching staff?
Point made pgould, He could not win enough of them and lost games he should have won! Proud to have Petrino, Proud to be a hog, Things are looking up in HogLand!!!
In retrospect, HDN had some world class play makers help him look pretty good through the years. If we had a better coachf, who’s to say we wouldn’t be playing in the championships with our unbelievable schedule last year. That aside, I appreciated him for his motivation early on. We all needed it. Now, I like the motivation we all have…and it’s Jan 24th! I’m even flying in to town for the Red White game this Spring.
Bobby Petrino may well become a big winner in
college football. He, however, is now in a “real”
league…not the minors that Louisville was in when
he made his name…and that name would be a guy
who does not keep his word. he agreed to a new
contract at Louisville and then jumped ship. He sat
across the desk from Falcon’s owner and told him he
had a coach and then bolted.
Please do not compare this rookie SEC coach to
Houston Nutt, a coach who has been through the
SEC fires and has been successful. You people
who slam him just don’t get it. Why don’t you all
get off his back and support the rookie who is now up
there…(up there for a little while, anyway.)
And you people who don’t take Ole Miss seriously need to be reminded that they have won two more national championships in football than the Uof A.
They have two more Grantland Rice Trophies in their case than UofA. Come back?
UA65 give me a break petrino is far from a rookie coach I would not exactly call Petrino a Bush leaguer. Since when did the likes of Miami become the Bush leagues? True, Ole Miss has won 2 more Natl Titles than Arkansas which is nothing to boast about. I am assuming “UA65″ means class of 65 or your age is 65.
I am here to tell you you live in a “what have you done for me lately world!” It is easy to see that you are a Nutt Hugger and fan. By all means pull for Nutt and Ole Miss. I remind you, If you are a Hog fan you will support your new Bush league coaching staff. From this point on I will close this conversation. I will agree to disagree Petrino and company will do far more for ARFootball than Nutt ever did. Go Hogs!
How can you say I LIVE in a ‘what have you done for
me lately world’. Houston Nutt and staff just won
18 ball games in two seasons and you jerks who
are clue-less when it comes to football knowledge
ran the guy off. All you people want is wins. You don’t know what it takes to get them in a league like the SEC.
Houston Nutt’s family was more or less the “First Family” of Arkansas athletics. Those boys were
great athletes at Central High and Coach Houston, Sr.
spent his life helping those deaf kids at the school for the deal..and what does the Nutt family get… A slap in the face from their home state. How classless is that.
No, I can no longer support the University of Arkansas program now that all reason has left. Heck, you people even knocked the “Great Frank Broyles”…a man
highly respected everywhere but in Arkansas…the state where he built an athletic dynasty. The Lord knows how pitiful people are.
Well, you have your Gold Digging Coach now, so have fun.
There’s a football revival going on in Oxford, Mississipp. Those good people have a good coach that they appreciate.
Its very refreshing to be around educated people with class down here. No hillbilly rednecks to rankle the coach.
65 last comment, when you want to compare your college transcript with mine let me know.
I suppose General Neyland, Bobby Dodd, Bear Bryant, Darrell Royal, Jimmy Johnson, and all the great
coaches who stressed defense and the kicking game were one dimensional coaches and not as advanced as the great Bobby Petrino.
Also, if you are from Crittenden County, your transcript is probably as bogus and the West Memphis child killing police department is.
What an idiot let’s stick to football, not the unfortunate death of a child. You have absolutely, positively left no questions in the minds of the 100s of people that blog this site that you are the biggest idiot to ever blog this site!!!
Hey, ‘Critthog”…
You’re the one who got off the subject of football and
talked about my transcript being bogus. Do ya
Remember that, big boy?
Yes, it was an unfortuante death…but the WMPD has
a huge history of racism in its ranks.
Back on the subject I have bent over backwards to try and stay with: What is your answer to my question about the great one dimensional coaches of the past.
I guess they, like HDN, knew nothing about what they were doing?
First of all you blittering idiot, Football has changed since those great one dimensional coaches of the past. If you think Bear, Frank, or any of the others you mentioned could win national titles by running the ball up the middle 3 downs out of 4 than you are living in fantasy land. I am pretty sure if you ask any defensive back or linebacker that played on the 64 chanpionship team if they thought they thought they had the speed or size to cover split ends that average 6′5″ and 240 pouds and ran a 4.4 forty. Their answer would be know. So the answer is NO!!! Smash mouth football running the ball between the tackles will not win in todays game. Folks like you will never get it you are a 100+ years old and you have all the answers. I hope your kids and grandkids dont follow your advice, if so they will surely end up delivering Pizza for a living. Keep your old ass in Mississippi and go tell all the Rebel fans that HDN will have them in a BCS game in the next 2 to 5 years because he runs the balll between the tackles and has too much pride to delegate. Once again Hog Fans 65 is not a Hog fan he is a fan of his own ideas, simple, and narrow minded. Face it Papaw your day has come and gone. Now it is time for you too to begone from this blog.
Good rittance!!!!
Bryant, Broyles, Royal, etc. etc. etc. may be old worn out coaches to you. Ask any of their former players what those men meant to their lives…on and off the field. You miss the point about athletic competition,
Critthawger…. Its not just about wins and losses…its about becoming a better person. So, with that in mind, its obvious you were never involved in athletics simply because you are not “a better person”.
If baseball is not considered a sport, then know I was not an athlete, if it is you might know I wore a Razorback Uniform from ‘93-’96.