Holtz: Petrino will ‘truly regret’ leaving NFL
Former Arkansas coach Lou Holtz weighed in on Bobby Petrino recently on Sirius NFL radio. Holtz, who quit the New York Jets 14 games into a long-term contract to coach 
Arkansas in 1976, said Petrino and Alabama coach Nick Saban will some day “regret” leaving the NFL.
“I say this about Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino, based on my personal experience. They will truly regret one day that they walked away. No matter how much success they have at the college level, you always feel bad when people put their faith and confidence in you and you let ‘em down.”
Via the great blog MrSEC.com, the quote was lifted from a column written by Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. King, an NFL beat writer, chimes in with:
The most incredible thing, to me, is that Petrino has never called Arthur Blank to say, “I’m sorry.”
Blank is the owner of the Atlanta Falcons.
Holtz’s quote was deemed as one of King’s “quotes of the week” in his column. Petrino was also the subject of a second “quote of the week.”
“It was hard on my family. It was hard on my wife and kids, but I didn’t hear a lot of it. That was probably good.”
– Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, on the hardships surrounding his decision, in December, to leave the Falcons for the Razorbacks.
King then opines:
Petrino should have added: “Of course, I’m the one who made it hard on everyone in my family and everyone on the Falcons because I abandoned a 5-year commitment after 11 months and two days, even after assuring the man who hired me that I’d stay the course and fulfill my commitment.”
Something tells me this media storm will only grow stronger outside the state of Arkansas as the season approaches.
8 Responses to “Holtz: Petrino will ‘truly regret’ leaving NFL”
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Lou Holtz is entitled to his views, but in my opinion, has little credibility on this subject - other than his undying loyalties to ESPN.
Clearly, Holtz was a much better coach at the college level, as will be the case with Saban and Petrino. Pete Carroll is much better at the collegiate level, as well.
It never ceases to amaze me how some folks cannot understand why a coach would walk away from a majority bunch of overpaid, self centered and “me” oriented, crybabies.
ditto.this comes from a ‘late night show’ magician who left 3 college progams in assorted states of embarrassment and probation(notredame,minnesota,south carolina). how did arkansas not get on the list? for those who can recall, as i remember, frank canned holtz for endorsing ;georgia’s jessie helms’ before holtz destroyed arkansas’ program. and why did nutt leave arkansas for oklahoma state? holtz brought his spaghetti-armed qb from nc state(ron calcagni) with him and made him the starter when he snuck out of ny. and has anyone who ever sits through one of his tirades on espn ever heard holtz say anything positive about the hogs since he was canned 25yrs ago? i havent either.
Don’t go talking bad about Ron Calcagni. Actually Broyles recruited him out of Ohio. Ron was a junior in Holtz’s first year, 1977, when the Hogs went 11-1 and beat OU in the Orange Bowl. Maybe one of the better option QBs we have had next to Quinn Grovey. As for Lou? All I can say is that he surely likes to talk.
Classic hypocrite comments from Lou Holtz. “Letting people down” was his specialty, especially when he wanted to strip a kid of his scholarship if the kid sustained a career ending injury. It got him in trouble with Broyles and the priests at ND.
You’ll remember that they had NO well wishing party when Holtz left ND.
headhog: the qb to which you refer was Kevin scanlon. you correctly id’d his capability though. imo he was half the qb nutt was.
i wonder if mr.king would be so quick to condem/ridicule aurthur blank had he fired coach p after 11 months and 2 days, instead of coach p leaving? mr. king is an overpaid blow hard whose opinion means absolutely nothing to me. in fact, the sensationalist tabloid writing style that has been adopted by many writers from SI has forced me to stop reading the rag.
Anyone who knows this subject will place the entire blame on this entire deal where it belongs - Michael Vick - because the job with the Atlanta Falcons was never what Bobby Petrino signed up for after that development. Petrino made his move to the Razorbacks within 2-3 days of the news of Vick’s 2+ years away from the NFL in prison. Petrino knew he needed to do what was best for himself, his family and his career and move over to the University of Arkansas. Lou Holtz left the Jets after less than 1 season and I think it all turned out fine for him. This is such old news — it really isn’t worth continuing to rehash it … the only thing that is older news than this story is Lou Holtz himself. He can’t stand to be out of the spotlight for more than 6 months and he needs to use this story because he is out of new tricks to interest David Letterman and Jay Leno like he used in getting on Johnny Carson. Give it up, Lou … the world is moving on with the Petrino Era of the Razorbacks. Football season is just 2 or 3 months away … do us all a favor and focus on the 2008 football season and let the old news be what it is.
… BRING ON THE PETRINO ERA FOR THE RAZORBACKS!
[...] recent “Monday Morning QB” column to read two Bobby Petrino-related items. (Thanks to The Slophouse for the link.) Spoiler alert: King is critical of Petrino. Shocking, we [...]