NCAA Football

Arkansas Should Be Angry At Bobby Petrino… But It Shouldn’t Fire Him

We thought Bobby Petrino had settled down. Finally, he seemed happy somewhere. He probably could have had other jobs over the last couple years, but he seemed content to stay at Arkansas. Finally, he’d calmed his wanderlust. Finally, he was entrenched somewhere, ready to win for years to come.

And then, this happened.

Yes, turns out maybe the wanderlust wasn’t calmed down as much as we thought: Petrino just applied it to his personal life instead of his career. The coach wasn’t alone during his recent motorcycle accident, a fact he lied about to his bosses (and yes, he acknowledged an “inappropriate relationship” with the woman half his age who was riding on the motorcycle with him). This all got him put on administrative leave by Arkansas. According to SI’s Andy Staples, Arkansas has enough ammo to fire Petrino, if the school so chooses.

Arkansas should not fire him. Here’s why.

First (and foremost) of all, Petrino wins. Arkansas went 5-7 in his first season. Over 2010 and 2011, they went 21-5. 2012 looks like another strong year. You can bet that without Petrino, they wouldn’t be in that position. Sure, as Staples points out, part of Petrino’s contract forbids:

“…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 or UAF’s athletics programs in any way.”

But what Petrino has done on the field outweighs any damage to the Arkansas athletic program this ordeal has caused off it. Think this scandal is too embarrassing for Petrino to overcome? We present to you Rick Pitino. Less than two years ago, Pitino was testifying in court about a 15-second sexual encounter with a woman other than his wife that ended with him ejaculating down his leg. This year? He had Louisville (hey, look, Petrino’s former employer!) in the Final Four. Winning will overcome everything, and at least in college, Petrino wins.

Besides, that moral high ground? Arkansas ceded that a long time ago. Like, when it hired Petrino in the first place. Remember that? How the Falcons hadn’t even finished their season – Petrino’s first with the team – when the Razorbacks snapped him up? In hindsight, we can’t totally blame either side – Petrino’s a way better fit for college, and hiring Petrino was the best possible move for Arkansas, which had to look out for number one – but it was still a sleazy move.

Speaking of sleazy moves, Petrino’s kind of famous for them. He spent most of his tenure in Louisville looking for a way out. He had underhanded talks with Auburn. He almost left for LSU. Louisville stuck with him, though, and on the field, it paid off. Petrino went 41-9 in four seasons there. He took them to an Orange Bowl win and two top-10 finishes. Petrino through the years has given every reason to believe that there’s a tradeoff involved with employing him. Win games, get shady dealings with other schools. If Arkansas expected anything different, they can only blame themselves.

Not that the school shouldn’t be angry with the guy for lying to them – they should. Even when the lie is coming from a guy one might expect to tell one, being lied to is always cause for being upset. But it all comes back to that tradeoff we talked about before. If Arkansas keeps Petrino around, he’ll win. College football can talk all it wants about developing student-athletes, molding young men – the name of the game’s winning. In the SEC, that’s doubly true.

Right now, Arkansas is winning. They’ll win as long as they have Petrino around, and not many other coaches out there could replicate his level of success competing with the likes of Alabama and LSU every year. 11 or so more wins in 2012, and this accident and cover-up is a distant memory. Petrino’s proved once again he’s untrustworthy and put Arkansas in an unenviable position, but his record proves the best way to recover from that unenviable position is to keep him around and wait for the victories to wash everything else away. Here’s guessing Arkansas does just that.

Getty photo, by Ronald Martinez