Bobby Petrino's gmail account

Through my sources, I was able to obtain a sneak peek into Bobby Petrino's gmail account. If you must know, my best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who hacked into it at 31 Flavors last night.

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*UPDATE* Tapped into Tommy Tuberville,Houston Nutt, Sly Croom, and Phil Fulmer's email as well.

Recent history repeats itself

Internet message boards… love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re a significant part of the fan/college sports relationship. These open forums allow fans from all walks of life and all geographies to congregate and discuss the teams they love and the ones they love to hate. Countless rumors – most unfounded and false, certainly, but some have proven to be true – have spawned on these boards.

It’s always interesting to go from board to board to get a feel for the general mood of the fan bases. With SEC football less than 4 weeks away, the boards are officially rocking, and rolling, and what not. While reading message boards this weekend, I noticed several Arkansas posters on the Ole Miss board badmouthing Houston Nutt. These same fans were touting the skills of Bobby Petrino.

Sometimes, you really can’t see the forest for the trees. Three years ago, Ole Miss fired David Cutcliffe and hired Ed Orgeron. Rebel faithful defended the hire, citing EOr being Pete Carroll’s “right hand man” at USC. Bring up the fact that he’d never even been a coordinator and prepare to be told that didn’t matter. Orgeron spoke (or whatever you called those gravelly noises coming from his mouth) and Rebel fans ate it up. Sugar Bowl wins were coming. Or not. He won 3 SEC games in 3 years and was fired. Everyone could see it coming except for Ole Miss.

Arkansas is a similar situation this year with Bobby Petrino. While Petrino is certainly light years above Orgeron as a head coach, reading Arkansas fans comments, you would think he invented the forward pass. Outside observers see a disingenuous gypsy of a coach who has signed 20 years worth of contracts in the last couple of years. They see backstabber who wrangled for Tuberville’s job. They see a coach who inflated his W/L record in lesser conferences and beat only 14 teams with winning records.

There’s no doubt Petrino will be more successful at Arkansas than Orgeron was at Ole Miss. I’m fairly certain my dog could do at least an equivalent job of that. As for Arkansas, outside expectations are low for this season, but reading message boards, a 3rd place finish – behind Auburn and LSU – is expected by some Hog fans. Petrino will be SEC Coach of the Year if he pulls that off.

In my opinion, the question is not “Will he succeed as a head coach in the SEC?” It’s “Will he be around long enough to be accurately judged?”

SEC Football storylines 2008

Fox Sports has a good article looking at a handful of interesting storylines for the 2008 football season. In addition to 3 legitimate national title contenders, there are some very interesting matchups coming this fall.

Not surprisingly, 3 of them involve Arkansas and their new coach Petrino. He's not made friends in conference, though it won't matter since he'll be gone in a year or 2. He may quit on this Hog team like he has his past 2 jobs. That could've been a whole storyline all to itself: Will Petrino stay a full season? Hell, will Petrino even be the coach come August?

Petrino loses recruit

You have wonder if things like this are going to be a theme between now and Signing Day. Junior Okpara, a DB from TX, has switched his commitment from Arkansas to Boston College of all places and cites Petrino's gypsy tendencies as his reasoning.

"The problem with Arkansas was the reputation of Coach [Bobby ] Petrino leaving during the season," Okpara said. "And not staying there and his name not being highly thought of like when he was at Louisville. I didn't want to play ball for a coach that had a reputation like that. That kind of drove me away from Arkansas."

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for the remainder of the recruiting season. Many kids will ignore Petrino's nomadic past and only see the winning % and the offensive numbers. Others, like Okpara, will be somewhat hesitant to commit to a guy who seems unable to return that commitment.

More Petrino flack

I think it's safe to say that Sean Salisbury won't be receiving a Christmas card from new Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino.


Add him to a long list of pundits, former Petrino players, and bloggers (including me) who think that he's a sleazeball with loyalty to no one but his bank account. He phoned in his resignation for Falcons' ownership, then - in lieu of actual face to face contact with his players - he wrote them a letter announcing his departure.

Jacksonville DE Grady Jackson called him a coward with a yellow stripe down his back. Falcons RB Warrick Dunn calls him classless, but also hints that no one on the team is sad to see him go, and Falcons DB Lawyer Milloy calls it like he sees it: "Everything he said he stood for was a lie... He wasted a year of my life." And a whole plethora of Falcons chime in with their thoughts in this article from the AJC.

Nick Saban probably couldn't be happier with this scenario. With all the attention focused on Petrino now, it's easy to forget that he pulled a similar stunt last year, but at least had the courtesy to finish the season out. But that's Petrino. He's signed 20 years worth of contracts in the last 18 months. He's a offensive guru who - with the right players and right opponents - can design a high-powered offense. But, how much will he have to work with at Arkansas next year? More importantly, will he be around to coach the players he brings in?