Mid-Week Madness Bans Petrino From His Own Funeral

On both Friday and Monday, I suggested that Arkansas would be forced to fire Bobby Petrino. Last night, it finally happened. We weren't sure how it would go down, but Jeff Long answered all of our questions:

It's safe to say that Long was the big winner yesterday. He handled the situation and the press conference with class, emotion, and conviction. While he shared with the media the facts that led him to fire Petrino, Long did not allow the media to pry into the private matters involving Petrino, Dorrell, and her fiance. Long was very respectful of Petrino, but he ultimately did what he had to.

So what did we find out?

Beyond what we already knew, what did we learn from the press conference? We learned some of the details regarding the relationship between Bobby Petrino and Jessica Dorrell and why Jeff Long had to fire Petrino:

According to Long, Petrino’s relationship with the 25-year-old recent hire, Jessica Dorrell, lasted a “significant” amount of time, and at one point, Petrino gave her $20,000 out of his own pocket as a “gift.” 

Dorrell, a former Razorbacks volleyball player, was hired by Petrino on March 28, only four days before both were involved in the motorcycle crash on a rural road outside of the city. Long said she was one of three finalists among a pool of 159 applicants, and was given the job in an unusually quick process. Dorrell, who reportedly called off an engagement one week before the accident, has hired a lawyer and could sue for sexual harassment. Under the school’s sexual harassment policy, even “consensual sexual relationships between faculty and their students or between supervisors and their employees in some instances may result in charges of sexual harassment.”

 As a state university, Arkansas had to fire Petrino because of fair employment practices and affirmative action. Dorrell was given an unfair advantage through the hiring process, and Petrino violated those employment policies by hiring her. While Jeff Long could have fired Petrino for a number of reasons, he had to fire Petrino for that. Petrino was fired with cause, which means that he will not be receiving any of his buyout money.

The white knight in all of this though is Jeff Long. CBS's Brett McMurphy was quick to praise the Arkansas AD:

So Long did the unthinkable. He did the right thing. He fired the man he took a chance on only five years ago because that same man "knowingly misled the university, he abused his authority, he made personal choices that benefited himself and he deceived me and members of the athletic department."

And he concludes:

Jeff Long showed Tuesday night that, unlike his former football coach, he is a class individual.

Integrity is the word that's being circulated to describe Long's actions. Now, there are some that question what he did because he was also the person that hired Bobby Petrino to begin with:

As we’re praising Long for firing Petrino, let’s not forget he also hired him. Petrino left the Atlanta Falcons immediately, during the season. Also, the coach had a long history of lying to superiors. So Long shouldn’t have been terribly surprised to learn Petrino tried to mislead or manipulate.

He has had a dodgy reputation that dates back to his time at Louisville, where he tried to keep one of his players from attending a friend's funeral. He also left the Falcons in the middle of the season to take the Razorbacks job. We all knew Petrino was a bad person. He was able to hide behind winning seasons up until the motorcycle accident. Long wanted to believe that he could trust Petrino, even though Petrino had provided no evidence that he could be trusted. While it may have been a suspect hire to begin with, Long didn't stand by his mistake, but rather he cut his losses.

Petrino for his part issued a statement last night, but there's nothing worth discussing. He made his mistakes and he's paying the price. End of story.

It's not the end of the story for Arkansas as they will have to move on. Taver Johnson, the former Ohio State assistant, will take over as Interim Head Coach through the end of Spring Practice as Jeff Long conducts his search. Clearly, the top choice or name at any SEC program would be Gus Malzahn:

GUS MALZAHN, head coach, Arkansas State. Without a doubt the first name to spring to mind of many Hog fans, the Natural State's native son (and, briefly, former Arkansas assistant) has been assumed to be headed for the Razorback head gig sooner or later. But this soon? That the previous Auburn whiz-"kid" said yes to the Red Wolves at all shows how close his ties to the state are, making the Arkansas position something akin to a dream job. But to sign up for 2012, leaving his new program in the lurch after just weeks at the helm, isn't likely something the low-key Malzahn will consider. If Long wants someone permanent now, he'll likely have to look elsewhere. But if he goes the interim route, and Malzahn's Red Wolves bolster his already solid reputation? Malzahn becomes your front-runner.

It seems that Malzahn is unlikely to leave Arkansas State after just having taken the job. Long could try to convince Malzahn to leave by giving him an ultimatum, but it's not like Malzahn's stock is going to go down if he declines. He has cemented his reputation as an offensive guru over the last few years, and he can only improve his stock by having success as a head coach. I could foresee a number of positions in the SEC opening up in the future, and Malzahn's name will be at the top of the list for all of them. There's no reason for him to leave at this time and if Long wants to get him, he might be best off waiting for next year and going through this season with an interim head coach.

Another option for Arkansas could be former offensive coordinator and current UAB coach, Garrick McGee:

All of which has led some to suggest that Long should go get one of the central figures of Petrino's success, 2010-11 offensive coordinator and current UAB head coach Garrick McGee. With quarterback Tyler Wilson, running back Knile Davis, receivers Chris Gragg and Cobi Hamilton and eight defensive starters returning, Arkansas has a chance to produce an SEC title contender this fall, and McGee, with his expertise of the system and the personnel, could take over with minimal disruption. 

But to do that would be to sell Arkansas' program short. McGee is a 39-year-old who's not yet coached his first game. While he's respected enough to land a head coaching job, it's only at a bottom-barrel Conference USA school. He may well be a future star, but better to find that out at UAB than to hand over the keys to an SEC program to a complete unknown.

With McGee, you would probably have a smoother transition due to the familiarity with the current players, but again, you run into the same problems as you did with Malzahn; McGee doesn't have head coaching experience. It's telling that these two are the best current candidates. It's safe to say that one of these coaches would be likely to succeed and one of them might be great future candidates for the Arkansas job. However, it might not be worth the risk for Arkansas to hire one of these candidates without any prior head coaching experience at the Division 1 level.

I just can't see Arkansas hiring a new coach at this point. Even if they found a worthy candidate and offered boatloads of money, it might not be the best time to make a new hire. We're past signing day and Spring Practice is near its conclusion. The new coach has missed his opportunity to acclimate himself with his current players (and vice versa) and he's missed his opportunity to bring in his own players. The best decision, in my opinion, would be to go with the Interim Head Coach, at least for this season.