APYesterday, Ben noted that the father of deposed Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino stated in no uncertain terms that, if offered, his son would accept the same job at Kentucky.
Despite the obvious hurdles — Petrino’s fall from grace in Fayetteville as well as his previous tenure at Louisville — he’s the early favorite to replace Joker Phillips in Lexington.
In odds released Thursday by Bovada.com, Petrino comes in as the slight favorite of degenerates oddsmakers at 2/1, followed closely by a pair of current college football head coaches more likely to land the job if interested — Duke’s David Cutcliffe and Louisiana Tech’s Sonny Dykes.
Texas Tech’s Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn coach who has been connected to a return to The Plains if Gene Chizik is canned — comes in at 9/2. Western Kentucky’s Willie Taggart, whose Hilltoppers beat the Wildcats earlier this season, is at 5/1 along with San Jose State’s Mike MacIntyre.
Others potential UK candidates mentioned by Bovada are Arkansas State’s Gus Malzahn — his name will also be in play for the opening at Arkansas — at 8/1 and Dirk Koetter, former Boise State head coach and current Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator, at 12/1.
Petrino and Calipari both being employed by UK?
I am not a UK fan, but really Wildcat fans-is winning really worth your soul?
I could let you guys slide with Calipari for a few years as Joker Phillips always seemed to be a good and decent man so there was kind of a balance there. Calipari and Petrino-wow, just wow.
Kentucky fired Philips quickly to maximize their chances of landing Petrino. Had they waited until the end of the season, they might be competing with Auburn and/or Tennessee for his services. As it is, they still might lose out on BP. He doesn’t have to accept any offer right due to the certain demise of Dooley and Chizick. The longer he waits the higher the bidding will be.
I hope Tuberville does not return to Auburn, why they ever let him go in the first place is confusing, but that man has LSU’s number!
And as for Petrino I see him waiting for the Tennessee gig more than I do him excepting Kentucky, then again what do I know.
I see Kentucky as a Basketball power house and not a long term place for a coach looking to build his own legacy and not be in the shadow’s of Calipari.. Dyke from LaTech or Strong of Louisville would be perfect… Kentucky is a good place for a coach to build their resume for greener past…., not that Strong needs any more on his resume!! I think he’s ready for big time football now.
@deadeye – in my opinion, your post is 100% incorrect. i don’t think UK or UT go after Petrino. time will tell.
I don’t see a long list of suitors for Petrino. He’s comes with more baggage then Delta. I think he goes to UK.
I dont believe Petrino wants a team as KY to have to take years to rebuild from the ground up.Now Tenn or Auburn i think he may make a run at.Arkansas has now fallen apart since he left but the school and AD had their hands tied with the lies he told,no choice but fire him.Bobby imo has learned a lesson i think and would be a great coach so time will tell.Hope he ends up at Tenn or Auburn hes the right coach to get both teams off the ground.Tubbs going back to Auburn would be a bad thing for the school and team..
I liked Jimmy Johnson’s tweet regarding Arkansas rehiring Petrino: “you forgave Bill Clinton, why can’t you forgive Bobby P?”
Tuberville to Arkansas
Dykes is going back home to Lubbock
Petrino is headed to South East Western New Mexico State A&M
@quitcrying
You may be right in the sense that he is not their first choice. Auburn might have Jimbo Fisher as their top target, and Gruden may be Tennessee’s.
But make no mistake about this one thing, both of those schools cannot accept the number of losses that have accrued during the last couple of seasons. And if they had to choose between BP or an unproven commodity as head coach, I do believe BP would get the nod.
Patrino does come with a lot of baggage, but he does seem to run clean programs, unlike Calipari.
I love how all you morons say Cal doesn’t run a clean program when not once has the NCAA said he done anything wrong. Let’s talk about Roy Williams and UNC and them cheating and giving out free grades or bill self and Kansas playing a player who had fake grades in high school but your right Cal is the worst even after he raise $500,000 for the sandy victims. Your all just haters because aslong as he’s here UK is on top and the rest of you are on bottom
If Petrino has any interest in the Kentucky job they would be crazy not hire him. Even if he only sticks around for a couple of years before moving on, he would at least improve the talent level. The bad thing for Kentucky is that Auburn is probably getting desperate and will be willing to pay through the nose for a guy like Petrino.
When did he get released from rehab and how can we be sure that he has been “cured” of his addiction to his own douchbaggery?
Seriously, Kentucky, you can’t be THAT desperate, can you?
imforbigblue says:Nov 9, 2012 1:03 PM
I love how all you morons say Cal doesn’t run a clean program when not once has the NCAA said he done anything wrong. Let’s talk about Roy Williams and UNC and them cheating and giving out free grades or bill self and Kansas playing a player who had fake grades in high school but your right Cal is the worst even after he raise $500,000 for the sandy victims. Your all just haters because aslong as he’s here UK is on top and the rest of you are on bottom
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Hmm, so Calipari may not have known what was going around him at UMASS and Memphis-in which case he would be an idiot. Calipari reminds me a great deal of the Nick Nolte character in Blue Chips-sold his soul to Happy (in this case World Wide Wes).
Regarding someone else’s post on Gruden to UT-that has only been speculated for 4 years now. It’s not going to happen. Neither will Petrino-UT hopefully learned their lesson with Lane Kiffen.
Auburn and Jimbo Fischer? Nope, sorry. FSU despite being in the ACC is a much, much bigger name than Auburn-and this coming from an SEC fan. All he has to do is run the table at FSU which should not be that difficult in the ACC as things are right now and he would be in the NC game every year. That schedule is a heckuva lot easier than Alabama, Texas AM every year and sometimes UT, UGA, USC, Florida, etc.
Petrino back to Arkansas? Just do not see it happening. Perhaps right after Brett Favre returns as starting QB of the Packers, Arkansas would hire Petrino again.
I’m thinking he might be heading to the pack 12 CO comes to mind
If Petrino were to take the KY job and turn that program into a winner, his past indiscretions would be soon forgotten. That’s the biggest upside to him taking that gig – he’d be viewed as a savior, not as the guy who wrecked his bike while getting a handy from his mistress/employee. The leading cause of sports-related amnesia is winning.
In an unrelated story, the University of Kentucky athletic department received a job application from a “J Dorrel”.
inconsonance says:
Nov 9, 2012 3:18 PM
If Petrino were to take the KY job and turn that program into a winner, his past indiscretions would be soon forgotten. That’s the biggest upside to him taking that gig – he’d be viewed as a savior, not as the guy who wrecked his bike while getting a handy from his mistress/employee. The leading cause of sports-related amnesia is winning.
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Ask yourself one question though-say Petrino did get offered (and accept) the UK job and turned the program into a consistent 7 game or so winner. Exactly where could he go from there? The NFL? I’ll give you a second to laugh there.
UK will never be in contention for a NC in football-I am not saying that to be rude or offend UK fans, it is just reality. Do you really think Petrino will be happy with such a “ceiling”? Personally, I believe he would be better off taking a job for some school nobody has ever heard of and have to look up on Wikipedia to find out where it is. Literally take the program from nothing and bring it to national prominence over the course of the next 15 years before retiring. maybe then, he would have a legacy other than being the guy who could not control his hog (in more ways than one).
I don’t know anything about Kentucky’s AD, but I don’t see Petrino being hired by any AD who sees himself being on solid ground. Just too much risk of Petrino causing a scandal, bolting after a year for a better offer, etc. The guy has caused hard feelings everywhere he has been.
It’s simple “just win baby ” at all cost
I stole the following from Bleacher Report. Its the funniest post I’ve ever seen, sheer eloquence.
“Kirby Smart are no one is the most hands on the coordinator I’ve sent to ever work for saban plus he’s most hands on Cordinator pretty much in CFB
In the comparison with Dooley is night and day Doley really wasn’t even considered a Cordinator he was an assistant recruiting coordinator that’s a completely different And look it muschamp not to mention Sabin’s defenses have been far better than ever have been in his coaching career since he had smart.
We need to clean house get smart and if our president has been issued within then he needs to be looking for job as well We screw this up for the next Tennessee But as long as louder brains are running things still I’m pretty confident and what they’re going to do but I’m sure they didn’t blab the Louisville courdinater That’s way too obvious to look trying to throw somebody else and not to mention if there is any truth to this then whoever said that he should be tired today effective immediately ”
hahahaha
It’s funny in a way, but the SEC and Big XII combined this winter may have more job openings than Wal-Mart.
There will be no Petrino @ UK….unless they have NO OTHER CHOICE…..and even then highly doubtful…..All areas of Administration and the UK Board of Trustees will not allow or desire for that to happen. Mark Macintyre @ San Jose St, Hudspeth @ULM, Sonny Dykes (unless Texas Tech opens), David Cutcliffe, Jay (NOT JON) Gruden, and about 100 more BEFORE PETRINO is ever thought of….and unlike Cal who according to ALL SOURCES IN THE KNOW….Petrino has baggage…Calipari did not….his programs were clean….it was a couple of kids who made mistakes…such as Coack K and RoyWilliams and Jim Boeheim and Bill Self have had without any villification. Rick Pitino….charged by NCAA with 9 violations….John Calipari – ZERO…haters gonna hate….but UK will win and be stewards for teaching kids how to prepare for life.
Bigblue: three words- Vacated Final Four
Actually, it’s six words because Cal’s done it twice.
Yeah, he’ innocent. His departures from UMass and Memphis just prior to those rulings are purely coincidence.
When it comes down this time it will have you wishing that Eddie Sutton was still in Lexington.
thecrazyasianinseccountry,
Tommy Tuberville doesn’t have LSU’s number. He’s 7-7 against them, both at Auburn and Ole Miss. He’s had some success, but he definitely doesn’t have their number.