"Petrino Fired at Arkansas"

 

As you read this, the damage is now spreading out in waves. From Bobby Petrino's entitled mind to a community that adores its Hogs to a state that does the same. The damage is significant and lasting and won't end with a Tuesday press conference announcing Petrino's firing. Start with this unassailable fact: For most of its 20 years in the SEC, Arkansas has been a mid-level program. It scrapped and sweated and worked to be better. Most of the time it wasn't. This was going to be the year. Look at the schedule and the talent. The program had momentum. Look at the coach. It was all in place. Petrino lit a match to the whole thing. His incredible selfishness and unmitigated entitlement will affect Arkansas for years to come. You think not? Name the Arkansas coach with the highest winning percentage since Frank Broyles. It was Ken Hatfield (55-17, 1984-89), the last Hog coach to win a conference title. In terms of that winning percentage, Petrino wasn't even Ken Hatfield. The man who dared challenge the SEC elite and elevate Arkansas to something it has seldom been, also led the program through perhaps its most disgraceful week. If not for AD Jeff Long's for-the-ages presser we'd be picking through burning embers....