Dont forget, Louisville hired him TWICE, even after he snuck out for the Atlanta Falcons job.
Head coaching career
Louisville
Petrino returned to
Louisville in 2003 as
head coach, replacing
John L. Smith, who had departed for
Michigan State. After only one season at Louisville, Petrino secretly interviewed for the coaching job at Auburn, as the Tigers were considering whether to retain his former boss, Tuberville.
[11]
In four years at Louisville, Petrino built the Cardinals into a national power. He led them to 11 wins in 2004 and 12 wins in 2006—only the second and third times that the Cardinals won as many as 11 games in a season, and to date their only appearances in the final top 10 of a major media poll. They spent much of 2006 as contenders for the national championship, rising as high as third in the nation before suffering their only loss of the season, against Rutgers. The 2006 team was invited to the
Orange Bowl, only the second major-bowl appearance in school history.
On July 13, 2006, Petrino signed a 10-year, $25.6 million contract to stay on as head football coach. The deal gave Petrino a raise from $1 million to $1.6 million annually, and he would have been paid $2.6 million in the final year of the deal. The contract included a buyout clause of $1 million.
[12]
On January 7, 2007, less than six months after signing the 10-year contract above, it was announced Petrino had accepted the head coaching position for the NFL's
Atlanta Falcons.
[13]
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons brought Petrino to Atlanta with a five-year, $24 million contract.
[14]
A major reason Petrino was brought in was to develop star quarterback
Michael Vick into a more complete quarterback, Vick being known more for his ability to run than as a pocket passer. However, before Petrino's first training camp, it emerged that Vick had bankrolled
an illegal dog fighting operation near his hometown in
Newport News, Virginia. The terms of Vick's bail barred him from leaving Virginia before the November 26 trial, ending any realistic chance of him playing a meaningful down in 2007. Thus, Petrino was forced to begin the season with back-ups
Joey Harrington,
Byron Leftwich, and
Chris Redman as his quarterbacks.
With their franchise quarterback effectively sidelined for the season, the Falcons appeared to be a rudderless team. On December 10, 2007, with the Falcons at the bottom of the
NFC South with a 3–10 record, Petrino resigned to become head coach at Arkansas, less than 24 hours after personally promising owner
Arthur Blank that he was staying in Atlanta. Petrino informed his players of his departure via a four-sentence laminated note left at the locker of each player, a move that many in the organization and in the NFL harshly criticized.
[15][16][17] Petrino's thirteen game tenure is tied for fourth shortest coaching tenures in NFL history after
Lou Holtz in 1976 and
Urban Meyer in 2021.
[18]
Arkansas
Petrino during the pre-game "Hog Walk" to the stadium in 2008
Petrino's contract with Arkansas was valued at $2.85 million per year for five years.
[14]
The Razorbacks ended the
2008 season with a record of 5–7 (2–6 in the SEC); The two conference wins were over
Auburn, and a last second win against
LSU in the annual
Battle for the Golden Boot.
Under Petrino, the Razorbacks showed significant improvement in the
2009 season with analysts from both ESPN and CBS regularly citing starting quarterback
Ryan Mallett as one of the most impressive collegiate quarterbacks in the country. The Razorbacks came close to upsetting the No. 1-ranked Florida Gators on October 17, 2009.
[19] That game culminated in a controversial fourth quarter personal foul call on an Arkansas lineman. The resulting 15-yard penalty allowed the Gators to continue what turned out to be their game-winning drive. The SEC ultimately issued an apology for the call and suspended the officiating crew.
[20]
Motorcycle incident
In April 2012, Petrino was involved in a motorcycle crash on
Arkansas Highway 16 near the city of
Crosses. He was riding with former Arkansas All-SEC volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, whom he had hired on March 28 as student-athlete development coordinator for the football program after she served as a fundraiser in the Razorback Foundation. Petrino initially said he was alone on the motorcycle. However, on April 6, just minutes before a police report was to be released showing Dorrell was also aboard, Petrino admitted that Dorrell was not only a passenger, but that he had been conducting an adulterous relationship with her. Arkansas athletic director
Jeff Long placed Petrino on an indefinite paid leave of absence while he reviewed the situation.
On April 10, Long announced that Petrino had been fired. During Long's investigation, it was discovered that Petrino made a previously undisclosed $20,000 cash gift to Dorrell as a Christmas present. It was also revealed that Dorrell may have received preferential treatment in her hiring on the football staff, as Petrino's relationship with Dorrell was not disclosed and Petrino was on the hiring committee. Long determined that Petrino's attempts to mislead both him and the public about the accident and his relationship with Dorrell were grounds to fire Petrino for cause.
[3][21][22] In his formal termination letter to Petrino, Long said that he would have never allowed Dorrell's hiring had Petrino disclosed his relationship with Dorrell, and concluded that this and other lies on Petrino's part "negatively and adversely affected the reputation of the University of Arkansas."
[23] Long also determined that the $20,000 payment could expose Arkansas to a sexual harassment suit if Petrino were retained.
[24]
According to
Sports Illustrated, Petrino also circumvented university
affirmative action guidelines requiring job postings to be listed for 30 days before interviews can begin. He claimed that he needed an assistant to help him with recruiting right away, allowing him to interview and hire Dorrell 16 days after the job was posted. Dorrell was also the only candidate with no previous experience in a football program, and the only candidate without a master's degree.
[25]
Petrino was succeeded on an interim basis by his former boss, Smith, who had been the Arkansas special teams coach before briefly taking the head coaching job at
Weber State. On December 4,
Bret Bielema was named Petrino's permanent successor.
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