Arkansas living with deserved humiliation after Petrino firing
John L. Smith has his hands together. He should drop to his knees.
HOOVER, Ala. — Similar to three months ago, when the invertebrate Bobby Petrino took his young wench (“student-athlete development coordinator”) for a mid-life crisis spin on his motorcycle and got run over by the karma train, Arkansas is feeling the pain for its missteps.
Sympathy? Anybody?
When Petrino was fired – not because Arkansas suits really cared that he cheated on his wife or even lied to their face, but rather to protect themselves from litigation for playing footsie with a subordinate – they hired former assistant John L. Smith.
This is the same John L. Smith who agreed to take the job as a temp (10-month contract) even though he had just left for the Weber State job four months earlier. So much for loyalty. In that sense, at least, this should be a seamless transition from Petrino.
Smith is 63. He’s entertaining. He’s the kind of guy who would watch his house burn down and suddenly break into vaudeville: “Hah! I told you my wife couldn’t cook!” He had several media members laughing at SEC Media Days on Wednesday. (Question: Would you like to be the Arkansas coach for more than one year? Answer: “Certainly. Do I look stupid? Wait, don’t answer that.”)
You want Smith warming up the crowd before the real comics come out. You just don’t really want him coaching a potential top-10 football team.
Prepare for the crash. And the laughter.
This is what happens when a college athletic program hitches its wagon to the morally bankrupt. Athletic director Jeff Long went behind the Falcons’ back and hired Petrino. They gave him everything he wanted. They played dumb when he hired his mistress for a legitimate job posting. They asked only for wins in return. In the end, they got a mangled Harley and national humiliation. (How Long still has a job for enabling this mess is remarkable.)
Bobby Petrino phoned Smith to talk about "Coaching, life, family."
Smith hasn’t been a head coach for six years. He went 14-21 in his last three years at Michigan State. He got the Weber State job because, well, it’s Weber State and he went to school there.
As if overcoming the emotional trauma of Petrino’s clumsy philandering and firing isn’t enough, Smith is trying to function as an SEC head coach while basically suffering from financial ruin.
Seriously. He admits that a series of failed real estate ventures likely will lead to him to declare bankruptcy soon. That might explain why he was willing to take a U-turn out of Weber State and grab the short-term job for $850,000.
I had a few questions for Smith.
One in particular.
Do you ride a motorcycle?
Answer (laughter): “No. I’d fall off and hurt myself.”
Me: You mean like your predecessor?
Answer: “Oh. Yeah.”
We know the man doesn’t have much of a conscience. He worked for Petrino. But did he have any problems leaving Weber State right after he got there?
“Well, you’re leaving your alma mater and you know people gave you the opportunity – yeah, it’s not fun,” he said. “But you weigh it, and the scales weighed heavier to leaving.”
He disclosed that Petrino phoned him last week. They spoke for up to 30 minutes. But Smith declined afterward to discuss particulars about the conversation — “Coaching, life, family” — but he expects Petrino to get back into coaching. He said the two remain friends.
So when you heard about the motorcycle accident, the girl and everything, were you disappointed with him as a man?
Answer: “Uhh … No.”
Alrighty then.
It gets better. Here’s Smith, somewhat, on his philosophy on life.
“Like we tell players, ‘You’re not a regular student. You can’t go out and do something stupid.’ Believe me, we all do stupid things. We just try not to be overly stupid.”
I’m feeling really good about the Alabama game right about now, how about you?
Smith is not new to adventures. He has run with the bulls in Pamplona. He climbed part of Mount Kilimanjaro. He has jumped out of an airplane (with a parachute). So in his mind, or out of his mind, taking the Arkansas job is just the next logical crazy step.
“My granddad came to this county when he was 12 years old,” Smith said. “His folks put him in a boat and said, ‘Go to America.’ What kind of adventure is that?”
One that inspires more good feelings than this one.
By Jeff Schultz
Previous SEC Media Days blogs
• Muschamp getting heat but deserves some time at Florida
• Slive: SEC needs to be vigilant to avoid Penn State situation
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194 comments Add your comment
Well
July 19th, 2012
2:25 pm
“Head of the line-Auburn
Next in line-Ohio State
Newest addition-Arkansas”
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that DawgInLex did NOT attend nor graduate from the University of Georgia.
Just a hunch.
So much more expected
July 19th, 2012
2:33 pm
? No new blog since Arkansas coach?
Jeff, where were you to press saban on whether his daughter made 1st string?
Or did she beat up her position coach?
So much more expected
July 19th, 2012
2:36 pm
Jeff, why exactly are you in Hooterville, err Hoover, AL?
This is all we get?
Dawglasville
July 19th, 2012
2:50 pm
Love the pic. Arkansas asked for it and got it. Just like we asked for it when we hired Harrick, and we sure got it.
Paddy
July 19th, 2012
2:57 pm
HogWyld………the pressure didn’t come from the media. Once your Board of Gov’ers knew the truth, they booted his sorry butt! Get your facts straight and take off the blindes, pal!!!!!!!!!
Mora less Petrino
July 19th, 2012
3:02 pm
Mora and Petrino are probably the two biggest DA’s to ever coach any team in ATL. The Hawgs now know and UCLA will find out.
Richt, Georgia have been hurt by too many recruiting risks | Jeff Schultz
July 19th, 2012
3:04 pm
[...] • Arkansas living with deserved humiliation after Petrino firing [...]
Pitbull
July 19th, 2012
3:18 pm
Dawglasville, just to set the record straight – we did not hire Harrick. Harrick was forced on us by Michael Adams as they were both good friends at Pepperdine when Adams was President there and Harrick was the basketball coach. Those two and their wives had dinner together almost every Saturday night. The AD had Harrick forced on him and look at how it turned out. Notice that Adams keeps a low profile re the athletics department now. Remember how that loser Adams chose for Ad when he forced Dooley out had to sit there by himself and almost beg for his job in front of the media with no Adams in sight after he got caught running around on his wife. Adams, Evans, and Harrack – as well as Petrino – my opinion is they are all putzes. But Adams kept his job because as we all know it runs down hill.
Hog Wyld
July 19th, 2012
3:23 pm
@ Paddy
Just another hater you are.
Alabama vows to avoid 2010-type complacency | UGA sports blog
July 19th, 2012
3:27 pm
[...] Schultz: Arkansas living with humiliation after Petrino firing [...]
bbama67
July 19th, 2012
3:29 pm
I’m not getting the Arkansas got what they deserved from a negative angle perspective. They got 21 wins in two seasons, a BCS appearance, a top 5 finish, a rebuilt program from the disaster Nutt left and a top 10-15 team this season. This negativity is coming from fans of the biggest underachieving program in college football. You keep the choir boy and keep underachieving.
Hollywould
July 19th, 2012
3:51 pm
Well, you have to understand LEX. Don’t you know he is the high and mighty leg humper? He calls everybody names when he gets his feelings hurt. War Eagle!!
Richt, Bulldogs address perception of being an undisciplined team | UGA sports blog
July 19th, 2012
4:16 pm
[...] Schultz: Arkansas living with humiliation after Petrino firing [...]
Ed
July 19th, 2012
4:29 pm
Sad fact, a jerk always has a following. Shultz, I see your following is the cream of the crop. The one thing I’ve found to be true of every jerk to write a column, blog or post on a message board is that everyone is guilty unless they are your ‘everyone’. But concerning you, what I would give to have the time to waste researching and scrutinizing you and your family and then penning it to paper. I’m thinking there would be some great humilating stuff.
Piglets: Media Days Recap | The Southerner Journal
July 19th, 2012
5:07 pm
[...] need salt for the wound, Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal Constitution gloats in Arkansas’ humiliation, as should be expected of a writer in the town that guy left to truly rekindle National [...]
Ed
July 19th, 2012
5:08 pm
I get it now. I posted the first post before I bothered to check the source, though I should have known by the tear stains anyway. Boo-hoo. So Petrino bent you and the falconettes over with three games left (though most of your loser team and fans had already. You and Blanc need to get over it already, life has gone on. Though I must admit, everytime I hear one of you whiney Georgia people go like this all these years later, it just confirms to me that Arkansas just plain bent you over and broke it off. Ouch!
Richt, Ole Miss coach respond to Spurrier’s schedule shot | UGA sports blog
July 19th, 2012
5:17 pm
[...] Schultz: Arkansas living with humiliation after Petrino firing [...]
PonGT
July 19th, 2012
5:50 pm
Normally, Schultzie, you know nothing about what you opine. However, this time you’re spot on!
Ed
July 19th, 2012
6:50 pm
Ok, someone who knows everything Shultz knows and everything he doesn’t, lmao.
TechHog
July 19th, 2012
8:25 pm
To all you people saying Arkansas got what it deserves and Petrino left Arkansas worse off when he left. Nothing could be further from the truth. Arkansas finished with 11 wins last 2 seasons and in the top 5 last year and will have a top 10 team this year. When Petrino arrived, Arkansas was not to be found in the top 50 teams. I say if that’s what they deserve then thats great… a team capable of competing for the National Championship even though they play the Tide and Tigers.
Reality
July 19th, 2012
8:38 pm
Hog Wyld!? Yea, alot of guys cheat on their wives. Yea, and also alot of people lie, steal, even murder. So whats the big deal? The only reason Petrino was fired is because of Sports writers. GROW UP and get your brain x-rayed. I’d bet a million $ it looks alot like a football.
Ted Striker
July 19th, 2012
9:24 pm
Damn good column.
Ed
July 19th, 2012
10:06 pm
Damn good column if your butt-sore, lol. Tell us your teams (if it is not Jawja) so we can examine them. Jawja by the way, the new Thug U, taking the title from Miami. Yep, that’s the perception on ESPN. Maybe if your coach had the gonads to actually kick the worst offenders off the team he wouldn’t be starting the season with half his defense suspended. Petrino broke one off in you boys and its 5+ years later. Geesh, get over it and right your own ship. Petrino screwed you and left your cess-pool city, we fired him. Grown men can see the difference.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
July 19th, 2012
11:08 pm
How does an 0-4 playoff record look on your resume?
AJC sux
July 20th, 2012
12:17 am
Right in line with all the other wacko “writers” at the AJC. Jeff probably shares a cube with Cynthia Tucker.
Ed
July 20th, 2012
1:56 am
To each his own I always say, but this guy makes Barney Frank look straight. Creepy photo. Give the Tucker chick a buzz cut and she would look more like a sports writer. This guy could never work in Arkansas covering sports, maybe fashion and home deco or an advice for the lonely column but certainly not sports.
Newnandawg
July 20th, 2012
6:27 am
Petrino transformed Arkansas from an afterthought into an elite program. If UGA would hire him as offensive coordinator, we’d have a national championship within 2 years.
brick
July 20th, 2012
8:32 am
Arkansas fans here still defending Petrino and the actions of their AD. No one blames Bobby for leaving, in fact most Falcon fans, no wait all Falcon fans, are glad he did. Its how he left that shows the type of man he is, in the middle of the night and a note, he was told to write, on his desk. Its shady, its ethically wrong and it was wrong of Long to go behind Falcon management. With the results he was getting do you think Falcon management would have stopped them, they would have been glad to get out of his contract. Long didn’t want to even fire him after he broke Arkansas’s own morality clause, circumvented Arkansas’s hiring practices to hire his little fling. He didn’t even want to fire him after Petrino lied to him, on national tv, he only fired him when the humiliation being throw towards Arkansas forced him to. And what does Long immediately do, goes behind another administration’s back and hires their coach.
But the question is, is Long dumb enough to not realize what was going on in the football office before the motorcycle crash? Or do people of Arkansas view unethical and immoral behavior as acceptable?
thepro
July 20th, 2012
8:32 am
And to think the “experts” at ESPNU actually think Arkansas will serious contend with Ala. and LSU for the SEC west title…With John L. Smith as head coach? I think not!!!
bbama67
July 20th, 2012
10:37 am
brick – Long didn’t go behind Blank’s back. Blank knew Petrino was interested in the Arkansas job and was considering leaving. He was up front with Blank. Blank is a bad naive owner proven by the Falconvicts he kept around and how he believed in Vick. Blank also allowed McKay to undercut Petrino from the time Petrino took the job through the draft. Blank and his p.r. department only went on the attack because Vick’s sentence had just come down the day of the Monday night game and they didn’t want another bad p.r. hit so they lied about Petrino not being up front with them about leaving. You naive Falcon fans keep believing the spin put out by people like Schultz. By the way, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to notice what Schultz, Blank and many other media members and radio guys in Atlanta have in common with Blank.
As you should recognize, I’m not an Arkansas fan but I do live in Atlanta and have grown tired of hearing the spin and lies coming from the Falcons side. It is a bad franchise. Petrino had a right to be upset given McKay’s actions and not being told about Vick’s situation. He thought he was getting a chance to coach a dynamic qb. Instead he stepped into a lockerroom of entilted immature thugs who supported a felon.
Richt, Bulldogs address perception of being an undisciplined team | SEC Football
July 20th, 2012
10:45 am
[...] Schultz: Arkansas living with humiliation after Petrino firing [...]
Brett
July 20th, 2012
12:00 pm
hog fan here, just gotta ask this question, is everybody in ATL still that butt hurt??? If i recall things turned out pretty good with that coach yall got. No one here in ARK is still a huge fan of BP and no doubt he has made plenty of mistakes, but let him worry about them and move on. Why show the world how much he hurt yall that all these years later yall still wanna cry about it. And i can tell you that we are not sitting here ashamed, if anything we are proud of the fact that we have an AD or put morality over wins, say what you will about jeff long but in many peoples view he is the best AD in the country. MOVE ON or cover the inmate row yall have, AKA georgia bulldogs!
mark
July 20th, 2012
4:15 pm
So Arkansa takes the high road morally. And Georgia embraces Richts’ jailhouse Dawgs. Double standard anyone. Or is it because Patrino had the audacity to leave the Atlanta Flacons and Mr. Schultz is beholden to them for a good portion of his paycheck. I think so!!!
Jeff Schultz
July 20th, 2012
4:24 pm
By the way, thanks to all for comments, even to those who think I’m an idiot. I do find it interesting that many critical of the column respond with something along the lines of, “What about Auburn!” Well, I don’t cover Auburn. My media outlet covers Georgia, so I wrote a Georgia column. Others also are focusing too much on Isaiah Crowell. He was only a part of this column. If Crowell was the only recruit from 2011 who ran into problems, probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal (relatively speaking). But losing seven of 26 recruits from 1 class in 1 year is significant. Even Mark Richt acknowledged that. No agenda here. But I respect the fact that everybody has their own opinion. Thanks for reading. J.
Claymation
July 21st, 2012
8:18 am
Jeff, where the heck is Pampelona? There is a town in Spain called Pamplona where crazy drunk people run with bulls once a year. Copy editor please?
zbulldawg
July 21st, 2012
10:44 am
HERE again the school is being blamed for what Petrino has done to himself. They didn’t cover any thing up They said NOT HERE !! Good for them. Put the blame where it belongs. We must stop trying to blame every one for someone esles’ actions. YOU DID IT YOU DONE IT IT”S YOURS !!
Yo Vince
July 21st, 2012
11:15 am
Jeff, I have a picture of a co-worker, in really bad underwear, only, beer gut in tow, passed out on a blowup matress, with dirty socks next to his face. I e-mail it to him everytime he misses work. Please use this picture of Bobby ONLY. It’s the money shot!
RazorFin
July 21st, 2012
1:00 pm
Coach Petrino did make a few BIG mistakes, but I would rather have him than any other coach in college football coaching my team,. Good luck Coach Petrino. I hope you learn from your mistakes and can move forward and have a happy and successful life. I have made a few mistakes in my life. I was fortunate enough to learn from those mistakes and move on. It can be done regardless of what some of you think.
Marietta :D
July 26th, 2012
7:56 pm
It was never “if” but “when” Petrino would do something to embarrass his latest team.
Marietta :D
July 26th, 2012
8:02 pm
Three Arkansas football players were arrested for residential burglary, with University Police alleging that they stole several items, including laptops, from dorm rooms on campus.
Marietta :D
July 26th, 2012
8:04 pm
A woeful off season for Arkansas off the field continues Saturday, with word that a couple more Razorbacks have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
Marietta :D
July 26th, 2012
8:07 pm
FAYETTEVILLE — Anthony Oden, who was arrested last Saturday and charged with driving while intoxicated for the second time in just more than a year, has been dismissed from Arkansas’ football team, Razorbacks coach Bobby Petrino said in a release Friday.
Marietta :D
July 26th, 2012
8:08 pm
Cut n paste baby!
Marietta :D
July 26th, 2012
8:10 pm
Football Graduation Rates: SEC
Vanderbilt 89%
Georgia 68%
Florida 67%
Alabama 67%
LSU 67%
Mississippi St. 64%
Auburn 63%
Kentucky 63%
Mississippi 61%
South Carolina 57%
Arkansas 55%
Tennessee 53%