Sheepish BCS Schools Will Follow Western Kentucky’s Lead
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By DERON SNYDER
When a big-boy school welcomes Bobby Petrino as the new football coach, in a year or two, it can thank Western Kentucky for paving the way. Until then, the Hilltoppers can thank Tennessee, Auburn and Kentucky for being phonies, hypocrites and cowards.
Such schools won’t mind being fired upon in the near future, but only because WKU stepped forward to take the first hail of bullets.
Petrino’s previous sins won’t be less egregious a couple of seasons from now. He’ll be the same former Arkansas coach who hired his mistress and lied about her presence on his Harley when they crashed. He’ll be the same former Atlanta Falcons coach who left a note in each player’s locker before fleeing in the midst of his first season. And he’ll be the same former Louisville coach who interviewed for a job that his mentor still held, got a big raise from the Cardinals and still bolted for the NFL.
None of that will matter when the next major school hires him; there was no reason to pretend that it matters now. Petrino has been called a lot of things (sleazeball, jerk, bad guy), but he enjoys universal acclaim for his coaching prowess, good for top-10 rankings at Arkansas and Louisville and a career record of 75-26.
