Nutriaitch;1832286; said:
just giving you a heads up.
we've been where y'all are right now.
coach comes in and resurrects a dormant program
his name pops up yearly for every coaching job in America.
fan base starts sweating and getting nervous
he parlays that into a bigger contract at current job.
fan base breathes a sigh of relief and convinces themselves he'll never leave them.
rinse and repeat until he finds his next "dream" job.
maybe Bobby P has finally settled down.
but he has a reputation of flirting with more job openings jumping ship more often than Saban does.
Yeah, I get that. Successful coaches names will always come up for better jobs. And I know he'll most likely move on at some point.
But I think we have a few things going for us that might lead to Petrino staying put for a while:
1) The NFL is not an option like it was for Saban, Spurrier and others. That door is closed and locked from both sides.
2) He's at what could potentially become a consistent contender in the SEC, and there are only a handful of jobs that, should he build the Razorbacks program to that level, that would be a genuine step up. And as we've seen over the past few days regarding Florida, he doesn't seem inclined to show interest.
3) He's happy at Arkansas. From all accounts, he likes it in Fayetteville and perhaps more importantly, his wife LOVES it.
4) His reputation. No one would enjoy the beating he's taken in the media, and staying put for a while would eventually change that. And that reputation is one of the things that I think will keep him here for a while, both from the standpoint that he wants to repair it, and that other programs aren't likely to want to 'get that stank on them' so to speak, by hiring him.
And about that reputation:
I get that he took a beating for leaving the Falcons before the season was over and perhaps that's deserved. (For the record, Lou Holtz did the same thing to the NY Jets to, coincidentally, take the Arkansas job.)
Now, I don't think that the ESPN narrative about that was quite fair to the facts, and few people outside of Arkansas know or care about the actual details of how leaving the Falcons came about.
Fair enough.
But to say that he is a job hopper, when many, many successful coaches have a similar track record, is simply repeating a meme. And as you so correctly pointed out, successful coaches become very popular and when the opportunity to move up the food chain is offered, most jump at it.
Consider:
Bobby Petrino - 3 jobs in 3 years. Louisville, Atlanta, Arkansas
Nick Saban - 3 jobs in 4 years. LSU, Miami, Alabama
Urban Meyer - 3 jobs in 4 years. Bowling Green, Utah, Florida
Lou Holtz - 3 jobs in 4 years. Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame
Steve Spurrier - 3 jobs in 5 years. Florida, Washington, South Carolina
Lane Kiffin - 3 jobs in 3 years. Okland, Tennessee, USC
Gene Chizik - 3 jobs in 4 years. Texas, Iowa State, Auburn
Brian Kelly - 3 jobs in 4 years. Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame
This list is just off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are many, many others like it throughout the history of college football.
So while he has a deserved reputation as a job hopper, he's not that far outside the norm of what happens to successful coaches fairly regularly.