LITTLE ROCK — Flashback to April 2006 and suppose the following:
Driving a convertible with the top down, Houston Nutt is distracted and runs off Highway 16. The young woman in the ragtop, who happens to be an employee of the athletic department and half the coach’s age, flags down a passing car and a state trooper eventually takes the woman back to her car at the Northwest Arkansas Mall before making sure that the coach gets needed medical attention.
Nutt tells his boss, Frank Broyles, that he was alone in the vehicle and the UA issues a statement to that effect, quoting the Nutt family.
Three days later, the truth about the accident comes out. Details about the woman’s hire follow. Eighteen minutes prior to the release of the accident report, Nutt calls Broyles and comes clean.
“For Sale” signs go up in Nutt’s yard.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Fast forward six years.
Many of those who would be after Nutt’s scalp are nonplussed about what is happening with Bobby Petrino. To them, it is as simple as 9-13 and no bowl games vs. 21-5 and trips to the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl. They believe Petrino is the man who will lead them to the promised land and that the coronation will be sooner than later. They are vocal and they are entitled to their dyed-in-the-wool Razorback opinion. Equally entitled are the morally outraged who say the head coach should be fired for what he himself termed an “inappropriate relationship.”
Opinion is all over the place and the two extremes are espoused by those eager to talk.
Behind the scenes, I suspect the views are just as diverse — from fire him to slap him on the wrist — even among members of the UA Board of Trustees. No doubt, it’s the same with donors who give big bucks to the Razorback Foundation. There must be those who say they will pull their donations if he is fired and those who say they will pull their donations if he is retained.
Charged with ignoring the morass of outside sentiment is athletic director Jeff Long, who also must disengage himself from a personal disappointment. After all, he has bent over backwards to accommodate Petrino’s every whim and his thank you was a lie. To me, Petrino deceiving his boss is the No. 1 offense. No. 2 is his relationship with a subordinate and whether that played a part in her being hired for a $55,000-per-year job.
What he does in his personal life is between him and his family. Bill and Hillary Clinton are still together and he had sex in the White House.
If Petrino is retained, the brouhaha will follow him on the recruiting trail. Some prospects won’t care; most parents will. Still, he could get in front of any backlash by admitting personal wrongdoing to the parents and then moving on to what Arkansas can do for their son. In other words, fess up and hunker down and a year or two down the road, it will be old news.
The gut feeling is that Long wants to keep Petrino, knowing that he has revitalized old fans and brought in new ones. Attorneys could figure out to dock Petrino four months’ pay of about $1 million or they could redo his base salary. At the same time, the door is open for some revisions in the coach’s contract, maybe even address his huge buyout.
Long will make an intelligent and informed decision, knowing full well there will be criticism no matter what. He’s on-target with his decisions about as often as Petrino is with his play-calling.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.