By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long has plenty of administrative experience.
He has been in charge of athletic departments for over a decade at schools like Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Eastern Kentucky. He has held other athletic department positions at big-time universities like Oklahoma and Michigan.
But one thing was clear late last Thursday night, hours after the earth-shaking revelation Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino had not been completely forthcoming with information after his motorcycle accident. This is new territory.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“To honest I haven’t stopped and thought about whether I’ve had these things,” Long said about putting Petrino on administrative leave. “I haven’t taken a chance to sit back and think about if I’ve had this in my past experience. …
“I can’t recall that I’ve put somebody on administrative leave from a coaching position.”
So call it an unwanted first for Long. The Arkansas football program, which has been on the rise both financially and on the field the past several seasons under Petrino’s guidance, is now at a crossroads as Long works through his review.
A week ago today, Petrino was involved in a accident that left the coach with four broken ribs, a cracked vertebrae and multiple abrasions. But it’s well-known now that wasn’t the extent of the damage. Petrino had Jessica Dorrell, a 25-year-old former Arkansas volleyball player who he had hired less than a week earlier for a position in the football program, on the motorcycle with him. It’s a fact the coach tried to cover up.
Long’s first order of business was placing Petrino on administrative leave while he conducted a review. The review, a UA spokeperson said Saturday, will continue through the weekend.
“It’s difficult any time we have an employee, a coach that makes a mis-step, it’s disappointing to me,” Long said last Thursday. “We have high expectations. I think every coach and every administrator and every staff person knows we have high expectations. Certainly I’m disappointed. I brought coach Petrino here, so I want to make sure I do the appropriate review.”
Long was asked what he was looking for in his review, but said he wouldn’t know until he found it. He’s certainly weighing legal, financial and moral ramifications with any decision made.
On one hand, Arkansas’ football program is enjoying immense success on the field and financially. The Razorbacks are 21-5 in the past two seasons and have big plans for 2012. The Razorback Foundation recently announced it had hit the 13,000-member mark for the first time in school history. And the program is in the middle of constructing — at Petrino’s urging — a $28.86 million football operations center.
On the other, the same coach has violated the conduct clause in his Arkansas contract because of the admission of a “previous inappropriate relationship” he kept from his boss. He had just hired Dorrell on March 28, four days before crashing his motorcycle with the 25-year-old employee on the back of it.
Nationally, the reputation of the state’s flagship university has taken a hit because of Petrino’s mistakes.
“It is an unfortunate situation for everybody involved,” Alabama-Birmingham coach Garrick McGee said in an interview with the Alabama media Friday. “In these types of situations, crisis like this, true leadership takes charge. I’m convinced that they have really good leadership within the university, from top down, all the way to the locker room with (quarterback) Tyler Wilson, (running back) Knile Davis and (wide receiver) Cobi Hamilton and those guys. “I trust the leadership of the university to make the right decisions to keep the program on top, where they are now.”
McGee — who played for Petrino at Arizona State and worked for the coach at Arkansas the previous four seasons — said during the interview he spoke with Petrino the morning after the motorcycle accident. He hasn’t been in touch with him since.
McGee then was asked if he felt concerned about Petrino because he’s a mentor and friend.
“Not just him, but the whole program,” McGee said. “I’m a part of that whole program. I know all those people involved, the kids. I know the leadership, the Razorback Nation, just to see them go through it is a tough time right now.”
No one questions Petrino’s football mind. He has consistently developed players and put them in position to win games at every stop in his career. But one more consideration for Long during the review must be this: how effective can Petrino — the state’s highest paid employee — be as a leader if he is permitted to return?
D.J. Shockley, a former Georgia quarterback who was with the Atlanta Falcons when Petrino coached the team, believes that’s in question.
Shockley, who is working in radio in Atlanta, said it may be hard for players to trust Petrino if he is back in his role as Arkansas’ coach.
“Your coach has gotten caught in a situation where he’s not really being accountable,” Shockley said Friday. “Coaches always tell you you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing your university. So how do you take his words now? Do you really listen to him?
“I think it’s going to be hard for him if they bring him back for players to really kind of take everything he says and take it to heart and say, ‘OK, well, you didn’t do it so why should we?’”
Current players have not been available for comment since Petrino’s administrative leave was announced. But Assistant head coach Taver Johnson, who is in charge with Petrino on leave, said the team continued to operate with a business-as-usual attitude last week.
He is no stranger to working through a difficult situation. He and defensive coordinator Paul Haynes were members of the Ohio State staff as it navigated through NCAA turmoil. Coach Jim Tressel was eventually fired before the 2011 season, leaving the Buckeyes under an interim coach.
“I don’t know if you can ever prepare,” Johnson said of his experiences with turmoil. “When you’re going through tough situations, any kind of adversity you’ve been through prepares you mentally and makes you step into a leadership role like all of our coaches have done.”
Johnson was speaking specifically about how the Arkansas coaching staff is dealing with the situation. But it applies to Long and others in leadership positions at Arkansas, who are under the microscope after Petrino’s crash.
“I expect to move very expeditiously in my review of this personnel matter and hope to have a resolution soon,” Long said Thursday night. “I have an obligation and a responsibility to obtain the information and then act appropriately.”