The blame Bobby Petrino game
By jeb
Is this man responsible for ruining Louisville football?
One of the interesting things that has come out of Louisville’s disappointing season and Bobby Petrino’s surprising move to Arkansas is how a lot of the blame for this years Louisville football team has been shifted to Bobby Petrino.
Kragthorpe started the shift by routinely referring to off the field issues he was not aware of:
“There are only so many things that I’m allowed to say because of legalities. I feel like I’ve been as forthright as I possibly could. But there are certain things that I cannot say whether it’s due to injuries or off the field situations. There are certain things that I would lose my job if I were to divulge them. So I can’t do that.”
“It’s certainly been a challenge in terms of things that I inherited. But that’s the situation I’m in and I have to play the hand I’m dealt. I work hard every day to try to reflect a positive attitude and I’ll continue to do that every day.” (Link)“Certainly there have been some challenges with some off-the-field situations that I did not anticipate, but we’re working through those.” (Link)
Initially these comments were met by the local media as well as Louisville bloggers with some skepticism.
Vague charges are unfair to Petrino, his assistants and the guys who played for U of L the past four seasons.
What are we talking about? Marijuana? HGH? The clear and the cream? Guys betting on games? My imagination is only getting warmed up.
If there was a drug problem, why not say you’ve eliminated it? If guys were routinely cutting class, why not say you’ve fixed that, too? (Link)
That skepticism however appears to be short lived. As Petrino’s behavior in leaving Atlanta brought out an assault on his character the supposed mess he left behind in Louisville is being brought up any many columns.
Stewart Mandel on SI.com (Link)
An ineffective (or, quite possibly, non-existent) disciplinarian. As Louisville’s disastrous 6-6 season played out this year, some unsavory details began to emerge about the way Petrino ran his program. New coach Steve Kragthorpe dealt with a litany of off-the-field issues that his predecessor either overlooked, or possibly covered up, involving some bad seeds he recruited.
Pat Forde on ESPN.com (Link)
Petrino left behind many talented players for Kragthorpe, but sources say he also left behind some off-field issues that the new coach has tried to address. Kragthorpe has suspended and/or dismissed numerous players this season.
And locally
What happens around U of L when you don’t make a BCS game? Ask Kragthorpe.
Fans don’t applaud you for trying to clean up Petrino’s mess. They tell you that players don’t fear you the way they feared Petrino. They tell you that you’re not the motivator, strategist and — gulp — genius that he was.
Let the new coach lose to Kentucky and Syracuse, and people will forget what a liar the old coach was. (Link)
The sad part of this is that Petrino was, and may still be, a remarkable college coach, if he can just get recruits and their parents to stop laughing. Though all of a sudden, all of these off-the-field messes that U of L has been hinting that he left here are much more pertinent, now that he’s returning to the college game. (Link)
While Petrino certainly has some character issues and is clearly looking out for himself. It is a bit disingenuous to blame Louisville’s problems on him. After all, these are he same players who went to a BCS game just last season. A season in which things like flipping off opposing fans and spitting on opposing players did not occur. Not to mention the fact that prior to the season Kragthorpe himself said.
“I don’t think there’s any question we want to play in the national championship game this year. People may say that’s a bold statement. Well, if we don’t have that type of thought process, we really don’t need to be out there practicing right now.”
So over the 9 months prior to the season Kragthorpe didn’t realize he had any off the field problems and felt he could compete for a national championship. Yet as losses started to mount these problems all arose over a period of 14 weeks. Luckily for Kragthorpe, Petrino is the perfect scapegoat because he’s so toxic right now he can be blamed for anything.