Yes, You Heard Correctly, Petrino To Arkansas

It was announced last night that Bobby Petrino, now the former Atlanta Falcons' head coach after just 13 games, is leaving to take the vacant head coaching spot at Arkansas. Some are probably happy, and some are probably mad. Pat Forde says that he's worse than Nick Satan, and cautions Arkansas fans against getting too excited about anything long-term.

Back in August, I touched on the fact that the Falcons team he was preparing to coach was much different than the one that was there when he signed on. Jokingly, I wondered aloud if he would try to get his old job at Louisville back before the season even started. Looks like I was a little wrong on the timeframe, and in the wrong conference, but other than that I wasn't too far off.

Petrino has a history of making these types of moves, as Forde covers in his column, so it's not too surprising to see this. A little suspect? Yes. But certainly not surprising. Though, with the ongoing Vick debacle looming over the team, I'm sure that some feel that Petrino should get a "free pass" of sorts. Personally, since I'm not a Falcons or Razorbacks fan I can't say that I care too much one way or the other. The SEC gets another solid college coach which makes the conference stronger(for at least a few games), but outside of that Petrino's move out of Atlanta doesn't really bother me. All the parties involved knew what his tendencies were before he was hired, and no matter what he said there always had to be a belief, no matter how small, that he could bolt at any time.

Welcome To The NFL Bobby Petrino!

Somewhat lost in all of the Michael Vick hoopla is that the Falcons team Bobby Petrino agreed to coach way back on January 8 is significantly different now. Think about it, when he arrived in Atlanta he had Michael Vick starting, one of the NFL's most sought after back-ups in Matt Schaub, a decent DE in Patrick Kerney, a solid FB in Justin Griffith and an apparently healthy running back in Warrick Dunn.

Now, Coach Petrino is looking at starting Joey Harrington with Chris Redman(and his 10 total games of experience) as the lone back-up(DJ Shockley is out for the year), thanks to Vick's desire to kill dogs and the trading of Schaub to Houston. He also lost Kerney to Seattle, Griffith to Oakland and Dunn is coming off of back surgery due to a herniated disc.

The team is quite different than the one he took over the duties as head coach for a little over seven months ago. Hopefully he puts most of that $24 million over 5 years away because this stint as an NFL head coach could burn him out forever. Or maybe he could ask to opt out of his contract since this isn't really the same team he agreed to coach, and he could head back to Louisville to re-take the head coach spot with the #11 ranked Cardinals. At least there he wouldn't have to worry about Brian Brohm torturing dogs.