Arkansas Football: Bobby Petrino’s Statement on Smith’s Hire
By Ryan Wright
Monday night Bobby Petrino released a statement through his agent Russ Campbell stating,
“I think Jeff Long made a great hire. While there were several outstanding internal candidates, John L. brings a lot of head coaching experience to the table that will help Arkansas’ transition. He will unify the staff, the team and the Razorback fan base. I wish coach Smith, his staff and the Arkansas football team the very best.”
Speculation as to why Petrino would issue any statement at all regarding the hiring of Arkansas’ new head football coach brings no immediate answers. The only thought is Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long has asked Petrino privately to be supportive of any internal candidate to help ease the transition of the new coach who just happens to be one of Petrino’s mentors in John L. Smith.
Petrino is in dire need of a national PR campaign to help clean his tarnished image. Should Petrino ever want to coach on the Division 1-A FBS level again being supportive of his former team, showing he is a team player (even after the fact), and saying all the right things will go a long way to show he has made changes in his life. The impact his statement has on the Razorbacks at this point means very little.