Let’s review an updated timeline of events, shall we?

March 28, 2012: Bobby Petrino hires Jessica Dorrell as Student-Athlete Development Coordinator. And Petrino releases the following quote about Dorrell’s hire:

“Jessica Dorrell will be a great addition to our football program,” said Coach Petrino. “As a former student-athlete she has an enthusiasm for the Razorbacks and is familiar with what the University of Arkansas can offer. She is extremely organized and has a professional approach, which should translate well into our program and recruiting as we continue to place an emphasis on this area.”

April 1, 2012: Petrino is involved in motorcycle accident around 6:45 PM local time. It is listed as a single vehicle crash. He is hospitalized, kept overnight and later released.

April 2, 2012: Arkansas releases a statement regarding the accident.

“Coach Petrino was involved in a motorcycle accident on Sunday evening that involved no other individuals. He is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery. Our family appreciates respect for our privacy during the recovery and we are grateful for the thoughts of Razorback fans at this time.”

April 3, 2012: Petrino goes back to work and admits he wasn’t wearing a helmet in the crash. Here is the video of the press conference.

He was specifically asked if anyone was with him, and he said “there was a lady there that helped me flag down a car”. That was, from what we understand, Jessica Dorrell.

April 5, 2012: We learn that Petrino was not alone on the motorcycle and that Jessica Dorrell was riding on the back. Arkansas’ released official statement was then called into question.

Later that evening, AD Jeff Long places Petrino on administrative leave with pay after he gets word that he has been lied to.

April 9, 2012: Arkansas State police release the 911 phone call following the incident, and that there was a female who was involved but did not look to be injured.

A rally is held on campus by Petrino’s supporters.

April 10, 2012: Jeff Long calls a presser for 7:15 PM and announces Petrino has been fired. Long also tells us that Petrino had given around “$20,000 in cash” to Dorrell.

Petrino released the following written statement:

“I chose to engage in an improper relationship. I also made several poor decisions following the end of that relationship and in the aftermath of the accident. I accept full responsibility for what has happened.”

April 23, 2012: Jeff Long announces that John L. Smith is hired to be the interim head coach and signs a 10-month contract. Smith was the head coach at Weber State and the former special teams coach under Petrino just last season.

July 16, 2012: Arkansas athletics launches the TD2012 campaign promoting players, namely Tyler Wilson and Knile Davis, for postseason awards. Both are considered preseason Heisman contenders.

The UA athletic department developed an all-encompassing strategic plan to support and promote multiple Razorback football student-athletes. The official campaign will highlight information regarding Arkansas’ candidates for post-season honors and rally the fans as the season progresses towards election day for each award.

July 18, 2012: SEC Media Days capture John L. Smith in his truest form, and “Get your piss hot” was born.

“Coach tells us to ‘get your piss hot’ to motivate the team.” -Tenarius Wright, about John L. Smith

August 9, 2012: Bobby Petrino is interviewed by ESPN about the Arkansas firing and the events that led up to it.

August 21, 2012: Petrino’s mistress, Jessica Dorrell, and her finance are still engaged, and her fiance takes a job at the University of South Carolina.

September 1, 2012: Arkansas beats Jacksonville State 49-24. The Hogs thought the team could be tightened up after mistakes against Jacksonville State. However, it was just a foreshadowing for the next game against ULM.

John L. Smith’s post-game quotes:

“We are going to have to tighten up in our pass coverage. That will come. In special teams, I was hoping to get Nate (Holmes) a little more running room. He got some room in there, except it had to be called back. I think that shows a little bit of his abilities as far as a return guy. So we’ll get some things out of him hopefully like what we got out of Joe Adams in the future. Anyway that was about it. There are a lot of things we need to work on and a lot of things we need to get better at before the next one.”

September 8, 2012: Arkansas has a monumental collapse to Louisiana-Monroe and loses in overtime 34-31. Tyler Wilson gets knocked out in the first half due to concussion-like symptoms. ULM even made t-shirts commemorating the victory.

September 9, 2012: Saturday Down South learns from a source close to Wilson that he was kept overnight in Little Rock from a severe concussion, was not released from hospital until “around 11 AM” and “had blood on the bottom of his brain”. Arkansas continues to say Wilson will be a game-time decision against Alabama.

YouTube singer LIZHONEY2U makes a video that would go viral by singing “Razorbacks United We Stand”.

September 13, 2012: Tyler Wilson misses practice because he went to a specialist for his concussion, and medical personnel does not clear him for Saturday’s game against Alabama. However, the media has no clue he was not cleared or why he missed practice.

September 15, 2012: Wilson warms up before the game, but he does not start because the medical personnel did not clear him. Arkansas goes on to get dominated by Alabama 52-0, and John L. Smith’s post-game comments give no encouragement to anyone.

“I really don’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to say to our team as well.”

Wilson calls out his teammates after the loss, which is met with mixed emotions:

“No, sorry, we’re not doing questions today. I’ll start with the football game. Obviously it wasn’t very pretty to watch. It wasn’t pretty for me to sit on the sideline and watch as a player. It sucks I can’t be out there to do anything about it. Do I feel like we at times gave up out there? Yeah. Absoutely. And as a leader, it sucks to see people not do their jobs and things go wrong. There have been a lot of things that have gone that way. As a leader at this point, you’ve got to look forward, and there’s been a lot of people jump off the bandwagon and it’s my responsibility as a leader to keep everybody in this organization, in this team, in that locker room, together. And I’m going to make sure of it going forward. We’ve got a big game against Rutgers next week. I’m going to do everything in my power to be a part of it and be the starting quarterback to run out there on the field and get a win. You’ve got to start with one before you can get the rest of them. But I give you my word I’m going to do the best in my ability and the best in my power to make that happen. That’s all I’ve got.”

September 16, 2012: LIZHONEY2U publishes another video after the Alabama loss named “Razorbacks Ain’t No Stopping Us Now“.

September 17, 2012: John L. Smith delivers the unforgettable “SMILE! SMILE!” press conference heard around the college football world.

September 19, 2012: Everyone learns that John L. Smith has over $25 million in debt from real estate deals gone bad. You can read the details here.

September 20, 2012: We also receive word from the University of Arkansas via a press release that John L. Smith’s brother has passed away, and he was in Idaho for the funeral.

“Coach John L. Smith flew to Idaho Falls last night following practice to attend the funeral of his brother (Bart) who passed away Monday. The funeral is being held this afternoon and Coach Smith will return to Fayetteville early this evening.”

September 21, 2012: Wilson is cleared to play against Rutgers, per John L. Smith.

“Good news this afternoon: Tyler is cleared to go,” Smith said. “That’s very exciting, and we are thankful that he is. Our football team is excited about that. Now we need to go to the field and be accountable and execute.”

September 22, 2012: Rutgers beats Arkansas 35-26, and the Rutgers quarterback throws for five touchdowns in the win. Hogs’ Cobi Hamilton sets a single-game SEC receiving record with 303 yards.

September 24, 2012: John L. Smith refers to the “state of Alabama program” when delivering a speech about his own team at the Arkansas Touchdown Club.

September 29, 2012: Arkansas got thumped by Texas A&M 58-10 on the road. That’s when everyone started taking note of Johnny Manziel and his crazy freshman season. The Aggies out-gained the Hogs 716 yards to 518 yards.

October 13, 2012: The Hogs won two straight against Auburn and Kentucky by a combined 73-14. Are the Hogs back? If Arkansas wins out, is there a chance Smith gets retained? No shot.

November 23, 2012: The Hogs finish the regular season losers in four of their five.

November 24, 2012: AD Jeff Long announces John L. Smith won’t be retained for the 2013 season.

December 4, 2012: Arkansas hires Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema. Bielema was a splash hire who was at the top of the big board, but we just didn’t know he was on the board.

December 5, 2012: Bret Bielema calls the Hogs for the first time during his introductory press conference.

January 10, 2013: Bielema shows he’s not afraid to dish it out to the haters on Twitter.

February 7, 2013: Bielema and Arkansas sign the country’s #27 recruiting class, according to Rivals.com. National Signing Day was February 6th, but Alex Collins’ mother made the Hogs’ big finish wait another day.

March 29, 2013: Bret Bielema (jokingly) takes aim at the SEC’s evil empire and the 500-pound gorilla in the room: Nick Saban.

“The reason the SEC is talked about all the time is one team, because of their dominance. But I didn’t come here to play Alabama. I came here to beat Alabama.

“You can take Saban’s record when he was at Michigan State and when he was a coach in the Big Ten and put it against mine, and he can’t compare.”

What will 2013 have in store for the Hogs?

Photo Credit: Beth Hall-USA TODAY Sports

And it certainly wasn’t.

“I don’t think an A.D. should ever hire somebody for 10 months,” Paul Petrino said. “Players know what that means; they understand that. It hurts the power of the head coach and the assistants.

“They should’ve hired (Smith) for two years or hired someone else for two years, or just (expletive)-canned all of us.”

Both coaches felt the same about the situation – hire a longer-term coach to a multi-year contract or can the entire staff. The 10-month contract basically told all the players and the rest of the coaching staff that unless they win the SEC, they, along with Smith, wouldn’t be returning.

In a slightly separate story, Paul Petrino confirmed some players quit on the team.  After the season turned out to be a dumpster fire, older players started worrying about their draft status and packed it in, according to the coaches.

“There were some seniors who kind of hung it up, to be honest with you,” Petrino said. “They were going to worry about their futures more than that team. A couple seniors said they were hurt and I don’t know if they really were.”

Haynes agreed that the players quit, but he didn’t fault he players, because the 10-month hire caused instability.

“I really don’t fault them, to be honest with you,” Haynes said. “I don’t fault the kids for thinking that way. Again, there was no stability there. Again, it goes back to, ‘Who am I playing for?’ Once they can’t say, ‘We’re trying to save the coaches’ jobs’—if they’re just playing for the university, sometimes kids feel the university let them down.”

John L. Smith also questioned some players’ injuries, and whether or not they could have played.

“If a kid’s hurt, he’s hurt. Could some of the guys that were hurt have played with those injuries and continued on? That’s up to those guys,” Smith said.

“But I think some of the players, some of the older guys, said, ‘Why should I continue on?’ They were looking ahead to the NFL.”

The players who were speculated to have faked injuries are senior tight end Chris Gragg, linebacker Tenarius Wright and running back Knile Davis, according to the Sporting News article.

Similarly, senior quarterback Tyler Wilson was both hammered and praised in the media for calling his players out after the 52-0 loss against Alabama and telling everyone they quit.

“No, sorry, we’re not doing questions today. I’ll start with the football game. Obviously it wasn’t very pretty to watch. It wasn’t pretty for me to sit on the sideline and watch as a player. It sucks I can’t be out there to do anything about it. Do I feel like we at times gave up out there? Yeah. Absolutely. And as a leader, it sucks to see people not do their jobs and things go wrong. There have been a lot of things that have gone that way. As a leader at this point, you’ve got to look forward, and there’s been a lot of people jump off the bandwagon and it’s my responsibility as a leader to keep everybody in this organization, in this team, in that locker room, together. And I’m going to make sure of it going forward. We’ve got a big game against Rutgers next week. I’m going to do everything in my power to be a part of it and be the starting quarterback to run out there on the field and get a win. You’ve got to start with one before you can get the rest of them. But I give you my word I’m going to do the best in my ability and the best in my power to make that happen. That’s all I’ve got.”

Even if the players quit in 2012, it’s a direct result of the failure of the coaching staff.

Do you find it ironic that throughout the season the coaches talked about how the players didn’t quit?

It should be noted that Smith, Petrino, Haynes, etc., complemented players all year for not quitting. Quote after quote after quote.

— Robbie Neiswanger (@NWARobbie) January 31, 2013

Paul Petrino on Nov. 23 after LSU game: ““I was proud of the kids. I was proud of the assistant coaches …” (continued)

— Robbie Neiswanger (@NWARobbie) January 31, 2013

“I was proud of everybody that fought as hard as they could. That’s something we can all look in the mirror and always know that we did.”

— Robbie Neiswanger (@NWARobbie) January 31, 2013

Paul Haynes Nov. 23: “It didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but the effort, the preparation our guys gave, you can’t ask for anything else.”

— Robbie Neiswanger (@NWARobbie) January 31, 2013

So, why are they singing a different tune now?

Photo Credit: Nelson Chenault-US PRESSWIRE

Below is a portion of Long’s statement.  You can read the entire release here.

“With our 2012 football season concluded, I met earlier today with Coach John L. Smith to inform him we would be making a change in leadership within our football program. I have great respect for Coach Smith and I thank him for the sincere commitment he has shown our program. He made a difficult decision in uncertain times to return from his alma mater to guide the young men in our football program, and I will always be grateful for his efforts.”

What is surprising is that the Hogs are expected to name a new coach within the next 10 days, per CBSSports.com.  That’s quite ambitious, but they have had more than enough time to get a head start on other universities that will also be replacing their head coaches after the season.

Arkansas becomes the third job to open up in the SEC, joining Kentucky and Tennessee. Is Auburn next?

Photo Credit: Beth Hall-US PRESSWIRE

Long’s decision to bring Smith back to Arkansas as a ten-month head coach was just as reckless as Petrino putting his former mistress on the athletic department payroll. Smith had returned to his alma mater, Weber State, as head coach after serving as Petrino’s special teams coach in 2011. It was presumably the last stop for a coach who enjoyed modest success at the lower levels of the FBS before a 12-20 stint at Michigan State that ended in 2006. Still, Long felt Smith’s Big Ten experience made him ready to come back to Arkansas on short notice to clean up the mess left by Petrino’s firing.

This is not to suggest Long was wrong to fire Petrino. As I wrote six months ago:

The last thing Arkansas can afford to be is a national punchline. And the longer Jeff Long kept Bobby Petrino around, the more laughter there would be. Long admitted it was the “negative publicity” of Petrino’s motorcycle accident—and the “inappropriate relationship” with Jessica Dorrell that it unraveled—that proved the “key factor” in Long’s decision to fire Petrino for cause. As I noted last week, what the media calls the “morals clause” in Petrino’s contract is really a “bad publicity” clause.

But this wasn’t just about some today’s headlines. It was about Arkansas’ ability to remain competitive in recruiting with Alabama, LSU and the rest of the SEC West. We all know that negative recruiting is a big part of the game. Anything that publicly damages a coach’s reputation is fair game. (Heck, even rumors of things you can’t prove are “fair” game.) Moreover, once you’re in the media’s crosshairs, their tendency is to keep digging until they find even more stuff to embarrass or destroy you with. Jeff Long has been an athletic director long enough to understand this.

Unfortunately, Long went ahead and hired a temporary coach on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. That’s not a crime, but neither was Petrino’s affair. Smith told Long about his financial problems before he was hired back as head coach, which only emphasizes the recklessness of Long’s decision. Long’s first responsibility is to protect the reputation of the University of Arkansas, and coming off of Petrino’s malfeasance, Long needed to bring in a leader, interim or not, with no lingering personal baggage. It did a disservice to the team, and even to Smith, to give the public any further ammunition to use against Arkansas as the team struggles on-the-field this season.

It also begs the question of why Long felt it necessary to hire a temporary coach from the outside in the first place rather than promote a member of the remaining staff. Long suggested he always viewed Smith as a figurehead, saying last week, “I think Coach Smith has said he was counting heavily on the offensive and defensive coordinators, and I think that has been his style as a head coach and he’s continued that.” So what was he expecting Smith to do then, aside from giving bizarre press conferences?

Long’s hiring process was also suspect with Petrino. Not the decision to hire him, mind you, which clearly yielded excellent on-field results, but Petrino’s haphazard march from the Atlanta Falcons to Fayetteville in the middle of the night with three weeks to go in the NFL season. Long, then taking over at Arkansas from Frank Broyles, was desperate to lure a name coach after reportedly being spurned by Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe, and he induced a coach to quit on his team via a note posted in the locker room. That showed a lack of professionalism by both Petrino and Long, which in retrospect may help explain how the former coach felt empowered to undermine his athletic director with the Dorrell hiring.

(Arkansas defenders might point to a similar lack of professionalism in Nick Saban’s departure from the Miami Dolphins to Alabama, but there were two key differences: Saban finished out his season with Miami, and he had already proven his ability to win the SEC and a national championship.)

There’s nothing in Long’s past performance to give Arkansas fans much confidence in his ability to hire his third coach in a year. Prior to Arkansas, Long’s only football coaching hire was Dave Wannstedt at Pittsburgh; it’s not exactly rocket science to hire an alumnus of the school who was a two-time NFL head coach and, by all accounts, a model citizen. Now that the Petrino and Smith firings have blown up in Long’s face, Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart needs to think long and hard–no pun intended–whether he trusts Long to get things right the third time around.

All signs Students and Fans would like to display at FB games must be approved in advance. Call Julie Cain at (479) 575-3134 for approval

— Jeff Long (@jefflongUA) August 20, 2012

It seems this policy is to keep the Razorbacks from doing things like this:

Sign policy has been in place for more than 5 years. Concern is for inappropriate language displayed to kids & fans & TV.Thank yo

— Jeff Long (@jefflongUA) August 20, 2012

“@fakeadjefflong: All signs fans want to display must be approved as well as blog post, T-shirt ideas, Fake Twitter ” No Jeff not true :-)

— Jeff Long (@jefflongUA) August 20, 2012

These tweets were sent yesterday by the Arkansas Athletic Director. As he stated, the policy is not new and has been at Arkansas for years. Chris Bahn at Arkansas Sports 360 was emailed a copy of the policy:

Any signs and banners could present issues regarding fan safety and the ability of others to watch the game (i.e. signs blocking the view of others etc.). Since the policy has been established, we have been working with students and others to allow some pre-approved signs into the venue. The approval process would include review of the size, physical makeup of the signs as well as assurances that messages displayed on the signs would not potentially create game management issues by inciting other fans or creating crowd management issues. Our primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of our fans and provide the best game experience for all fans. All of our policies and procedures are targeted at those goals.

What are your thoughts on this policy?

“Loyalty is No. 1,” John L. Smith told The Salt Lake Tribune just over two weeks ago when discussing the criteria for hiring his new staff at Weber State in Ogden, Utah. “You better be on board with our philosophy or you’re not going to be on board very long,” Smith said.

As it turned out, Smith was the one who wasn’t on board for long. Less than five months after taking over at Weber State, his alma mater, Smith is now the head coach at Arkansas, where he was special teams coach last season. According to an Arkansas press release, Smith has “signed a 10-month letter of agreement with a compensation package of $850,000” plus performance bonuses.

Smith’s brief Weber State tenure raises an obvious ethical question, which Salt Lake City sports anchor Jeremiah Jensen attempted to answer via Twitter: “John L. Smith approaching Arkansas about taking an ‘interim’ job is just another reminder of how slimy the college coaching profession is.” This is an understandable gut reaction to Smith’s actions, but it’s also more than a little naive. In every industry, people flock to the most promising job opportunities. Smith is hardly unique in quickly abandoning one job for another, higher-paying higher-profile position. This wasn’t even a sudden change of heart—like when Florida basketball coach Bill Donovan briefly accepted the Orlando Magic job—but rather a response to the highly unusual situation at Arkansas.

Another common but misplaced response to these cases is to bemoan the NCAA’s apparent double standard that restricts the ability of students to transfer but not coaches: Why can John L. Smith leave Weber State after five months without penalty, but a player can’t transfer without a release from his coach and sitting out a year at his new school? I agree with critics that the NCAA’s athlete-transfer policies are illogical and unethical, but it does not follow from there that similar rules are necessary or justified for coaches. The last thing anyone should advocate is national regulation of coaching hires by the NCAA.

As I’ve discussed frequently, NCAA “amateurism” policies rest on the legal fiction, endorsed by the courts, that athletes are not “employees” of their respective universities. Thus, the NCAA can collectively restrict their movement and compensation without transgressing federal labor or antitrust statutes. Coaches are unquestionably university employees. Any attempt by the NCAA to collectively restrict the labor freedom of employees would almost certainly violate federal antitrust policy.

That said, one might think Weber State should have an absolute right, under its employment contract, to prevent Smith from taking another job during the term of their agreement. In 2009, law professor Rich Karcher argued in a paper that schools should employ litigation to do just that:

The nonquantifiable harm to the public academic institutions employing these coaches, including to the public that funds their compensation and the student-athletes that rely on them, far outweighs the breaching coach’s desire to maximize compensation and justifies court intervention to deter coaches from skirting their contractual commitments with virtual impunity.

But this misunderstands the true nature of coaching contracts. There isn’t a single university, including Arkansas and Weber State, that doesn’t know that hiring a coach is essentially an at-will agreement for both sides. The contract isn’t meant to guarantee specific performance. It functions more like an insurance policy. That’s why contracts generally have buyout clauses and bonuses if the coach is still employed at certain future dates.

More to Professor Karcher’s point, any school that resorted to litigation to enjoin a coach from taking another job would be sacrificing its long-term interests for a questionable short-term gain. No highly qualified coach would interview in the future with a school—particularly a nondescript program like Weber State—that sued to prevent another coach like Smith from moving to a clearly better program. The coaching market is fluid by necessity. Schools want the flexibility to hire coaches from other schools, and coaches always want to keep their options open.

Still, if the reports are true and Smith approached Arkansas, that suggests a certain lapse in ethics on the part of both the coach and Jeff Long. After all, Long fired Petrino for a pattern of unethical conduct. Doesn’t he—and thus Arkansas—undermine its case against Petrino by turning around and inducing Smith to leave Weber State after just five months?

Let’s recall here that Long previously hired Petrino while he was under contract—and in the middle of a season—with the Atlanta Falcons. Long had no scruples about whisking Petrino away in the middle of the night to Fayetteville, with Petrino informing his Falcon players of his departure by letter. The mitigating circumstances were the Falcons 3-10 record and the extraordinary prosecution of Michael Vick, which took away the centerpiece of Petrino’s offensive scheme.

Ironically, it’s the strength of the Arkansas program Petrino built that now mitigates Smith’s extraordinary departure from Weber State. Arkansas has a team that by all accounts can contend for the SEC championship this coming season. Long had an ethical duty to his current players to give them a coach who could help them win now. Smith appears uniquely qualified to do so, given his prior head coaching experience and his pre-existing relationships with the staff and players.

As for Smith, while Weber State said in its own press release, “the timing of this announcement is problematic,” the school also acknowledged that Smith was a “high-profile coach,” an implicit admission that they understood the drill. And it’s unlikely Smith’s actions will harm the program long term. Presumably, Smith will keep the remainder of Petrino’s Arkansas staff, which means the staff Smith assembled for Weber State should also remain intact. And it’s not like Smith was a hot, up-and-coming coach when Weber State hired him. He’s 63 and probably on his last head coaching job. If he doesn’t remain with Arkansas after 2012, it’s hard to imagine any school taking a chance on him after what happened with Weber State.

Arkansas senior quarterback Tyler Wilson has had a fantastic spring, so far. His numbers in the Hogs’ scrimmages are off the charts, and he has stated that he is way ahead of where he was at this time last year. Everything was going so smoothly … and then the hammer fell.

Arkansas’ (former) head coach Bobby Petrino crashed his motorcycle into a gigantic pile of cluster flop, and he was eventually fired with cause by UA athletic director Jeff Long. The ramifications of Petrino’s selfish and egotistical gratifications are going to sting this fine program for awhile. But thankfully, there is a true leader in the locker room for the Hogs.

This past Tuesday night, when Jeff Long met with the team to let them know his decision to fire their head coach, a number of players were understandably upset. One could even say down right angry.

After Long left for his press conference, a few of the players began grumbling, wanting to know what they were going to do now. A few mentioned possibly transferring, and more than a few got to their feet to storm out of the locker room.

It was Tyler Wilson that stepped forward, blocked the exit, and said in a captains voice, “We are not going to give up. This is our team, and we are going to move forward! We’re going to talk about this right now!” Who does that kind of stuff?! Leaders of men, that’s who!

The seniors on this team, and other key players such as Knile Davis, have taken ownership of this squad. They have made a conscious decision to not let one man’s selfishness ruin their 2012 season. Will it be easy? Of course not.

All of Razorback Nation waits to see what Long is going to do. Names have been thrown around for the head coaching vacancy. Some are legit, others are absolute pipe dreams. I encourage Hogs fans to stop dreaming of Jon Gruden and Sean Payton … not gonna happen people.

Some quality candidates I can see calling the Hogs are Art Briles, Garrick McGee, Chip Kelly, and Dana Holgorsen. Bo Pelini can relax … Hog fans didn’t want him either. Trading a coach who is an apparent sex fiend and liar, for a coach who has proven anger management issues, isn’t really ideal.

Hopefully Jeff Long will make an announcement this week about a new head coach, or if the Razorbacks will go through 2012 with an interim.

While all of this maelstrom is swirling around the team, the players have managed to stay focused, and have a great spring. Wilson completed 39 of 50 pass attempts in this past Friday nights scrimmage, for 448 yards and 3 touchdowns (after throwing 6 TD passes in the previous scrimmage).

Tyler went through eleven possessions in the 135-play scrimmage, completing 20 consecutive passes at one point. This was the last scrimmage before the annual Red-White Game this coming Saturday, April 21. In three scrimmages this spring, Wilson has completed 80 of 104 passes (77%) for 1,126 yards and 13 TD, with zero interceptions.

If Tyler can carry that over into the 2012 season, and continues to be the team leader he has shown he is, this squad will still be extremely difficult to stop in 2012…even without their former head coach.

It would be inaccurate to look at Bobby Petrino’s firing as a case of “ethics and morals” trumping wins. Judging by his Tuesday evening press conference, Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long was not engaged in moral grandstanding or some Roger Goodell-like effort to show everyone that he was in charge. Long made a calculated long-term decision that he believed was in the best interest of the Razorbacks football program. We won’t know if he’s right for at least a year, maybe longer.

Obviously, the reaction of many Arkansas fans will be concern for the immediate future. A team that finished 11-2 last year with a returning starting quarterback and dates against division rivals Alabama and LSU at home in 2012 are signals to many Razorback supporters that Long should have overlooked Petrino’s actions. But Alabama and LSU are perennial powers. Even with Petrino’s recent success, Arkansas remains at a competitive disadvantage in the SEC West because of its relative lack of in-state talent. Recruiting matters at every SEC school, but it’s at a premium in Fayetteville, and this is where Petrino’s misconduct threatened to do serious harm to the football product down the line.

The last thing Arkansas can afford to be is a national punchline. And the longer Jeff Long kept Bobby Petrino around, the more laughter there would be. Long admitted it was the “negative publicity” of Petrino’s motorcycle accident—and the “inappropriate relationship” with Jessica Dorrell that it unraveled—that proved the “key factor” in Long’s decision to fire Petrino for cause. As I noted last week, what the media calls the “morals clause” in Petrino’s contract is really a “bad publicity” clause.

But this wasn’t just about some today’s headlines. It was about Arkansas’ ability to remain competitive in recruiting with Alabama, LSU and the rest of the SEC West. We all know that negative recruiting is a big part of the game. Anything that publicly damages a coach’s reputation is fair game. (Heck, even rumors of things you can’t prove are “fair” game.) Moreover, once you’re in the media’s crosshairs, their tendency is to keep digging until they find even more stuff to embarrass or destroy you with. Jeff Long has been an athletic director long enough to understand this.

Let’s also remember that it was Petrino, not Long or the media, who made his “inappropriate relationship” a football matter when he hired Jessica Dorrell as a direct report on his staff. Petrino could have just paid Dorrell off, as Long claims he did, or found her work through a friendly booster outside the university. Instead, Petrino did the most reckless thing possible—he used his influence to hire Dorrell over 148 other applicants where only two other finalists received an interview. And let’s not forget Dorrell’s fiancee was also an employee of the Arkansas athletic department.

Recklessness is really the key word here. All successful coaches are risk-takers. Many of them are quirky. You can overlook quirky if they win enough. Les Miles is quirky. But Bobby Petrino wasn’t caught eating grass. He abused his good relationship with the athletic director to sneak his apparent mistress onto the state payroll. Even in Arkansas, there are standards.

I would also suggest to Petrino’s Arkansas supporters that perhaps it’s better this happened now. Bobby Petrino’s tenure at Arkansas was going to explode at some point. His character and history never suggested a guy who was going to build a stable, long-term championship program. He’s ultimately a coaching thrill-seeker—the 99-cent store Urban Meyer, if you will. If he was reckless enough to act as he did with Dorrell, just imagine what other stunts he would have pulled—or may have pulled—if he hadn’t crashed his motorcycle. At least this explosion didn’t result in NCAA sanctions (like Ohio State) or criminal investigations (like Penn State). Jeff Long just needs to find another football coach.

There’s a certain subset of that group who have tried so hard for so long to be on top of the social heap, and when they finally “arrive” and get a little attention, they don’t know what to do with themselves.

Attention fans of Arkansas football: if you’re not careful this will be you; especially you followers, die-hards, and message board warriors.

Arkansas comes into 2010 with an offense led by SI coverboy Ryan Mallett, a great corp of talented, experienced receivers, and a committee of running backs who will be just plain hard to slow down. Even with the questions surrounding the defense and the special teams hangover from last year, they find themselves the trendy dark horse pick to possibly upset Alabama in the West. We’ve waited for so long, and finally we could be looking glory in the face! As awesome as this sounds, it only gets you on the ballot. It doesn’t make you the homecoming queen.

So Razorback Nation, my point is this: we haven’t won anything yet so don’t hang your proverbial hat on the hype. I am very excited about the promise this season brings, but that excitement is tempered by sensibility. To all you angry, little-man-syndrome-having haters who raised cane about Renee Gork’s Florida hat (a national news story that should have never been), you have no concept of the word sensibility (see also “Houston Nutt, FOI, text messages”). You are more like that girl who strolls into school wearing a shirt that says “check these out.” It may get her some attention, but it’s the wrong kind, and it makes her look stupid. Ole Miss had that mentality last year.

The reality is that we’re not on top of the food chain of college football, and people who aren’t from here don’t hate us – they don’t respect us enough to care… yet. So as Jeff Long, Bobby Petrino, and company begin pushing our programs upward where they belong, don’t undermine it with your need for attention. Act like you’ve been there, even if you haven’t.

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Editor’s Note: You can Follow Adam on twitter @adamhambrick

RYAN MALLETT: Thanks for having me. Hello, I’m Ryan Mallett. I just want to take this time and go ahead and give y’all my foot is doing fine. I’m right on schedule with my rehab. Be ready to go during camp.

I made the decision to come back to Arkansas. I felt like I owed it to the state. Playing one year and then leaving, I didn’t find it ethically right. Especially growing up as a Hog fan, I would have been disappointed.

We got the greatest athletic director in the nation in Jeff Long. I think he’s here somewhere. He’s got this program going right. Obviously Coach Petrino does, too. We’re excited about the year. We’re embracing all the expectations. But what we got to do is go out and execute.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions.

Q. Can you talk about your rehab. I understand you’ve done more swimming than you care to ever do again.

RYAN MALLETT: Yeah, I feel like I’m going to try out for the Olympics in 2014. Is that when the next one is? I’m going to give it a shot (smiling).

I’ve been doing a lot of swimming to stay in condition. I haven’t been able to run to this point, so I’ve been swimming a lot, doing a lot of weight room stuff with upper body, a lot of single-leg stuff. It’s really helped me out.

I’ll be ready to go in two weeks when we start.

Q. Ryan, have you taken out an insurance policy on yourself. If so, tell me about that process, the decision there. Did that make your decision to come back easier?

RYAN MALLETT: Yeah, I took out an insurance policy. It didn’t have any effect with my decision really. Really the whole process was going to talk to compliance at the university and just filled out some paperwork and sent it to the NCAA, and really just went from there.

I really didn’t have a lot to do with it except signing my name and filling out a bunch of forms.

Q. Talk about the expectations this season and how well do you think this offense can click? Do you think it’s going to be just as good as last year’s offense?

RYAN MALLETT: You know, obviously, especially in the state of Arkansas, the expectations are really high. We have even higher expectations of ourselves as a team.

As far as the offense, we lost some great players and we also got some players coming back and incoming freshmen that are going to help.

You look at the defense, they’re going to be better. We got guys coming in on the defense that are going to help the defense be better. We’re going to gel better, especially during camp, is really when we’re going to gel. I feel like this is the closest team I’ve ever played on, especially the three years I’ve been here. Really my whole life, this is the closest group of guys, especially as many of us as there are, that I’ve ever been a part of.

Q. Some people would consider you the best quarterback in the SEC for this upcoming season. What is your take on that assessment?

RYAN MALLETT: You know, obviously I don’t think you can name a best quarterback in the SEC until the season’s over. I had an okay year last year. The expectations of me are high.

Myself, they’re even higher for myself. That’s just how I was brought up, that’s how I am. But I don’t think that’s a fair assumption. I think you have to wait till after the season for y’all to decide that.

Q. Obviously you’re the unquestionable leader of this team, especially offensively. What sort of things are you trying to do in your absence to try to motivate other people to become leaders on your team, and how do you feel they’re evolving in the process of their development as you try to take the next step as a team?

RYAN MALLETT: The thing I try to do is when we have team runs, I try to be out there. I will be out there. Most of the time, I’m on the bike. We have four quarters, just like a game. We condition for four quarters. In between quarters, I try to go out there and motivate guys.

In my absence, I feel like we’ve had a lot of other leaders step up. We have DeMarcus Love on the offensive line, we’ve got Ramon Broadway, cornerback, Jerry Franklin, a linebacker. I feel like a lot more guys have stepped up since I haven’t been able to be there all the time.

Q. The layoff that you had without being able to run, how do you think that’s going to affect your sprinter speed and your escapability in the pocket?

RYAN MALLETT: I don’t know if I ever had sprinter speed (laughter).

My game is movement in the pocket. I’m obviously not a runner. My conditioning is fine. I’ve been in the pool an hour, hour and a half, four out of five days of the workweek. I feel like, you know, my conditioning is going to be fine. I guess learning how to run again, it’s going to be new.

Q. When are they going to cut you loose? Can you start running now or where are you?

RYAN MALLETT: Yeah, I mean, I’m right on schedule. I can jog a little bit. Obviously I’m doing my pool work still for conditioning. I’m not conditioning running yet. But the first day at camp, I’ll be out there with cleats on, pads on.

Q. What happened when you and your dad realized you had such a strong arm and how old were you?

RYAN MALLETT: I’ve always had a pretty strong arm since I was little. Some people call it the Mallett arm, the family arm. On my dad’s side, all the brothers, they could all throw the baseball really well. That’s really where I got it from, is just playing with them ever since I was little, just maintaining and developing the muscles in my arm.

Q. Last year you had some really nice stats. When you sat down after the season was over and looked at film of your games with a critical eye, what did you see that you thought, That’s good, but needs to be better?

RYAN MALLETT: After watching the whole season, I was somewhat disappointed in my season. I missed a lot of easy throws that are really uncharacteristic. If I just take what I do in practice to the game, we might be a hundred percent every game. I missed some throws that were really easy. I missed a couple checks. I didn’t miss too many checks, but I missed enough. It really didn’t set well with me.

Q. Ryan, you talked about coming back to school for your junior season. Are you approaching this year almost as if you’re a senior going into it feeling like this will be your last year at Arkansas?

RYAN MALLETT: No, I’m not. I still have two years of eligibility left. I’m an Arkansas Razorback. All that stuff that comes after, if I have a chance to play in the NFL, when that time comes, we’ll see. Right now I have two years left to play college football and I’m going to enjoy it.

Q. Your first two SEC games are Georgia and Alabama. Would you mind talking about how crucial that might be just as a tone setter?

RYAN MALLETT: I mean, those are two great teams. But we have two games before those guys that we can’t overlook. I mean, I played Appalachian State at Michigan. I was part of that team. We got beat in the first game of the season. I kind of learned my lesson from that as far as overlooking people. We have to set the tone in the first game and keep building, keep progressing, keep getting better every week.

Q. I’m sure you’ve been aware of some of the agent stuff in the news. Given your potential, that could become an issue with you. Does it make you more aware of being careful who you talk to? What do you see as trouble spots?

RYAN MALLETT: Yeah, obviously as a college athlete, you got to be aware of who you’re around at all times. As far as the agent thing, I’m not talking to any agents at the time. If they contact me, I tell them if I’m gonna go to the NFL, we’ll talk about it after the season. That’s how I’m doing it because I don’t want to have to deal with any of the stuff that’s going on.

It’s unfortunate that the schools are having to deal with this and it’s happening in such a great conference. I mean, it’s obviously a problem.

Q. Do you think you miss easy passes because sometimes you get a bit too jacked up?

RYAN MALLETT: It comes down to technique, you know. Obviously I’m a fiery competitor and I get excited. But when I lose my technique is when I become less, you know, accurate.

Q. What kind of reports are you hearing from the guys throwing seven-on-seven on the new receivers you got coming in, impact players that are new?

RYAN MALLETT: I got firsthand information on them. I’ve been throwing it to them. We got four or five really good guys that are catching the ball. You know, they’re play-makers and they’re fast. They’re track guys that play football, really, if you look at it.

They got great football instincts, great moves. They’re going to develop their route running. They’re not there as far as a Jarius Wright or Cobi Hamilton. They’re new to it. But I think they’re going to be a pretty good group, though.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan, thank you.

RYAN MALLETT: Thank y’all.

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Arkansas' Ryan Mallett speaks at SEC Media Days