Bobby Petrino

Bobby Petrino has coached football at the college and pro levels for more than three decades, but is better known for his off-the-field troubles than for his successes as a coach. Petrino worked as the offensive coordinator at Auburn in 2002 and earned his first head coaching job one year later at the University of Louisville. He led the Cardinals to two 11-win seasons and a Conference USA title in four years at the helm of the program, and signed a lucrative 10-year extension in July 2006 before the start of the ’06 season. Six months later he left Louisville to coach the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, but left that job with three games remaining in his first season to take on the head coaching duties at the University of Arkansas. Both moves were the subject of controversy and left fans of Petrino’s previous teams bitter and confused.

Petrino coached the Razorbacks to new heights in the SEC. His 2010 team won 10 games and reached a BCS bowl game, and his 2011 squad won 11 games and that season’s Cotton Bowl over Kansas State. In April of 2012, Petrino found himself in more hot water after he was involved in a motorcycle crash on an Arkansas highway. Petrino was riding with former Razorbacks’ All-SEC volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, whom he had hired less than a month earlier to be the student-athlete development coordinator for the football program. Petrino was subsequently fired and after a year away from football returned as the head coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Petrino coached at WKU for one season (2013) and led the team to an 8-4 record, although it was not invited to a bowl game that year. After that season, he left the Hilltoppers to return to Louisville as the head football coach once again. Through the 2013 season he amassed a career record of 83-30 at the college level, including a 4-3 record in bowl games.