Will all of the negative talk thrown at Bobby Petrino when he left the Falcons haunt him in the future with recruiting? ESPN and the national media absolutely destroyed the guy. It became way too personal if you ask me.
- Jack K., Gillam Park, AR
Was it personal? Yes. Was it deserved? Probably. You don’t walk out on your team. Having said that, I don’t think it will kill his recruiting.
Truth is, when it comes to jobs and recruiting, coaches lie. If you kicked out every football coach for telling a lie about a job or recruiting, you wouldn’t have many left.
Petrino did a marvelous job turning around a Louisville program that was ranked 97th in the nation in total offense (333 yards per game) when he took over and finished No. 5 in the nation (488 yards per game) in HIS FIRST SEASON. You’ve got to have a special offensive mind to formulate that turnaround.
And when it comes to fibbing, it didn’t hurt Nick Saban when he left the Dolphins for the Crimson Tide. He just had arguably the nation’s top recruiting class.
Petrino will win at Arkansas. He will score points at Arkansas. He will recruit well at Arkansas. But in his first season, the Hogs lost too many offensive weapons to expect much this season. Considering what he inherits, going .500 would be a decent achievement.
Why does everybody make fun of Les Miles? The guy wins 10 games every year and just won a national championship. He also knows how to recruit. I would think a lot of coaches would like to be as “stupid” as Miles.
- Ronnie T., Biloxi, MS
Ronnie, Les Miles didn’t help his cause when he first arrived, wearing some sort of silly headset that looked like it came from Star Wars. And it didn’t help his image to wear his cap so high on his head that you could have fit two softballs underneath. And when he blew the Tennessee game after leading 21-0 in Baton Rouge, he seemed like a bad hire. He also tried to call a timeout in a key situation of a game, apparently not realizing the clock had stopped either by an incomplete pass or a player going out of bounds.
But I will give Miles credit for winning the national championship last year. Yes, he won with a lot of Nick Saban’s talent. Still, he had to overcome a lot of injuries to key players — including his quarterback, who didn’t play in the SEC title game — and he got his players to play hard. I always thought one of Pat Dye’s strengths was getting good players to play hard. You’ll win a lot of games doing that.
Having said all that, I think the jury is still out a bit on Miles. He has recruited well. He has won more games than any coach in the country over the past three years. But can he sustain that success as Alabama and Mississippi State and — yes — even Ole Miss improve?
Is there any way in the world that Kentucky can be as good this year as they were with Andre Woodson? Without Woodson, the Wildcats wouldn’t have been anywhere near a bowl game last year. With him in the NFL, is there any reason for hope for us Kentucky fans?
- Mark J., Cupio, KY
Nope. Randy Sanders, Kentucky’s quarterbacks coach, told me the Wildcats would be much better at quarterback than many think. He said Mike Hartline reminded him of Erik Ainge. I think he meant Ainge as a junior and senior, not as a sophomore. Also Kentucky has some good running backs.
But in the wake of losing wideouts Keenan Burton and Steve Johnson, Dicky Lyons Jr. had a disappointing spring. He’s not the leader coach Rich Brooks would like for him to be. And the offensive line is average. So you won’t see Kentucky scoring 40 points to beat teams like Louisville, Arkansas and LSU.
The defense has improved some, but it ranked 12th in the SEC in scoring defense and 10th in total defense and rushing defense. If Kentucky can beat Louisville to open the season, the Wildcats could reach 4-0. But then they could — could — lose eight in a row. I don’t see Kentucky going any better than 6-6.
Now that my Vols have gotten rid of Erik Ainge (Dink) and David Cutcliffe (Dunk), will we finally see a wide open offense again? Peyton Manning, Heath Shuler and Tony Robinson were the last big guns that liked to wing it and actually could. Now it’s Jonathan Crompton’s turn to air it out. Right? Right?
-Jim C., Lenoir City, TN
Jim, if Tennessee airs it out, the Vols are in trouble. History tells us the Vols are a much better team when they don’t throw it all over the park. Seldom do the Vols win when they throw it 45 times in a game. Of course, I realize in some of those games, UT threw because it was behind.
This one might surprise you: in Tennessee’s best three regular-season wins last year, the Vols ran it over 40 times. Those were the only three games in which UT ran it at least 40 times. See a trend?
Now, with Crompton, the Vols will throw more downfield than with Ainge, who was bothered by a shoulder injury suffered in the season opener. Crompton proved against LSU in 2006 he could throw the long ball. He did it again in the Orange and White game this Spring.
But while you want to see the Vols air it out, you SHOULD want to see them run more. If they can average over 160 rushing yards per game, they will have a chance to win the East. If they average less than 140 and throw it 35 times a game, UT won’t contend.
Crompton’s job is be productive, make plays and avoid mistakes. Productive could mean going 14 of 20 for 180 yards. But he’s got to get help from the run game because I don’t think he’s good enough to carry the offense.
I do like the way he throws slant routes — something previous coordinator David Cutcliffe avoided becaue he felt it was a difficult timing route to throw. And one other thing: as new offensive coordinator Dave Clawson said, he can’t try to win the game on every play. For a guy with limited experience, he needs to play like a veteran.
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