In what will surely be a controversial hire, Tom Jurich has elected to bring back Bobby Petrino as the head coach for the Louisville Cardinals. Things are being finalized now. After interviewing 7 or 8 candidates (according to many), the former Louisville head coach was the choice. Pat Forde as well as Joe Schad at ESPN have confirmed this.
Petrino spent last season as the head coach for Western Kentucky, leading them to an 8-4 record. In his 4 years as the head coach at Louisville (2003-2006), Petrino went 41-9 including the school’s first BCS bowl victory when the Cards beat Wake Forest 24-13 in the Orange Bowl.
It is unknown at this time who Petrino will have as his staff at Louisville. You have to hope that he keeps Clint Hurtt on staff for the recruiting pipeline to Florida (when Hurtt can recruit again of course). There is also talk of him bringing Gene Chizik and/or Randy Shannon with him.
As I did with the Charlie Strong case, I will have a more opinionated post about this hire later on. But just had to get the word out as soon as possible.
I guess it is all about the winning. If they put a morals clause in the contract, don’t expect him too stay long.