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Ten years ago as the University of Arkansas football team coach, Bobby Petrino hired a 25-year-old former volleyball player at the university to be his “student-athlete development coordinator for football.” One day he took the young lady for a ride on his cool-ass motorcycle (and you can imagine what else).
But Bobby rode into some bad luck. While cruising with her on his bike, he crashed. Then he lied about her being with him because he was married to another woman.
Next thing you know, just two years later Louisville hired him to coach its football team because he won a lot of games for the university several years earlier. Classy move, Louisville. Smooth cat that Bobby.
But his ride got bumpier. The university fired him in 2018, not because of his character flaws but because he didn’t win enough games.
Speaking of smooth cats, just one year earlier Louisville’s basketball coach, Rick Pitino, got fired by the university for corruption and fraud involving paying a star recruit to play for his team. Rick denied it. No way he would be involved in paying a player to join his team.
Based on their ignominious downfalls, Petrino and Pitino will go down as two of the sleaziest coaches in the history of big-time college athletics. Maybe the top two – which is a serious achievement.
Which brings us to this Saturday when Wake Forest travels to Louisville to play its football team. None of the current coaches or players have any relation to what Petrino and Pitino did. But they’re part of the Louisville athletic department, which has one of the least honorable reputations of any sports program in the United States.
Which is another way of saying Louisville is not a sports program to be admired. They compromise, they cheat, and they lie. Maybe not anymore, but the stench of corruption still lingers.
You’ve got to believe the Louisville boosters are writing big checks left and right to buy high school recruits for the team next year. Everyone else is, too, but you can bet Louisville is high up there in the money donation sweepstakes. Morality isn’t big in big-time athletics, but it’s always seemed especially unimportant at the University of Louisville.
On Saturday, I would love to see our Wake Forest squad go in there and show them that winning can be done without cheating. Wouldn’t it be sweet to show them how to play winning football with honorable young men and a leader of high character named Dave Clawson? He’s the antithesis of Petrino and Pitino, a good person who can be trusted. We are fortunate to have him instead of guys like Petrino and Pitino.
There’s more to my anti-Louisville sentiment. Let us not forget it was Louisville and Petrino’s team that beat Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl back in 2007. Fair and square, they won. But that loss has always left me with rather negative feelings about Louisville’s football program. A scumbag coach beat our team led by a good man, Jim Grobe.
Wouldn’t it be satisfying for our team to go to the Louisville campus Saturday and demonstrate how a straight-shooting college football program is supposed to be run and excel while doing so?
Louisville is not my favorite university and I suspect many of you feel the same way. It’s got a scent of dishonesty about it. Winning at all costs has always seemed to be the school mantra, no matter what, even if they have to rehire a serious liar, Petrino because they’re so desperate to win football games. They tolerated Rick Pitino’s shady behavior for years – because he won basketball games.
You’ve got a lousy reputation, Louisville. You compromised and got burned and showed who you really are at your core.
You haven’t done things the right way in the past. It’s possible your program may be clean now. But I don’t think many people really believe that.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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