Long: No Replacement in Mind by ZACH TURNER Asst. Sports Editor
Athletic director Jeff Long said he hasn’t yet considered a replacement for Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino, who he fired Tuesday evening. Long announced that assistant head coach Taver Johnson would remain in charge of the football administrative duties through the end of the Razorbacks’ spring practices. “I have spoken with assistant coach Taver Johnson and have asked him to continue the responsibility for the football’s administrative operation through the completion of spring practice,” Long said. Long said he will begin searching for Arkansas’ next coach in the coming weeks. “We will maintain as we are through spring practice on April 21,” Long said. “At that time, I will assess where we are in the search process and make a decision on an interim head coach going forward.” The fourth-year Arkansas athletic director said there is no timetable set for hiring a head coach. “It is so fresh for me and has happened so quickly, I haven’t had a chance to contemplate that,” Long said. “Certainly we are going to conduct a search and determine whether we can attract a head coach that can lead this program. “If not, we would go with an interim and do a search following the season.”
see REPLACEMENT on page 8
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2012 VOL. 106, NO.100 8 PAGES UATRAV.COM
PHOTO: GARETH PATTERSON, PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: DYLAN CRAIG
The End of an Era: Petrino Out by JIMMY CARTER Sports Editor
Bobby Petrino won’t have to rush back from his April 1 motorcycle accident. Petrino was fired by athletic director Jeff Long Tuesday night, five days after it was revealed he withheld information to try to cover up an inappropriate relationship with a 25-year-old female football department employee who was a passenger in
his motorcycle crash. “In short, coach Petrino engaged in a pattern of misleading and manipulative behavior designed to deceive me and members of the athletic staff both before and after the motorcycle accident,” Long said. “He engaged in reckless and unacceptable behavior and put his relationship in the national spotlight. No single individual is bigger than the team, the Razorback football program or the University of Arkansas.”
Petrino was fired for withholding information about football employee Jessica Dorrell’s involvement in the wreck, his inappropriate relationship with Dorrell and the role he played in her being hired in the football department just four days prior to the accident, Long said. “Do I regret hiring him? That’s a difficult question,” Long said. “If he hadn’t been engaged in this inappropriate behavior, no, I wouldn’t be disappointed in hiring him. His action resulted
in me having to take this action.” The announcement Tuesday night ended a nine-day period of uncertainty following Petrino’s accident. Because Petrino was fired for cause, he will not be paid the $18 million buyout included in his contract, which ran through 2017. “The simplest response I have is: I’m sorry,” Petrino said in a statement released through his
see FIRED on page 5
Homework Placed on Back Burner to Petrino Firing
BEN FLOWERS PHOTO EDITOR
Keaton Piper, UA student, watches Athletic Director Jeff Long address the media about former head football coach Bobby Petrino’s termination on Tuesday night from the Union.
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