Woo, pig... Ten days after a joyride on his Harley with a non-wife female companion almost turned deadly, Bobby Petrino is out as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, according to ESPN's Joe Schad.

Petrino put his employer in a tight spot last week when it was discovered that he had lied about who was riding his hog at the time of the accident on April 1. It didn't help his case that he admitted he was trying to keep an "inappropriate relationship" under wraps, or that he had hired his passenger to work underneath him a week earlier.

Petrino's 21-5 record in the last two seasons undoubtedly made this a harder decision than it should have been for Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long and the rest of the university administration. The Razorbacks have a fan base that is underrated on the "dedication" scale. A group of Petrino's supporters even took to the streets last night in a show of solidarity with their embattled head Hog.

Ultimately, though, Petrino's subterfuge, which isn't exactly out of character for a coach who stole away from the Atlanta Falcons in the dark of night, undoubtedly did him in. Petrino's detractors, of which there are plenty, are no doubt reveling in his downfall.

no comments

It’s not often that we talk about recruiting here at Crystal Ball Run, and even less often (if ever) that we talk about recruiting when it pertains to kids who won’t be on a college campus for another three years. But in the case of a couple of elite high school sophomores in Georgia, we’re willing to make the very rare exception.

Meet Elliot and Evan Berry two of the hottest names in Southern recruiting circles, a pair who hails from Creekside High School, right outside Atlanta. The duo already own scholarship offers from essentially the entire SEC, including Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

However, if they were simply two outstanding high school football players with major scholarship offers, we probably wouldn’t be talking about them. But there are two things that make the Berry boys unique.

no comments

Although Crystal Ball Run is primarily a college football-themed website, we couldn’t help but take notice a few weeks back when the good folks at SI released an in-depth report on the UCLA basketball program. Teased as a “shocking, tell-all report” the story turned out to be a lot sizzle and not all that much steak, detailing problems that some of UCLA’s players had with drugs and alcohol, and the general oversights that coach Ben Howland had in steering the ship. It was bad stuff sure, but certainly not the shocking expose we were all expecting.

And when the report came out, we at Crystal Ball Run had ourselves a discussion and wondered aloud: Wait, doesn’t every college football program in the country basically have the same problems?

Well, apparently the answer is yes, at least during Urban Meyer’s last few years at Florida. Today the Sporting News put out a report detailing the rapid rise and very quick fall of the Gators football program, with most of the report centered around rampant drug use by members of the football team, a general disregard for coaches and fellow staff members, and above all, a sense of entitlement for the Gators best players.

Hmm? Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, in pretty much every major college football program everywhere. Sometimes it’s reported for the world to know, and sometimes it isn’t.

For years, USC has been known as “Tailback U,” a moniker that tends to stick, when guys like O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Marcus Allen and Reggie Bush all roll through your campus, and all roll out as Heisman Trophy winners. (And yes, I still consider Reggie Bush a “winner” even if he doesn’t “technically” have his trophy anymore)

However, if the present or immediate future is any indication, USC might soon be known as “Quarterback U.” The Trojans can boast that of the last four quarterbacks to start at the school, three (Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Mark Sanchez) went on to be Top 10 picks, with both Palmer and Leinart taking home Heisman’s as well. Oh, and the Trojans also welcome back some guy named Matt Barkley to campus next fall, a guy you’re probably familiar with by now.

But with that said, it’s never too early to start looking ahead, and it looks like Lane Kiffin and his staff has plenty to be excited about. Even after Mr. Perfect himself, Barkley, leaves campus in the spring of 2013, the future remains surprisingly bright.

That’s because along with two highly-touted redshirt freshman battling for Barkley’s back-up job (Max Wittek and Cody Kessler), the Trojans may have gotten the biggest verbal commitment of the entire Kiffin era late last week. That came in the form of Max Browne, the top high school quarterback in the country, who committed to the Trojans late Wednesday night. With the news now a few days old, let’s have some fun, and project how Browne will fit in when he walks onto campus next fall.

First, the particulars on Browne: As we mentioned, he is the top underclassman high school quarterback in the country, having just finished up his junior year at Seattle’s Skyline High School. But while it’s one thing to say that Browne is “the best,” high school quarterback in the country, it’s quite another to see exactly what he has done in two years as a starter at Skyline. And the numbers he’s put up? Well, they’re simply disgusting.

In his two seasons as a starter, Browne has thrown for an almost unconscionable 8,216 yards and 95 touchdowns, numbers that are staggering, regardless of where you’re playing or against what level of competition. What’s maybe just as impressive is that Browne’s best season was actually as a sophomore, when he threw for 50 touchdowns and 4,182 yards. Those numbers dipped in the fall of 2011… to “only” 4,034 yards and 45 touchdowns. What a bum, huh? Browne did however lead his team to a state title as a junior however.

College football has morphed into a year-round sport thanks to weeks like the one we just finished. Much like the Easter smorgasbord I devoured yesterday, let's dive right into these 10 items of interest to kick off what we should hope to be an equally eventful week.

(Note: I'm not suggesting more coaches should step out on their wives and get exposed in humiliating fashion. I'm just saying that it's great blogging material.)

1. Where else to start but with Bobby Petrino's wild ride?

Watching Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long (gracefully) face the media firing squad on Thursday night, I thought it would be a monumental upset if Petrino kept his job. After listening to some of the reaction from coming out of Arkansas in the last few days, I don't know what will happen.

In reality, a prediction in this case is pretty much worthless. The truth is that while Petrino has absolutely given the university brass grounds for his termination, all it takes is the right person(s) to stick up for him. Threats from boosters would certainly weigh on any decision by the administration.

Earlier this week, Crystal Ball Run wrote a quick piece on USC football and the 15 players that the Trojans are sending to Haiti in May to do relief work. For those who missed the story, the group, which was organized by Trojans All-American quarterback Matt Barkley and his family, will help build homes and transport supplies across the small island country, one which is still recovering from a massive Earthquake in 2010.

Well, after that story ran, a few Auburn fans were quick to tip off Crystal Ball Run and let us know that a few players and coaches from their school took a similar trip during their spring break. After doing some research, we’re more than happy to share War Eagle's story as well.

In Auburn’s case, the Tigers trip was to the West African country of Liberia, a nation still recovering from a Civil War in 2003. The trip was planned by team chaplain Chette Williams, who along with coach Gene Chizik and their wives, were joined by seven Auburn football players. According to a write-up in the Columbus (GA.) Ledger-Enquirer, the group toured the country, helicoptered into a remote village and spent time in Liberia’s slums meeting with people suffering from HIV.

The trip was planned in accordance with the company Samaritans Purse, an Evangelical Christian organization, which (according to its website) is tasked with “providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.”

Will Muschamp didn't face a quarterback controversy in his first season as Florida Gators coach so much as a quarterback clusterfuck.

With his second year of spring practices now complete, he still doesn't have a definitive choice under center. But after Saturday's final scrimmage, he has to at least feel a little better about his options.

Sophomore signal callers Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett didn't do enough in the crappily named Orange and Blue Debut to stake a claim to the starting job. Both, however, moved the ball efficiently. Equally important, they avoided the kind of bad mistakes that often torment young QBs, as neither threw an interception on the day.

And, of course, neither is John Brantley. The the Gator O struggled all last season to generate big plays in the passing game under Brantley. Both Brissett and Driskel hit multiple deep balls on vertical routes Saturday.

By now, the facts as we know them are out on Bobby Petrino: One of the most successful coaches in Arkansas football history is caught in a self-inflicted shit-storm that he's going to have a hard time getting out of.

What we know is this: Bobby Petrino got in a motorcycle accident. Bobby Petrino told his superiors (who in turn, told the world) that no one else was involved in the accident. Bobby Petrino lied. To make matters worse, the person on the bike with him, was an employee of Arkansas' football program, who was just hired last week. Petrino admitted a pre-existing relationship between the two.  There is a lot to presume here, and to his credit Arkansas AD Jeff Long got out ahead of the story. Petrino is on paid, administrative leave.  

The simple question, if you're Jeff Long, what do you do? 

Aaron Torres: To me, it's simply impossible to say what you can and cannot do right now. The facts alone are enough to fire Petrino, especially when you look over his contract and realize that you can do it with cause. If you keep him, you're opening up a whole other can of worms in and of itself. Think the folks who didn't get Jessica Dorrell's job won't be pissed? Think they won't think about suing?  

To me though, I still think we need all the facts. I'm no lawyer, but did talk to a friend who is, and he agreed with my sentiment for the most part that its going to be tough to prove in a court of law that Dorrell was hired for this job solely because she was Bobby Petrino's (alleged) mistress. This was a publicly posted job, and she had been in the department for three years. There's a very likely chance that regardless of her relationship, she was in fact the most qualified person for this position. 

Which is why if you're Long, I think the question isn't "What do you do with Bobby Petrino?" It is, however, "What do you do with Jessica Dorrell?" Again, I'm no lawyer. And again, I'm working under the VERY BIG presumption that no more facts come out than what we already know. 

I know I'm in the HUGE minority here. But my best guess is that Bobby Petrino coaches football at Arkansas in the future. Maybe not the immediate future, but in the future nonetheless. As for Jessica Dorrell, and potentially her fiancee? Their future involves the words, "Settled out of court." Again, I know I'm in the minority. That is, however, my belief.  Now boys, tell me why I'm dead wrong.

Allen Kenney: Since the question is what I'd do if I'm Jeff Long, not a prediction on what will happen, I'm firing Petrino yesterday.  

I'm firing him because I'm his boss and he lied to me.  

Let me re-phrase that: I'm firing him because I'm his boss and he had the audacity to lie to me about a piece of information that was undoubtedly going to come out in a police report. 

Wait, no: I'm firing him because I'm his boss and he had the audactity to lie to me about a piece of information that was undoubtedly going to come out in a police report about his side salad – the one he just promoted to a job underneath him in the football program. Oh, and he made me look like an ass in the public in the process. 

I could also build a compelling case from the standpoint of the school's risk exposure in keeping him if I wanted to, but why waste your time? If I'm Jeff Long, I'm canning Petrino and resigning if not allowed to do so. 

Cover the sport of college football long enough, and there really isn’t all that much that’ll surprise you, especially when it comes to recruiting. The tactics of the nation’s best coaches are legendary, whether it’s Auburn’s “Tiger Prowl” limo, Lane Kiffin’s helicopter trips at Tennessee, or the time that Mark Richt went to church to close a recruit. Not to mention, that as we learned in the movie “The Blind Side” there’s nothing that Nick Saban loves more than some good conversation about a set of drapes.

But at Vanderbilt- where recruiting has picked up exponentially under new head coach James Franklin- there’s a decidedly old-school feel to the way they handle things. Franklin, the smooth-talker that he is, likes to ask for a recruit’s hand in “marriage” when a high school player commits.

The concept is simple really. As Franklin describes it the doe-eyed 17-year-olds that he’s courting, when you make a verbal commitment to his school, in a lot of ways it’s like getting engaged. And when you officially sign your letter of intent in February? It’s ‘til death do us part. No word though if Franklin actually gets down on one knee to pop the question.

no comments

Update: At a 10pm CT news conference, Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long announced that Bobby Petrino will be put on paid leave as the school further investigates this matter. Assistant head coach Taver Johnson will take over the day-to-day operations of the program for the time being.

Long set no timetable on how long the investigation would take.

The news on Bobby Petrino’s Sunday night police motorcycle accident just keeps getting worse for the head football coach of the University of Arkansas. According to a police report released late Thursday, a previously unknown female passenger was on his bike with him when it crashed late Sunday evening, adding a whole new list of questions to an already murky situation.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, to make matters worse, that female was 25-year-old Jessica Dorrell, a former Arkansas volleyball player, who has since worked as a fundraiser for the Razorback Foundation, and was just recently named a student-athlete coordinator for the football program. As in, she has been more or less working directly under Bobby Petrino the last few weeks.

In addition, the police report also says that it was actually Dorrell who flagged down the motorist who took Petrino to the hospital. Also according to the report, she had no known injuries, and after securing Petrino a ride to the hospital, was dropped off at her car and left the scene.

Now, all this is interesting for a few reasons.