Bobby Petrino Banned From Recruiting At SC High School After He Pulls A Kid's Scholarship Offer 2 Days Before National Signing Day
NFL – Louisville coach Bobby Petrino has been banned from recruiting at a South Carolina high school because the Cardinals pulled a scholarship offer from a player at the school late in the recruiting process.
Irmo (S.C.) Dutch Fork running back Matt Colburn committed to Louisville last summer, but the school pulled his offer on Monday — two days before National Signing Day.
“He (Petrino) won’t be able to recruit my school anymore, and I imagine there will be some other coaches that will say the same thing,” Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts told The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C.
Knotts told the newspaper that Louisville inside linebacker coach Tony Grantham’s excuse was that the Cardinals had three defensive backs leave early for the NFL and they needed Colburn’s spot to add a defensive back. “They’ve known about these three DBs wanting to go to the NFL for weeks now,” Knotts told The State. “To use that as an excuse doesn’t hold water with me.”
247sports.com reported that Colburn was offered a “grayshirt” opportunity — he could attend Louisville in the fall semester, paying his own way, then would receive a scholarship for next spring — but he declined. He did not sign Wednesday and reportedly is considering Georgia Southern, Marshall, Wake forest and FCS school Furman.
It’s definitely bad PR for Petrino — who definitely is no stranger to bad PR — and for Louisville. At the same time, being “banned” from recruiting at one high school in South Carolina is not going to hurt Louisville’s recruiting ability; the Cardinals had just two South Carolina natives on their roster in 2014, and those two rarely played. In addition, Colburn was not a celebrated recruit: While he was considered a top-25 recruit in South Carolina, he was not even a top-1,000 recruit nationally. Pulling an offer from a top-100 or -250 player is not something Louisville would have done.
Bobby Petrino – still a total scumbag. Glad we got the annual update. Anyway I’m just thankful it gives me a chance to get the Bobby Petrino timeline up, outlining one of the truly repulsive and classless figures in all of college sports, or maybe just sports in general.
-In 2001, Petrino resigns from his OC job with the Jags after only 1 year to head to Auburn. Oh yeah, and he didn’t tell Tom Coughlin. Coughlin found out when he saw the news conference on TV announcing him as the Auburn coach.
-In 2003, his first year as a head coach at the University of Louisville:
Petrino went behind the back of his employer and his onetime boss, Tuberville, to negotiate a deal replacing him at Auburn. He held a clandestine meeting across the Ohio River from Louisville in southern Indiana with Auburn officials, two days before both the Tigers and Cardinals played their final regular-season games…
Petrino lied about having any contact with Auburn officials — until two reporters for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal confronted him with documentation of the private plane that brought the university president and athletic director into Petrino’s backyard. I was one of the two reporters. And even when faced with the evidence, Petrino resisted telling the truth until Auburn issued a statement owning up to the whole affair.
Boxed into a corner, Petrino asked forgiveness and chalked it up to the inexperience of a “young coach.” Louisville forgave him because he was 9-3 and his offense blew up scoreboards. [Pat Forde]
-In 2004, Petrino says “I want to make it clear that I’m not interested in any other coaching jobs, and am happy at the University of Louisville.” While interviewing with Notre Dame and talking with Florida and Ole Miss. He then interviewed with LSU and pulled out when he realized Les was going to get it. Oh and got a huge raise from Louisville.
-In 2005, Petrino interviews with Oakland Raiders. Still not interested in any other coaching jobs though.
-In 2006, Petrino signs 10 year $25 million deal with Louisville with a $1 mil buyout, dropping this quote:
“We did want to make a statement,” Petrino said. “I also wanted to make sure that everyone understood – and I know I’ve said it – that this is where my family wants to be and where I want to be. But I want everyone to really believe it when it is said.”
Asked later if he was emphatically telling other teams not to pursue him, Petrino said, “Yeah. That’s why we did the buyout. That’s why I wanted the buyout, so everybody understands that.”
5 months later…
-Petrino bolts to the Atlanta Falcons.
-In November 2007, Petrino is 3-8 with the Falcons and drops this quote:
“I haven’t given it [college coaching vacancies] one bit of thought,” he said.
14 days later…
-Petrino posts a 78 word letter in the Falcons locker room saying he was leaving for Arkansas.
-In April 2012, my personal favorite: Petrino crashes his motorcycle and shows up to his press conference about it like this:
Not a huge deal though, he was alone at the time of the crash. Oops…turns out he asked a witness to lie about that. And he lied about it to the AD. Turns out a team assistant was also on the motorcycle. Oh and she’s a 25 year old blonde girl. That Petrino was smashing. And hired probably illegally and paid $20K to.
He’s fired.
-In December 2012, Petrino is named coach of Western Kentucky. Ready to turn his life around, his career around, restore his name and reputation. Put everything he has into being committed and turning WKY into a powerhouse program…
Petrino goes back to Louisville on January 9, 2014.
What a guy, what a leader of young men.