One more slap at Bobby Petrino and one can move forward.
Fans can’t look forward to the University of Louisville’s 2019 football season without negative thoughts about the former coach and the total ineptness that permeated the program last year.
Petrino at his lowest ebb, punishing the very people willing to give him a second chance.
One has to go back a couple of decades, to 1997, to match the sense of futility of UofL fans in the program. Even so, Ron Cooper’s last team, which finished 1-10, was better than Petrino’s last unit with a 2-10 record . Cooper’s team was occasionally competitive, Petrino’s team was never in most games in the second half.
The guys who played for Cooper were outmanned and outclassed, playing out of their league. Petrino’s players had lost all respect, sensing he really didn’t care about them or the outcome of the games. Just hanging around for a $14 million buyout check.
A good number of fans are still around from earlier decades, with lots of memories about how the University of Louisville struggled for respectability. They were there long before the winning seasons, the packed stadiums, all the big bowl games, all the anticipatory pre-season expectations.
So for many of them, it’s like starting all over again. The only solace is that Petrino is gone. Well, that and the fact that there will not be a third coming in Louisville. Banished to obscurity somewhere in a Florida mansion.
The good news is that UofL may have hired an up and coming new coach in Scott Satterfield. A coach who has the ability to work with people, who is able to hire and work with competent staff, who cares about the players, and is confident in his abilities to steer the program in the right direction.
These Louisville fans have been through the good and the bad, not only in football but in basketball. They’re willing to go through it all again, knowing all the pitfalls and the rewards of struggling program. Confident that UofL football will have begun its return to respectability.
Charlie,
Your article was very well put and hopefully we can lay to rest sport notes about Bobby.We go back to the day’s of Vince Gibson and Bob Weber when winning records,new stadiums and conference affiliations such as the Atlantic Coast Conference were merely pipe dreams.We will survive this current set back and be stronger for it.
Go Cards!
Thanks, Bill. Stronger for sure.
Petrino bashing is easy to do and he certainly deserves some. Not defending him in any way, but he did get Louisville to four bowl games and had four winning seasons in his first four years back.
I’m ready for the next chapter in Louisville Football and waiting to see (patiently) if Satterfield can return us to a winning record, bowl games and how long it’ll take.
Paulie
Consider it therapeutic, Paulie.