Before Arkansas...

Petrino had a good run at Louisville, a Big East team. Then a failure in the NFL, no big deal but a great coach? But even if you could rightly see he was a great coach, everyone would agree at the time he could not be trusted to be loyal to a school. In other words as soon as a better job came open. But really it was timing, the Arkansas job came open. Then they got real serious about football and gave him allot of money. Everything just lined up perfectly and before the big contract no one thought he would stay at Arkansas.

We see how far Louisville dropped when he left. He just won 10 games and dominated everyone except LSU and Alabama. I am not sure how a job could be tougher when you play Alabama and LSU every year. His stock really went up while he was the coach at Arkansas, not before IMO. But in the long run, the main reason he would not have been considered a great coach at the time to hire is the same reason he got fired. He was just not trustworthy, just came out different than we expected and more embarrassing. But pure entertainment for me.