UNC Football Is Spiraling
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One of the more interesting UNC fans, Walkin’ Andy Bagwell, put out a video on X about the current state of UNC football. As you probably know, there is major controversy in Chapel Hill about Bill Belichick’s program.
As noted here on Thursday, the allegations include:
- That there was possible drug use on the job by Belichick’s son and defensive coordinator, Steve.
- That the younger Belichick may have supplied drugs to at least one player.
- That a female member of the recruiting staff may have had a sexual relationship with a UNC player.
- That there may have been romantic or sexual relationships between assistant coaches and recruiting staff members.
In his video, Bagwell is trying to get a sense of where UNC fans stand on Belichick’s future. He also points to an Art Chansky column over on Chapelboro.com, where we learn that Chansky has clearly had enough of the nonsense, and argues that “Carolina has no choice but to relieve Belichick of his duties likely this week.”
We’re with him up to that point, but then he says this: “Getting rid of Belichick and naming offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino interim coach will give Roberts, Newmark and the trustees time to move in a new direction and make plans for the 2027 season.”
With all due respect: are you okay, Art? You’re going to gamble with that guy?
Petrino’s got a checkered past that would make Will Wade blush. Among his greatest hits:
- He walked out on the Atlanta Falcons partway through the season to take the Arkansas job, leaving a 78-word, laminated note in the locker room. That’s how he told his players he was leaving.
- At Arkansas, he had a motorcycle accident. He appeared at a presser with a neck brace on, claiming he was on the bike alone. He wasn’t: riding with him was 25-year-old Jessica Dorrell, with whom, the Hog faithful soon learned, the married Petrino was having an affair. An investigation by Arkansas A.D. Jeff Long revealed that Petrino had used his position to give Dorrell an unfair professional advantage. Specifically, he had bypassed normal protocols to hire her as the football team’s student-athlete development coordinator on March 28—just days before the crash—selecting her over 158 other applicants. It was also discovered that Petrino had secretly given Dorrell $20,000 in cash that she used to buy a car, and records revealed thousands of phone calls and text messages between the two. He got fired for that stunt.
- In his first season at Louisville, he was ready to go behind his old boss, Tommy Tuberville, to take the Auburn job. It leaked. Oops.
- He was at Louisville when the Wakeyleaks scandal broke. He was never found to be a part of that fiasco, but with Petrino, you always assume he’s on third base trying to steal home. And we mean literally. The guy might just take home plate and, well, go home with it. You cannot ignore his track record.
And this is the guy who Chansky wants to wager the program’s short-term future on after an alleged sex and drugs scandal? Petrino is a solid offensive mind, but given his track record, you’d have to be nuts to trust him with your M&Ms, much less a football program in crisis. Whatever Chansky is smoking, we want some.
Here’s an alternative: former ECU coach Steve Logan.
We’re not saying he’s the ideal fit, but he’s always been a fine offensive mind himself, he’s stayed around the game, and he’s got a bit of charisma. He seems like a straight shooter, and he could probably turn in a solid interim year. He’s folksy and likable, and the fans would cut him some slack, under the circumstances.
On the downside, he’s 73, but even so, he’s younger than the last two UNC coaches: Mack Brown, now 75, was 73 when he was canned by the geniuses in Chapel Hill, and Belichick is now 74. What can you say? UNC has an unusual appreciation for geriatric coaches. What’s one more?
Anyone would be better than Petrino. Who in their right mind brings in a scandal magnet to replace a coach who appears to have led his program into more of the same?
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