LIKE IT IS

Petrino saga takes some fun out of April

— April is usually a fun month.

The NCAA Final Four, the Arkansas Derby and Real Deal in the Rock, all of which were still fun, but sort of sandwiched between chaos and calamity.

March may have come in like a lion but it didn’t go out like a lamb.

It was more April showers hopefully bring May flowers in Arkansas.

Without going into all the details, April Fool’s Day brought Bobby Petrino’s motorcycle accident. He said he was alone.

Two days later, despite advice from his boss, he showed up at a news conference looking like he had gone 12 rounds with Jermain Taylor.

Again he said he had been alone when he had the accident.

Over the course of time he told that to Jeff Long, Jon Fagg, Chris Wyrick and Zach Higbee, all of whom are athletic department employees and who urged him to be totally forthcoming.

Maybe part of being a great football coach includes freakish control issues - see Nick Saban and Urban Meyer - and Petrino tried to do the damage control by himself.

He failed.

He was suspended and then terminated as details leaked of his relationship with a female employee. History goes back to at least King David and Bathsheba about men making poor decisions when charmed by certain women.

Petrino may have thought, and may have even said, he was too big to be terminated, but he wasn’t.

Then came the search for his replacement.

There were no leaks in Arkansas.

We may never know who Long talked to before someone in Utah posted it was John L. Smith.

Smith was hired with the interim tag, something Joe Kines, when he was interim at Arkansas, said we all are anyway.

The news rocked the world of perspiring arts. Some called it brilliant, others preposterous.

One thing it did was keep a staff and team together for at least a year.

At every school where Smith had success, Petrino had put in the offense, the same one the Razorbacks will run this year with a different Petrino.

By the time Smith was announced as interim head coach, an exhausted Long had been hailed as a hero for the handling of the Petrino situation and insightful or confused for his coaching search.

Most, but definitely not all, of the fan base was reunited and excited about the prospects for the coming season.

Meanwhile, Kentucky won the NCAA national championship in basketball bringing the SEC some much needed round ball glory.

Bodemeister shipped in from Santa Anita, was made the favorite for the Arkansas Derby and proved why with his wire-to-wire win. He ran the opening quarter and the final quarter faster than the middle quarters.

He won’t go unchallenged for the lead Saturday in the Kentucky Derby.

This past weekend, more than 400 teams participated in the eighth annual Real Deal in the Rock and it was the best ever.

With the college coaches returning to spring tournaments, Bill Ingram rolled out the red carpet with private parking and great rates at the Capital and Peabody hotels for the coaches.

Ingram’s team opened the tournament beating D.C. Assault, which came back and won five consecutive games to win it all and the Arkansas Hawks finished third, and on the same day, the Razorbacks baseball team beat Florida to take a critical series on the road.

April was still a fun month, but difficult and demanding, too.

Sports, Pages 17 on 05/01/2012