Speculating on Petrinocchio's successor

Yes, from this point forward, your humble scribe will refer to him as Petrinocchio. His nose does look little bigger post-accident, no?

So now, after Jeff Long does the inevitable and cans Petrinocchio, the subject turns to who will steer the motorcycle, er, ship in Fayetteville.

It's a topic about which I'm not the least bit informed, so take what follows as pure speculation.

Since the news first broke last week and many people began naming possible successors, we've heard Gus Malzahn's name mentioned quite a bit.

Under ordinary circumstances -- ordinary meaning "previous head coach didn't drag his university and fan base into embarrassing scandal by committing unspeakable indiscretions -- my list would prominently feature Malzahn and Dana Holgorsen.

But these aren't ordinary circumstances. Schools tend to over-correct by going after targets who are the exact opposite of the coaches they replace, and the aforementioned names have some baggage.

Malzahn's wife might have torpedoed her husband's chances of landing a big job at North Carolina, Kansas or elsewhere when she went on her bizarre rant at a mega-church gathering. No doubt some athletics directors are still spooked over that fiasco, and it's hard to see Arkansas possessing the appetite for such a risk after the Petrinocchio experience.

Holgorsen has a brilliant offensive mind and is a star in the making, but he has some issues that came to light with his casino forays in the summer of 2011.

Hard to see Arkansas traversing any route but the squeaky-clean route. Tommy Bowden would qualify under that criteria, and as most of you know he's tight with Long. It was less than five years ago that Bowden flirted seriously with Long and Arkansas and parlayed it into a fat raise and buyout at Clemson.

I don't see that resonating with Arkansas' fan base, though. If a significant number of Hog fans questioned Long going after Bowden in December of 2007, it's hard to imagine many of them being happy with that choice now.

Athenstiger posted his odds on the Hogs' next head coach, and I thought these three names made the most sense:

1. Gary Patterson

2. Skip Holtz

3. Kirby Smart

Some Petrinocchio firing links:

-- Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated says firing him was the only choice.

-- Matt Hayes of The Sporting News makes a strong case for Malzahn.

-- The Washington Post says Petrinocchio scores worse than Ozzie Guillen on the scum-o-meter.

-- Mark Schlabach of ESPN says Long never should've hired Petrino in the first place.

Long made the Hogs' bed -- he finally decided to get rid of the fleas Tuesday.


LW