Everyone thought former Arkansas and Louisville Head Coach Bobby Petrino would be making a return to the bluegrass state this year when the job at Kentucky opened up. Well, he did return to the state of Kentucky, but it was as he was introduced as Western Kentucky's new head football coach after Willie Taggart left to take the head coaching job at South Florida.
It appeared WKU was finally reaching respectability in the Division I ranks after a second-straight winning season and a bowl berth, not to mention an epic 32-31 victory over Kentucky in Commonwealth Stadium, but with the departure of Taggart, many assumed the Hilltoppers would once again fall by the wayside.
That won't be the case as long as Petrino is at the helm there. He's 75-26 overall as a college head coach and had a 34-17 overall record at Arkansas before he was dismissed in the wake of the motorcycle mistress scandal.
Arkansas had a losing record (5-7) in his first season, but Petrino helped the Razorbacks ascend into the upper-class of the SEC, going 8-5 in 2009, 10-3 with a Sugar Bowl appearance in 2010, and went 11-2 with a Cotton Bowl bid in 2011.
While many people immediately claimed Petrino wouldn't be long for WKU, an FBS starter program just now entering a somewhat respectable Conference USA, there's reason to believe he may actually stay there for the foreseeable future.
WKU gave Petrino a four-year deal with a base annual salary of $850,000. If he terminates the deal at any time, he must re-pay the university $1.2 million in six monthly payments starting the month after he leaves.
With Petrino's SEC experience and his ties to the state as a former coach at Louisville, Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart never seriously considered Petrino for their vacant head coaching job, and neither did traditional SEC powers Tennessee and Auburn. They opted for less proven and less-accomplished option in Butch Jones and Guz Malzahn.
That should tell you how toxic Petrino is viewed by BCS programs, and just one year on the job at WKU, even a successful one, won't likely be enough to land him a job in the SEC, or another BCS conference for that matter. Petrino is likely staying at WKU for at least 2-3 seasons, and will likely begin posing a threat to UK and UL in terms of in-state recruits, and Petrino may even dip into the Ohio area where UL and UK are heavily recruiting as well.
As good of a resume as Charlie Strong and Mark Stoops have, neither of them can tell recruits they've accomplished as much as Petrino, who once ruled the state of Kentucky with an iron fist. Petrino coached at Louisville from 2003-06, going 41-9 and leading the Cardinals to a 12-1 mark and their first-ever BCS berth in the Orange Bowl in 2006 before departing for a brief stint in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons.
UK plays WKU in Nashville this year, and Petrino has a chance to strike an early and decisive blow to one in-state rival. If the Hilltoppers win this game, it could be the start of something special for the Hilltopper program as they look to continue their ascent up the ranks of the FBS food chain.
Last year's victory over Kentucky was huge, but it was over a squad that went 2-10 and had a lame duck head coach in Joker Phillips from the moment the season began. A win over Mark Stoops, who currently has a top-5 recruiting class assembled at UK and figures to be in Lexington for at least three seasons, would be a program-changing victory.
And the cupboard isn't exactly bare at Western. He takes over a 7-5 WKU team that's coming off its first bowl appearance as an FBS school. The Hilltoppers will return 10 starters and could easily win double-digit games, as their two toughest games are against UK and Tennessee, who both finished a combined 7-17 (1-15 in SEC) last year and are undergoing head coaching changes.
This could be the beginning of the newest version of Boise State, a mid-major program who routinely wins 10+ games and flirts with the idea of being a BCS-buster every year.