Paul Finebaum rips Bobby Petrino hire at Texas A&M: ‘He’s always been a snake in the grass’

Missouri State Bears head coach Bobby Petrino during the bears win on the Western Illinois Leathernecks at Plaster Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. Tmsu00771

Paul Finebaum had some harsh analysis about Texas A&M hiring Bobby Petrino as the program’s offensive coordinator.

The ESPN analyst ripped the former Arkansas and Louisville head coach during a radio interview on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5.

“We forget about ‘JetGate’ Petrino,” Finebaum said, as transcribed by AL.com. “We fixate on the Harley motorcycle Bobby Petrino, but this guy has always been a snake in the grass.”

Petrino has a 137-71 record as a college coach, while posting a 3-10 record during his lone season in the NFL in 2007 with the Atlanta Falcons.

He took the Arkansas job in 2007, with 3 games left in the NFL season, after promising owner Arthur Blank that he’d remain with the Falcons. Petrino was fired by Arkansas in 2011 after lying about an extramarital affair with an athletic department staff member.

He eventually ended up at Lousiville for a 2nd stint, where he was fired after a 2-8 season in 2018, a year after Lamar Jackson left for the NFL Draft.

“We act like Bobby Petrino is a savant, that he’s never failed, but, quite frankly, he did fail at Louisville. He got fired there in his second go-round,” Finebaum said. “That’s on top of the other malfeasances that has occurred in his clock.”

Finebaum believes this is a last act of desperation for Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher.

“I don’t know how to interpret this,” Finebaum said. “Jimbo Fisher finally woke up and realized he may be down to his last swing. He’s going to go down in flames or roll the dice with someone who is, quite frankly, one of the most disliked people in modern football history.”

View Comments

  • Not just lying about an affair with a staff member in the athletic department. A staff member he hired rather than other applicants who were actually qualified or over qualified for the job, and whom was a direct report to him.

    If he'd had an affair with a staffer outside of football it'd likely have turned out differently, and he'd have gotten fired for something else at a later date.

    • Let’s not forget that said staffer was engaged TO ANOTHER ATHLETIC DEPT EMPLOYEE, as well as the fact that Pertrino was married. Had the audacity to pull off the presser in the neck brace all the while lying to every Razorback fan AND HIS OWN TEAM.

      But hey, 10-2 is 10-2, right Jimbo?

      Ags lost any semblance of credibility they had. Poor cadets.

  • With the talent & experience we have coming back we’re gonna finally win the league next year, u watch. Esp w certain teams sort of rebuilding. Even w this dude running the offense. What we did to LSU last thanksgiving was just a little taste of what’s coming.

    Nobody cares what kind of former scumbags u have calling plays when ur winning. Look at what Saban does every season w his re-tread coaches he gives 3rd chances to. That same system could & should work delightfully well for A&M too.

    • Congratulations your school is now the official, “win at any cost” poster child. When it implodes I’ll have my popcorn ready.

      • I bet Finebaum loves the Freeze hire.... Is Auburn not winning at "any cost" with that hire? What about Saban? Has he not hired coaches with some serious baggage to "win at any cost"? The media and Finebaum's anti-A&M fetish is weird. Dislike the program all you want, but this is blatant propaganda. Finebaum must have gotten a call from Nicky in the night.

        • Petrino reminds me of another ego driven criminals quote.

          “I would rather be known as a liar than a failure’.

          Bernard Madoff

      • Petrino doesn’t automatically equal success, just like the #1 recruiting class doesn’t equal 8 wins!!! A&M fans should have learned that lesson. Saying A&M will win the SEC next year bc of Petrino hire is beyond ridiculous.

        • Let's not even bother playing the games, hiring petrino earns you an automatic birth to the playoff. That's why he's been rotting in Springfield, Missouri all these years

      • marshgator, nearly every school is "win at any cost" otherwise no coaches would ever get fired.

        • Tony, you are correct to a certain point. However, Booby P is a different situation. T A&M will have to monitor all of his interactions with female students and staff. Whatever he commits to he will do the opposite.

          It’s as if Jimbo is getting ready to pull a Dan Mullen on T A&M.

      • Aggie class of 90 here. I am losing interest in Aggie football.
        I didn't like the Jimbo hire and don't like this one either. MEH!
        It pro ably makes us better and maybe in the 12 team playoff but we aren't ever going to be great with Jimbo and now Petrino.

    • Wow. I’m surprised the Aggies have fallen to this level of desperation. Neither the HC nor its fans care about anything other than winning. Understandable since they’ve never done it. This move certainly won’t change that. This move is right up there with Orgeron hiring Pelini and I suspect it will work out about the same.

    • "With the talent & experience we have coming back we’re gonna finally win the league next year"

      The broken record continues. Every year TAM is "supposed" to be really good.

      In reality, TAM will still be sub-par.

      • All "Texas" fans you met probably bought their t-shirt from a gas station and never stepped foot on campus. Baylor is insufferable as well. I bet all the Texans you met are doosh bags.

        • Give it a rest. aTm making moves in the hopes of being able to compete with the rest of the SEC West. Do I think it's a good hire from a football perspective? Yes. Does this dude have a reputation for drama? YES, but so does Jimbo.

          FSU won a National Championship with Jimbo then they imploded. Now add in the Arkansas Playboy and aTm might be next on the list.

      • BillB, you're going to be singing a different tune when these obnoxious texas fans and players show up in the SEC. They truly ruined the big12.

        • OK will be OK, as they are not the obnoxious lot that UT fans are.

          UT football fans historically as a whole are some of the most arrogant people outside of Columbus. I know. I’ve lived among them for 30 years. Love every loss they endure. Especially to Kansas.

      • You must not have met that many people in Texas then sweetie. We have 13 D1 football schools so perhaps you should get out and meet more people.

    • He was a terrible recruiter in his second Louisville stint. He was focusing on offensive skill players and let some other local Louisville and Kentucky talent slip away. The end of his tenure was really bad because their O Line was over matched and their defense was terrible. He did well at the beginning because he had Charlie Strong's players, kind of like how Grantham always does well when inheriting players.

        • Clearly you're not paying attention. Kids talk to their perspective OCs to get and idea of how they will be utilized and things so He will definitely be recruiting.

        • Clearly you do not follow recruiting. Position coaches do the main recruiting. Of course OC and DC are involved at some level but they're not the main guys recruiting players. A&M's former DC Mike Elko was not the main recruiter for the bunch of 5* DL we recruited in '22. It was ERob the position coach.

        • I think the word you were looking for is "prospective".

          Also, you just proved my point right. He won't be recruiting the defensive side of the ball and offensive line.

          Again, not a difficult concept.

    • A&M loses the entire population of college station to the transfer portal and he thinks they are a lock for the natty. How much of your money are those players leaving with?

      Here are some of the greener pastures your your 4- and 5-star recruits (many freshman) are leaving for:

      SMU, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Louisville, and ***New Mexico State***

      Yeah you're a lock for the championship game for sure.

    • You have looked back on his record, correct? He’s no offensive genius. He’s not even a novice offensive coordinator at this point. He’s lucky Lamar Jackson signed with Louisville or he’d of never coached again.

      He’s been run out of the last three places he coach. Last season at Missouri State he was 5-6.

      You think he had adapted to offenses in the past 10 years?

    • We hear it again and again from you Aggie fans…”just wait until next season. One of these years y’all might hit it right, but it ain’t gonna be next season, or the one after that, as long as Jimbo is your coach.
      You Aggie’s need to recognize that AM isn’t among the elite programs y’all think it is, or even want it to be. Your program is and always has been an upper-middle program with only a few outstanding seasons sprinkled in. The ability to out recruit Texas will come to an end when Texas joins the SEC. So if “next year” is going to happen, it’d better happen very soon. And as I said it ain’t gonna be the “next season”. So when? Not anytime soon.

  • Finebaum is such a little man. If someone not connected to one of his favorites has a chance at success he will figure out a way to criticize and condemn. That’s just how he rolls.

        • "He never coached a single snap at UNLV."

          No kidding? Ya don't say? Ask UNLV fans how they feel about Booby.

        • "He never coached a single snap at UNLV."

          Corky, UNLV hired Booby to.....GASP...be an offensive coordinator. What does an offensive coordinator do????? COACH OFFENSE. You really can't be this stupid can you? The guy was an employee of UNLV for 21 days. PAID. TO. BE. THE. OFFENSIVE. COORDINATOR.

        • Never coached a snap, but he was on the staff for all of 21 day before joining up with Dumbo, I mean Jimbo. He didn’t complete as season at Atlanta, he bolted from UNLV, he’s had affairs and embarrassed the schools he worked at. You Aggie’s hired a man of real high character with Bobby P!

    • I’ll admit that I don’t like Finebaum and his SEC show is boring as hell. But I will say he’s 100% right on the Bobby P hire.

    • Similar to Auburn hiring a wh0re monger that stole from Ole Miss boosters, lied to the NCAA, committed a plethora of infractions, and pointed the finger at his predecessor like a sniveling coward in order to cover his own @$$.

      But hey, Auburn is a part of the SEC old guard, and Finebaum has his blinders on.

      P3n!$ head Finebaum with a mouthful of St. Nicky. What a joke of a "journalist".

        • Used funds that were supposed to illegally go to players under the table to buy his h00kers.

      • "But hey, Auburn is a part of the SEC old guard"

        LOL. Old guard! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. If only the SEC would trade TAM for a better football school like FSU or Clemson. It's gonna be funny watching Texas continue to own TAM year after year.

        • He committed adultery a decade ago. Get over it. I am cracking up at your self-righteous outrage.

  • I've followed the Aggies long enough to know that they've too often listened to uneducated Jerry Springer-type hacks like Paul Finebaum. Jimbo seems to have finally been able to get the Board of Regents to a point at which they're wiling to tune out the noise and focus on what's important.

    Petrino's done a lot of things I don't approve of, but we all deserve another chance. Whether it will work or not, I'm willing to wait and see. One thing I know is that Jimbo's job is on the line and he's willing to make this hire. I commend him for that and I'll support him to see how it works.

    As for Finebaum, he can suck an egg. The protein would help him.

    • "uneducated Jerry Springer-type hacks like Paul Finebaum. "

      That word doesn't mean what you think it means, ma'am.

    • "but we all deserve another chance. "

      How are you this stupid? Booby has left a trail of angry fans/universities/NFL teams.

    • "Jimbo seems to have finally been able to get the Board of Regents to a point at which they’re wiling to tune out the noise and focus on what’s important."

      So what's important is winning at the expense of integrity.

      "Petrino’s done a lot of things I don’t approve of, but we all deserve another chance."

      He's had another chance, several times. At Arkansas, all we heard when we hired him was how grateful he was for another chance and how he wouldn't let us down. Then he let us down. Then he stayed at Louisville long enough on his second chance there to finally suffer the recruiting implosion brought on by his habit of treating players like gum on the bottom of his shoe. Then he left Missouri State to be OC at UNLV. Three weeks later, he told them to kiss his behind to go to A&M. Give him all the second and third and fourth and fifth chances you want; a snake is a snake.

      Let me give you Aggie fans some advice: you better tell Jimbo to watch his back from day one. Petrino will help turn Texas 8&4 into Texas 10&2; and then his toxicity will turn you into Texas4&8.

      • I remember well when TAM joined the SEC to get away from having to play Texas every year. Those bozos were dumb enough to think TAM could come in and compete for the SEC.

        • Well, I'm not an Aggie, but A&M, Missouri, Nebraska, and Colorado all left the Big 12 for similar reasons. They were tired of Texas' outsized influence in the conference and the fact that it was able to have its own network deal to the detriment of others in the conference. I also think A&M got a recruiting advantage over Texas by joining the SEC which is why they were pissed at Texas coming into the SEC.

          Now to the point at hand: This hire reeks. Jimbo is desperate and could not attract a quality OC (in character and ability) because I suspect nobody thought he would actually let go of the offensive steering wheel. A&M is locked into Jimbo with an idiotic contract extension. I disagree that A&M was dumb in thinking they could compete in the SEC. It might be comforting to think that, but they have the resources to win if they will ever use them wisely. They will get it right at some point. But I wouldn't count on that happening with Jimbo.

      • I really don't understand the negativity. We hired an OC, not a minister. If he acts up, let him go. My guess, though, is that he's wandered in the desert long enough that he's willing to behave to get back into big-boy football and prove his doubters wrong.

        • You clearly don’t see the writing on the wall that everyone of us sees.

          Gas on a dumpster fire.

          Popcorn. Check.

        • My guess is Patrino will be the same as he was for Louisville,Arkansas and Atlanta. My friend who worked for the Falcons said they had a party the day he left.

  • Finebaum brings in more ad revenue than any other ESPN celebrity. Just look at all the people complaining on this thread and just imagine the millions more that are following him but not posting. He’s living in your heads for free. I find that more hilarious than the crazy things he says.

  • I think Jimbo hired Petrino so all the hate would be channeled away from him. Petrino is now the focal point of a dysfunctional offense instead of Jimbo.

  • Petrino certainly has an unpleasant personality, but has been a successful coach and is acknowledged as an excellent offensive coordinator. It remains to be seen if two the coaches with their egos can put aside them and work together to make TA&M successful.

    • Define successful. Booby produced one Heisman winner at Louisville. Other than that, what? A few good seasons at Arky before Jessica Dorrel’s fiance beat the c rap out of him with a golf club. Other than that….average. Booby’s best offensive years were at Louisville where they played easy schedules and routinely got their b utts kicked by Clemson.

        • I tried to post links. Just do a quick Google search. Ask Arky fans about it. I'm sure they know all about it.

        • Booby tried to blame a motorcycle accident for his face/neck. The funniest part was his mistress was on the bike yet suffered no injuries whatsoever. There were witnesses that saw her fiance beat him with a golf club. Once that story broke, Booby had to fess up to having an affair with an Arkansas employee....dude's fiance. Just Google "Jessica Dorrel and Bobby Petrino."

        • It's a fiction. The motorcycle wreck is well documented, hence the road rash injuries to his face. State trooper gave the fiance, who wasn't hurt, a ride to town and didn't mention she was there. That's how he became a former state trooper soon after.

        • "The motorcycle wreck is well documented, hence the road rash injuries to his face."

          So Booby fell off, busted his face and neck yet his mistress walked away unscathed.

          IT"S A MIRACLE!!!!!!

          Ask any Arky fan/alum. They know.

        • I am an Arky fan. I know. You've never heard of a motorcycle accident, or car wreck, where one passenger gets hurt worse than another?

          It was well documented. The trooper on the scene took her into town and met someone in a parking lot who picked her up from there. Then in his accident report, he didn't disclose that she was on the back of his bike. He got caught at all that, admitted it, and got fired. Petrino's injuries were clearly road rash, not caused by someone hitting him with a golf club.

          And we don't know that she suffered "no injuries whatsoever." We just know she didn't need medical attention at the scene and got the heck out of there courtesy of the trooper.

          I despise him as much as anyone else. But those are the well-documented facts.

      • You should be equally as outraged about Hugh Freeze, mam.

        Also, it is documented that there was a wreck... Getting beat with a golf club doesn't leave road rash, mam.

        Bobby is hired as an OC. Not a head coach. But you can't grasp that I can tell.

        Ronald, did Bobby Petrino hurt you?

Leave a Comment
Published by
Rolando Rosa