Bobby Petrino: Why Scandal Couldn't Have Happened at a Worse Time for Arkansas

By now, I'm sure you've all heard what happened to Arkansas and their head coach Bobby Petrino—the whole motorcycle scandal that has taken over college football talk the last few days and has removed the focus off of spring practices and spring games that are about to begin.

Having a scandal hanging over your program is never a good thing, but the timing could always be better. I don't think you could actually pick a worse time for this news to break out than now for the Arkansas football program.

For one, Arkansas is set to begin their spring game on April 21—that's less than two weeks away. It's kind of hard to focus on the football side of things when you have no idea who your head coach is going to be or what's going to happen next, although interim coach Taver Johnson is trying his best to keep the players focused on the task at hand.

"Throughout spring, our main focus has been the football team," he said. "So nothing has changed in that regard."

That's easier said than done. This is a coach, after all, that has put together a 34-17 record and won two bowl games in the last four seasons at Arkansas. He's recruited extremely well and has put together a fantastic team that could be on the verge of competing for a national championship.

And now, it may be all for not.

Arkansas returns 13 starters to the team from a year ago, including seven on the offensive side of the ball, that averaged nearly 37 points per game. They have their star quarterback in Tyler Wilson and should be getting a 1,000-yard rusher back in Knile Davis.

This is a team that's talented enough to compete with anybody, and that includes the powerhouses in LSU and Alabama.

Speaking of the competition in the SEC West, the Razorbacks get both the Crimson Tide and the Tigers at home this season. That gives them a huge advantage, as they will have the home crowd of over 70,000 Razorback fans cheering them on.

Not like those teams are going to be a pushover just because Arkansas has the home-field advantage, but one would think it'd be a lot easier than traveling to Tiger Stadium—not to mention the amount of talent both teams lost on the defensive side of the ball will take some adjusting and getting used to.

You had to like that home team's chances, especially with that loaded offense on the field.

It's not too often you're going to have a team capable of knocking off the big boys and get the two top teams at home the same season. Everything seemed to be lined up perfectly for Arkansas before this incident had happened.

But now there is no guarantee that the offensive genius in Bobby Petrino will survive by the time this season rolls around. Arkansas clearly has enough to let him go and begin searching for another head coach to replace him. But that would just make things even worse as the majority of the coaches that were on the market are already with their new teams.

The college football season may still be months away, but the preparation has already begun. A season that was looking so promising for the Razorbacks has taken a turn for the worse and really couldn't have come at a more devastating time.