Arkansas Football: Hogs Make the Right Call Placing Petrino on Leave

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long made the right call in placing head football coach Bobby Petrino on paid administrative leave after details were revealed that Jessica Dorrell—an employee of the Arkansas athletic department—was also on Petrino's motorcycle when it crashed on Sunday evening.

By not being forthcoming with Arkansas, Petrino made Long and Arkansas look foolish, and his job is now rightfully in jeopardy.

According to KTHV in Little Rock, Bobby Petrino admitted an inappropriate relationship in a statement released by the University:

"

I regret that I have not publicly acknowledged a passenger on the vehicle. I have been in constant pain, medicated and the circumstances involving the wreck have come out in bits and pieces. That said I certainly had a concern about Jessica Dorrell’s name being revealed. In my press conference, I referred to her simply as ‘a lady’. My concern was to protect my family and a previous inappropriate relationship from becoming public. In hindsight, I showed a serious mistake in judgment when I chose not to be more specific about those details. Today, I’ve acknowledged this previous inappropriate relationship with my family and those within the athletic department administration.

"

Bottom line: Long doesn't know who to trust, and he certainly shouldn't trust Petrino at this point.

Did he not think that the information in the Arkansas State Police report was going to become public? Petrino waited until three minutes before the report was set to be released to notify Long, according to Jim Harris of ArkansasSports360.com.

Does Petrino deserve to be fired? That remains to be seen. But don't discount the possibility.

Long is doing the right thing by giving the situation a thorough review. There's no guarantee that all the information is out. Long would be doing a disservice to his athletic department—which he's in charge of running—by blindly following Petrino right now. Petrino has lost the benefit of the doubt.

Follow @BarrettSallee