Bobby Petrino: Why Arkansas Football Coach Should Stay

To remain as head coach or to be fired? That seems to be the only remaining question everyone would like to have answered.

We know the details of the motorcycle accident involving Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino and staff member Jessica Dorrell. We may not know every detail and most likely never will, but we know all that we need to know, and that's enough to make a decision on whether he should remain the head coach of the Arkansas football team.

So the question remains: Should he stay or should he go? If he stays, there will be trouble, but if he goes, there will be double.

We know he had an affair with somebody that he hired, and lied to the program about even being with her on the night he crashed his bike into a ditch. Hiring your mistress is suspicious enough, and that alone is reason to be fired, but lying on top of it didn't make things any better.

But there are other ways to handle this other than to just fire the head coach that has won 34 games for the program over the last four seasons.

Giving him a slap on the wrist with a fine and suspending him for a couple of games should do the trick.

The Razorbacks don't play anybody until Week 3 against Alabama. Petrino would be back just in time for that game, and it would give Arkansas added motivation to go out there and win one for the coach. And with him making over $3 million a season, a couple hundred thousand dollars is an expensive cheating experience, but it's not enough to force him to live under a bridge.

The fact is that this is a problem that the university has to settle, not the NCAA, and unless he broke any recruiting violations or landed the university in hot water, it's going to do anything it can to try to keep him.

Petrino is an offensive guru, who was set up for possibly the most successful season of his career. He's returning six starters on defense and seven starters on offense, including star quarterback Tyler Wilson, and should get a healthy Knile Davis back at running back.

This is one of the more talented teams in the SEC and has a great chance to compete for a conference title and national championship.

Add to that a favorable schedule, with Alabama and LSU having to travel to D.W.R. Razorback Stadium, setting this season up perfectly for possibly the best season in school history.

Arkansas hasn't won a conference title since 1989, and it's been even longer since it won its first national championship back in 1964. Arkansas likely won't get a head coach that is capable of doing the job Petrino is doing before September rolls around, which makes firing him extremely difficult for a program that is so hungry for success.

You may not agree with the decision that may very likely happen, but Arkansas doesn't have much of a choice at this point.

The school either fires the head coach that gives it the best possible chance of winning, and the program has to start over, wasting a great opportunity because of a stupid and careless decision. Or, it gives him a second chance and lets him try to work his magic in a year that could really put Arkansas football at another level.

Besides, everyone knew Arkansas was taking a huge risk with the hiring of Petrino back in 2007. This is what everyone should have expected to begin with.

And let's say that he does stick around: Arkansas fans will continue to support their team and continue to show up to games. And if Petrino does end up winning the SEC and reaching a national championship, most people would have forgotten about the incident that happened back in April.

Of course, you'll still have the fans that will bring it up and claim that the season deserves an asterisk, but you could name a million coaches that have done something much worse and have continued to stick around.

I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right, but if the Razorbacks aren't forced to fire their head coach, they're simply not going to.

Arkansas is dealing with an extremely difficult decision, but firing Petrino may end up making a bad situation much worse.