UA releases Petrino personnel file 1 of 2



GETTING READY: Notes reflect questions Jeff Long prepared for Petrinoi.



OCTOBER ROMANCE: Notes date October as beginning of Petrino-Dorrell affair. They became close from trips to Razorback functions such as this one.

The University of Arkansas Athletic Department today released a pile of documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests related to the firing of football coach Bobby Petrino.

The key documents for crowd-sourcing are these:


* JEFF LONG NOTES: Here are some 130 pages of handwritten notes and accident reports compiled by from Athletic Director Jeff Long, both in preparation for his meeting with Petrino and reflecting some of what Petrino told him about his accident and his relationship with staff member Jessica Dorrell. Petrino acknowledged the relationship and gifts he’d given to her, but insisted a romantic relationship had ended when she was hired and that others who participated in the process were important in the decision to hire her over 158 others. He also said a strong candidate from LSU, they thought, just might take any offer back to LSU.

* JON FAGG NOTES: The associate athletic director for compliance interviewed people as well as joining Long. He talked to Dorrell’s fiancee Josh Morgan, a member of the swimming and diving staff, who said he’d understood from Dorrell that cash she received had been a football bonus. His 40-plus pages of notes here.


There’s much to read here, not always readily comprehensible. There are, for example, many references to a $15,000 gift from Petrino (that, notes reflect at one point, Dorrell put under her mattress), though athletic officials eventually concluded that the amount was $20,000. The relationship developed last fall during trips by Petrino and Dorrell to Razorback fan functions. They became lunch mates. He sent her Hot Tamale candy. There are apparent references to 4-6 intimate meetings. They “had a real close personal friendship as well,” Dorrell told Fagg. She asked Petrino if he was going to kiss her at an October lunch. The intimate relationship was said to have ended on national signing day at the first of February. Petrino said they stayed close, “but not physical,” Fagg’s notes reflect. Text messaging dropped dramatically, from almost 2,000 back and forth in the fall, to 17 to 70 per month from January until April.