Steve Jones

@stevejones_cj

On the night his University of Louisville football team beat Florida State 63-20 in one of the nation’s most dominating performances of the 2016 season, coach Bobby Petrino celebrated with a quiet dinner at home with his family, including his parents.

They ate Italian food, watched the night's other college football games and relaxed in a happy and triumphant home.

Bob Petrino Sr., who taught his son the game and coached him at Carroll College in Montana, said he and his wife were thankful to be on hand for what Bob Sr. considered the greatest victory of their son’s career.

“It was a very proud day,” Bob Petrino Sr. said.

Though Bobby Petrino said that the blowout of FSU didn't affect his weekly routine or lead to any personal satisfaction beyond “business as usual” as U of L got back to work the next morning and proceeded to win again, 59-28, on Saturday night at Marshall, the FSU victory helped make Louisville the talk of college football.

The Cardinals have soared to No. 4 in the USA TODAY Amway Coaches Poll and will play in what amounts to another national game of the week this Saturday at No. 3 Clemson. The Cards' emergence into national title contention has helped quickly reaffirm Petrino’s status as one of the game's elite coaches only four years after he was dismissed in embarrassing fashion at Arkansas.

In a series of interviews, Petrino’s friends, relatives, coaching colleagues and current and former bosses praised his keen coaching ability and expressed little surprise that he has the Cards flying high in just the third season of his second U of L tenure.

They also said Petrino has come out of his ordeal with Arkansas – he was fired after revelations he's had a romantic relationship with a woman he’d hired on the football staff – with a devotion to his family, to the community through his Petrino Family Foundation and the U of L football program.

“I think one thing he wants is he wants this program to be very successful,” U of L athletic director Tom Jurich said. “It means a lot to him. I think Louisville is a special place to him. I couldn’t be happier to have him as our football coach. I’ve said many, many times that it’s a very, very small conversation when you’re talking about the greatest coaches in the country, but he’s in it. He’s on that list. I wouldn’t trade him for anybody.

“I just like the job that he’s done here on and off the field," Jurich continued. "His generosity is unbelievable in the community. He’s helped so many different causes and believed in the community, and he’s really inserted himself. He made a mistake, he’s owned it, and he’s worked to become better for it, and I’m very, very happy for him and his family.”

Always known for high-powered offenses during his first U of L tenure (2003-06) and at Arkansas (2008-11), Petrino has the Cards lighting up the scoreboard in historic fashion like he suggested they would before the season.

Triggered by dual-threat quarterback and early Heisman Trophy favorite Lamar Jackson, U of L (4-0) leads the nation in averaging 63.5 points and 682 total yards per game. The victory over Florida State was the Cards' most remarkable result of the early season. They overwhelmed the Seminoles at the line of scrimmage, had receivers repeatedly wide-open for big gains, and Jackson couldn't be caught en route to four rushing touchdowns.

Jurich said the execution of Petrino's offense and coordinator Todd Grantham's defense against FSU on a day that the eyes of the college football world were focused on Louisville was "magical."

Former longtime Petrino assistant Garrick McGee, who was U of L’s offensive coordinator in 2014 and ’15, said he thinks Petrino’s “legacy as one of the best offensive coaches of all time continues to grow” during the opening month of this season.

Now the offensive coordinator at Illinois, McGee said Petrino’s offense excelled with classic drop-back passers such as Brian Brohm at U of L and Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson at Arkansas. Now, McGee said, Petrino has adapted his system to fit a quarterback whose option running is as dynamic as his arm. The results are as dominant as ever.

“There’s a lot of college coaches who get a lot of praise about how good they are and how big-time they are,” McGee said. “But really, outside of one national championship, there’s not anybody bigger and better than Bobby Petrino coaching college football right now. The only thing he’s missing is a national championship. Bob Stoops has one. Urban Meyer has a couple. Nick Saban has a few of them. But I just hope for his legacy that he can get a national championship and go down in history as one of the best who’s ever done it. It’s the only thing he’s missing. He has dominated college football from an offensive perspective for a long time.”

Petrino’s younger brother Paul, the head coach at Idaho who was also Bobby's longtime assistant and former U of L offensive coordinator, said the FSU victory was only the latest entry in a career full of coaching masterpieces by his brother.

“It kind of just starts with some people have that great mind in science, some have it in math, and he just has that unbelievable, brilliant mind at football,” Paul Petrino said. “He really understands the game, understands how to attack people, understands how to defend, (coach) special teams. He has a special, incredible mind of how the game should be played and game-plan against people. … When I was in the (press) box with him for years, I would suggest plays that were there, and he would know the exact right time when to call them. He just has a special feel for the game. Maybe I’m biased, but I don’t think there’s anybody who understands the game better than he does.

“If you put an unbelievable, special player (like Jackson) with a brilliant mind (at coach), that usually equals big-time success. That’s kind of the perfect storm going on there now.”

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Four years ago, times weren’t as smooth for Petrino, whose winning tenure at Arkansas unraveled in the wake of a motorcycle accident in which he tried to cover up that the woman he'd been seeing was riding with him.

Petrino ended up unemployed for a year, and his image took a public beating.

Louisville businessman Paul Perconti, a close friend of Petrino’s since the coach’s first U of L tenure, said he spoke to Petrino frequently during 2012, and he was impressed to see the coach accept responsibility for his mistakes, “swallow a big humility pill” and “come out of it as a better person.”

“I think he is still as driven as ever,” Perconti said, “and he will continue to be as driven. He’s a wizard as a football coach. But at the same time, I think he learned and he (was) humbled (and realized) that you can still be that driven and be a more balanced human being and care about everything else around you in addition to driving hard.

"His care and compassion for everything around him today is so evident. … He puts his arm around his family, puts his arm around his children and grandchildren. He’s a balanced guy today. That’s what makes a great leader, right? Someone who can drive and lead but also have compassion in his approach, and he definitely has that right now.”

Western Kentucky University athletic director Todd Stewart was the administrator who took the first chance on Petrino after his season out of the game, hiring him in 2013 to replace Willie Taggart.

Petrino led the Hilltoppers to an 8-4 season, including a win against the University of Kentucky in the opener. Stewart values the time WKU had Petrino and how it prepared his former offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm to become highly successful as Petrino's WKU replacement.

“(Petrino) was very appreciative of the opportunity he had here, and I just know that he loves to coach football,” Stewart said. “The season he was out of it, he really missed it. He articulated to me during the interview process how much he felt he had learned throughout all that. And what he thought would really be different this time around was that going through what he went through personally would enable him to better understand players and enable him to, as he put it, coach the person and ... help players through personal challenges because of what he went through.”

After Charlie Strong left U of L for Texas in January 2014, Stewart gave his blessing for Petrino to accept Jurich’s offer and return to the Cardinals, and Stewart said he continues to wish the best for U of L's coach. They remain in regular contact, and Stewart sent Petrino a congratulatory text message after the FSU game.

“I’m very happy for him, and I’m not surprised (by Louisville's success),” Stewart said. “The 13 months that we worked together, I was just incredibly impressed by his overall knowledge of a program. I had the privilege of working 15 years in the NFL, and he reminded me of an NFL head coach in terms of his vision and understanding of so many different things.

“I remember saying at the time that when he left us that I thought he would win a national championship at Louisville, and I still believe that. … I just think he’s that good of a football coach. He’s a tremendous offensive mind, Louisville has tremendous resources and to me when you add all that up, the success he’s having will be consistent.”

Former U of L head coach John L. Smith, who had Petrino on his staff at various schools, including Louisville, during his career, then later was on Petrino’s Arkansas staff and succeeded him as the Razorbacks’ interim head coach, correctly predicted to Smith's incredulous wife that Jurich would hire back Petrino as soon as Strong left.

Smith, now the coach at Kentucky State, is impressed with how Petrino has reestablished his career.

“You just have to move on (from a personal setback), and that’s what I think he did and said, ‘I’m going to make amends and get back on the good side of everybody,”’ Smith said. “He’s made a great effort at doing that. … A lot of people see the rougher side of Bobby, the not-being-all-that-personal side of Bobby. But Bobby loves those (players).”

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long declined to be interviewed about Louisville's hot start to the season, but he emailed a statement.

“Certainly the end of Coach Petrino's tenure at the University of Arkansas was a difficult time for our program and for him," Long wrote. "Since that point, Razorback Athletics has moved forward in a positive manner and not looked back. It appears that Coach Petrino has also moved beyond that period as he continues his coaching career.”

If the Cards continue to keep rolling – a victory at Clemson would give U of L the inside track to an ACC Atlantic Division title and possibly a spot in the College Football Playoff – it would seem realistic that other top colleges with coaching vacancies will inquire about Petrino.

Petrino had a reputation during his first U of L tenure for having a wandering eye and always being willing to consider another job. He ultimately left the Cards for the Atlantic Falcons in 2007.

However, upon returning to U of L, Petrino has said he hoped to finish his career with the Cards, and U of L’s membership in the ACC provides a clearer potential path to a national title than the program ever enjoyed during Petrino’s first stint.

In April, Petrino signed a contract extension through June 2023 that will pay him an average of $4.525 million, including bonuses if his teams achieve a basic Academic Progress Rating score.

Bob Petrino Sr. doesn’t expect his son to ever leave U of L again.

“First of all, my opinion of Bobby is he will coach at Louisville until he quits coaching,” the elder Petrino said last week. “That’s what I think, and that’s fine. That’s very fine. And I think he can win a national championship there. I do feel he has the ability to do it, and he can do a good enough job recruiting. I feel he has the ability to win a national championship, and I know that’s what he wants to do. … I just think he tried it the other way, moving around, etc., and I think he just wants to settle in one place and give it all he’s got. I just can’t see him leaving.”

On Monday, Bobby Petrino shot down speculation that he could become a candidate for the new opening at LSU after the Tigers fired Les Miles.

"I'm not interested in going anywhere," Petrino said. "I'm very fortunate to be the head coach here at the University of Louisville, very happy about that, very glad I have the support of our athletic director Tom Jurich. We were able to sit down last year and do a new contract. We're going to expand the stadium. We're coming off one of the greatest crowds and Card Marches I've been around (at the Florida State game). We feel like we've got everything going in the right direction.

"This is the job I want. This is where I'm going to be."

Jurich has said he believes U of L’s ACC membership and the continuing growth of its facilities – the Cards will begin a $55 million expansion of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and the adjoining team complex after the season – have made the school’s football coaching position a “destination job.”

Jurich said he doubts Petrino would have interest in any other job while saying, “I want to make sure he never feels that he’s taken for granted here.”

“When you have top coaches, you’re going to have people wanting to go after them,” Jurich said. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep him here, because I think he’s a great fit here.”

Smith and Perconti also both said they believe Petrino’s intent is to remain at U of L for the long term.

“First of all, you know that the more success he continues to have and the University of Louisville has, they will come after him, whether it’s pro or SEC, I don’t know,” Perconti said. “But bottom line, I think this is home for him and his family. He’s got family on the coaching staff. He’s got grandchildren in school here; he’s got friendships here. I think his goals here are not just to have a great year this year. It’s next year, and (future years). I’d be shocked if Bobby isn’t here to finish out his career here, and he’s told me that.

“I think there will be knocks on his door, but I think Tom Jurich and Bobby have built such a strong door that it will be hard to get through it.”

In the meantime, even as fans begin to dream about the chances of a national title, Petrino’s friends and family believe he will keep a lightning-sharp focus on each individual game, serving the Cards well.

“I sure hope they can win it all,” Paul Petrino said. “I know they’ll be prepared to win every game. There’s nobody that does a better job of preparing teams and going about it one week at a time."

Bob Petrino Sr. said it would be quite a moment if he is able someday soon to see Bobby hoist a national championship trophy.

“It would be awesome (if it happens),” Paul Petrino said. “That’s the pride you have in your big brother, and there’s nobody you root harder for than your family.”

Smith said he thinks a championship would be more special to Bobby Petrino at this stage in his career because of the personal obstacles he faced four years ago.

“He’s had to come back in the consolation bracket, if you know what I mean,” Smith said. “He’s had to fight his way back, and it’s been good for him. He’s a fighter, he’s a competitor. It’s good for him. I hope it works out.”