The Wrath of BP (and Attributing Information on Facebook)

Photo by Clinton Lewis, WKU photographer

Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas State have something in common: all three failed to hire Bobby Petrino as their next head football coach. By the way, UK, UT, and ASU might want to glance at their football schedules for next year. Guess who shows up on all three schedules? Bobby Petrino and his Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. I have a feeling that BP will have something specially prepared for each university that spurned him.

Beware of September 7, 2013, Butch Jones.

WKU makes a lot of sense for BP. He spent four years coaching in Kentucky at the University of Louisville—it was where he landed his first head coaching job and where he made a name for himself nationally. BP said in the press conference that he and his wife “consider this coming home,” but we know he’s full of it and will leave WKU as soon as he can (just ask ASU fans about coming home). My guess is that BP couldn’t turn down three chances at revenge (probably more like two and a half, but we’ll get to that).

I don’t think this is a man that forgives as easily as he’d like for the public to forgive him. BP deserved a second chance, whether he is a changed man or not. He’s said all the right things. However, I guarantee BP hasn’t lost his fire, and he is already scheming for these three dates:

8/31/2013, Kentucky, LP Field, Nashville, TN – Kentucky was the first of these jobs that became available, and BP didn’t waste any time letting the Wildcats know that he was interested. BP’s father made it clear in an interview with the Courier-Journal that his son would like an interview. However, seeing how Kentucky is so concerned with the integrity of its athletics department—everyone knows that John Calipari runs a clean program—the school choose to uphold its honor instead of sullying its good reputation with a scoundrel like BP.

Kentucky lost to WKU this year, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone when Petrino beats the Wildcats next year. At the very least, BP would have brought some excitement to UK football. It’s more fun to lose 63-28 than 35-0. You have to start somewhere. As long as BP is at WKU, the Wildcats will be the worst team in the state as well as the worst team in the SEC.

9/7/2013, at Tennessee, Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN – If I were Butch Jones, I would be having nightmares about this game already. Sure, the Volunteers should wipe the field with the Hilltoppers, but that’s the problem. Forget about SEC play, you gotta get past the Sun Belt first. Imagine if Butch loses this game: don’t tell me that there won’t be Vol fans demanding that Butch be fired and BP be hired immediately. Butch Jones wouldn’t deserve it, but I wouldn’t blame the fans.

Sweet dreams, Butch.

TBA, versus ASU, @ Western Kentucky – My alma mater blew it. The Red Wolves had a shot at becoming relevant. However, now it’s all over: the conference championships, the dreams of being ranked, and the hopes of moving to the Big 12 (I literally loled lold lol’d [er, whatever] typing that last part). To be fair, I’ve read reports that say ASU had Petrino locked up but that his wife refused for him to coach in the state of Arkansas again. If that’s the truth, I’m sorry, diehard ASU fans. You were so close... I wanted you to get BP. I wanted to watch him work his magic in Jonesboro. I wanted him to use direct his pent-up anger at the UofA and make THE GAME a reality.

 Just remember, ASU fans, when you travel to Western Kentucky (er) watch the game on TV (sigh) listen to the radio broadcast next year that you could have had BP. However, my suggestion would be to go after Rhett Lashlee, even though that seems highly unlikely now.

One last note. These coaching searches have brought something to my attention. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a journalist, freelance writer, and seemingly every other type of writer (including a hack) or because I’ve spent the last seven years attributing information to others as an English major, but if you’re going to relay information that you read on Twitter or Facebook on your own page, give credit to the source in some way. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people on Facebook copy and paste information from somewhere else into their statuses without using quotation marks or even mentioning a source, only to read the exact update on Twitter a few seconds later from someone else. The solution is as easy as adding— “ ” — AND — according to (insert name). Twitter makes this so much easier because you can just retweet, giving credit to the source without even trying.

Let’s all try to be less stupid and more courteous.