Louisville knows how much Bobby Petrino jumps around from job to job, so they’re doing what they can to ensure he sticks with the Cardinals for a long time now that he’s in his second stint as the program’s head football coach.
Petrino’s buyout, should he leave Louisville for another job, is $10 million, according to the Courier-Journal.
Petrino and Louisville reached a deal for him to return to the school seven years after he left the program to coach the Atlanta Falcons. Petrino’s time in Atlanta didn’t go well, and he left before his first season ended to take a job with Arkansas. Petrino had four successful seasons in Fayeteville, but he was fired because of the sex scandal — he lied about having an affair with an athletic department employee — and he was then hired by Western Kentucky. Petrino went 8-4 in his only season at Western Kentucky, and now he’s back at Louisville.
“I think (athletic director Tom Jurich) understands this is where I want to finish my career,” Petrino said on Thursday.
Petrino doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter because his buyout is so astronomical. His $10 million buyout figure is only one million shy of Louisville’s fee to leave the American Athletic Conference. Petrino’s contract is seven years for $3.5 million per season.
Now we’ll really see if Petrino is a man of his word … for the first time in his coaching life. I just know that buyout would make it really tough for him to leave. It’s almost like a handcuff tethering him to Louisville whether he likes it or not.
