Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino placed on administrative leave

By Zach Turner

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino placed on administrative leave

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino has been put on administrative leave Thursday night following his failure to inform athletic director Jeff Long about student-athlete development coordinator Jessica Dorrell being a passenger on his Sunday motorcycle accident and his “previous inappropriate relationship.”

Petrino will be on paid indefinite administrative until after a review of the situation takes place Long said.

“I’m at the beginning of the review. I don’t know what I’m going to find,” Long said. “I don’t have a timetable. It will be ended as quickly as possible when I complete my review.”

Petrino was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle accident Sunday in which the Arkansas State Police department said Dorrell was a passenger in according to the police report released Thursday afternoon.

“The state police report today provides an accurate description of my accident, which details that had not publicly come to light prior to the report being issued,” Petrino said in a release Thursday. “I regret that I have not publicly acknowledged a passenger on the vehicle.”

“I have been in constant pain, medicated and the circumstances involving the wreck have come out in bits and pieces.”

Petrino called Long at approximately 3:12 p.m. on Thursday, before the police report was released, and admitted that there was another passenger on the motorcycle.

Earlier in the week, the UA released a statement from the family saying no one else had been involved in the wreck.

“I’m disappointed that coach Petrino did not share to me when he had the opportunity to the full extent of the accident and who was involved,” Long said.

According to the report, Dorrell was uninjured in the accident. The 25-year old Dorrell is engaged to Arkansas swimming and diving director of operations Josh Morgan.

“I have spoken briefly with Ms. Dorrell,” Long said. “I have not had the opportunity to have a thorough review and talk with her. We’ll do so in the not-too-distant future.”

Long said Petrino did not mention any other past relationships besides the one he admitted to on Thursday evening.

“I will fully cooperate with the university throughout this process and my hope is to repair my relationships with my family, my athletic director, the Razorback Nation and remain the head coach of the Razorbacks.”

Taver Johnson, the linebackers and assistant head coach for the Razorbacks, will assume coaching responsibilities in Petrino’s absence Long said.

“Well obviously people are concerned about our program,” Long said on his decision to speak tonight. “They’re concerned about coach Petrino. This information became public through the report by the police and obviously there’s a lot of speculation. I wanted to make sure people understood that when we had information that we have acted appropriately.”

Long said he is disappointed in the fourth-year head coach’s actions to withhold information.

“It’s difficult any time we have an employee, a coach that makes a miss-step, it’s disappointing to me,” “We have high expectations. I think every coach and every administrator and every staff person knows we have high expectations. Certainly I’m disappointed. I brought Coach Petrino here and he is someone I brought here, so I want to make sure I do the appropriate review. Sure I’m disappointed. Anybody would. And I think as coach expressed in his release, he’s disappointed in his own actions.”

Read more here: http://www.uatrav.com/2012/petrino-given-administrative-leave
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