Petrino firing leaves a makeshift staff for final two games
Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra fired Bobby Petrino Sunday morning after a 2-8 start to the season. Petrino will be replaced by interim coach Lorenzo Ward when the Cardinals (2-8, 0-7 ACC) take on the Wolfpack (6-3, 3-3) Saturday at 12:20.
“We want to thank Bobby for guiding our football program to some of the better seasons we have had historically at UofL during his two separate tenures here,” Tyra said. “However, at this time we feel the program needs different leadership and we owe it to our student-athletes and fans to get this turned around.”
Tyra had talked throughout the season about his hope for a turnaround under Petrino’s leadership. He had said he didn’t want to make a change during the season, but events of the last couple of weeks made an immediate decision more necessary.
“I did not have the confidence that it was going to happen next season without a change and it needs to start happening now,” Tyra said. “We expect to determine a new head coach soon to restore our football program to national prominence.”
Ward, the secondary coach at Louisville, steps into the role of head coach, while the rest of the staff will have to shift as well. Petrino’s son, Nick Petrino, was the quarterbacks coach. His son-in-law, L.D. Scott, was the defensive line coach and Ryan Beard, his other son-in-law, coached the linebackers. All three were fired Sunday along with Petrino.
Ward explained how the Cardinals will coach the team on Saturday, “Coach (Brian) VanGorder will still be the defensive coordinator — he’ll coach the linebackers. Grady Brown was the cornerbacks coach, he will coach the entire secondary. So, he will coach the safeties and the corners now. I will move to the defensive line. I have some defensive line experience from South Carolina, and me and (quality control coach) J.B. Lageman will coach the D-line together. That’s how we’ll do the defensive side of the ball. Offensive side of the ball, coach (Lonnie) Galloway and Coach (Mike) Summers are still the coordinators, but Coach Galloway will be the play caller on Saturday. He’ll also coach the quarterbacks. The quarterbacks and receivers will meet together. In practice, (Nelson) Fishback, one of our GAs will run quarterback drills. Kolby (Smith) is the running backs coach, Coach Summers is the O-line coach. We will still have the same tight ends coach — Richard (Owens).”
Whether a change in coaches will equal a change in effort for the Cardinals against NC State this weekend?
“We definitely want to get better,” Ward said. “We won’t change the scheme. I think that would be wrong to do to the young men. They’ve been doing something from spring ball all the way to now. We’ll just try to simply what we’re doing. We have to eliminate the big plays. If we simplify the scheme a little more and the guys can learn what we’re doing and fit the particular plays correctly, we’ll be fine.”
