Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

11/28/2011 at 10:32am

Bobby Petrino does not like to lose.

I’m having a hard time understanding why this is a shock to so many people. But after cursing in the general direction of the opposing coach and a curt handshake after the game, many are taking offense at Petrino taking offense. LSU defeated Arkansas 41-17 on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Needless to say, both the fans and the team were not in a mood to talk with the opposition.

What many around the nation saw as a slight came as no surprise to those who follow the Razorback football program closely. Petrino is short in every post-game handshake, and he curses in the general direction of just about everyone on the field every game.

He’s short (in his answers), robotic, comes off as unapologetic and often acts more like Ebineezer Scrooge than a shaper of young men. Anyone who heard his eulogy of Garrett Uekman knows that perception isn’t entirely true, of course.

I’m having difficulty understanding why so many have a problem with a coach who is a sore loser. Most successful coaches don’t lose enough to know what losing graciously in situations like these looks or feels like. And so they fake it... or they don’t. Pete Carroll certainly didn’t take kindly do the beating Jim Harbaugh and Stanford gave USC a few years ago. There are other examples.

But this is about more than just losing. It is about losing to LSU. It is about losing to Les Miles, who has shown no love toward “Ar-Kansas.”

There is a school of thought justifying Miles decision to leave his starters in late in the game and "run up the score" because style points matter in the current BCS system. It confuses the argument. While style points do in fact matter, whether or not LSU needed them is a different debate entirely. I don’t have a problem with the concept of running up the score, and I don’t have a problem with Miles doing so in this situation.

I also don’t have a problem with Petrino’s reaction. Think sensibly about the situation for a moment. A touchdown or a field goal accomplished absolutely nothing. Alabama beat Arkansas by 24. Did LSU need to match or win bigger? If the margin had been less, would people start to think Alabama should be number one all of a sudden? No. The fact LSU actually beat them pretty much takes care of that.

Was it insurance in case the Tigers lose in Atlanta to Georgia? I doubt it. Mainly because the thought of that happening is so foreign to Miles and his players I don’t think  it has ever crossed their minds.

What if the roles had been reversed? “Certainly a certified SOB like Bobby Petrino would run up the score given a chance right? I mean he’s just such a punk leaving Atlanta like that...” And so-on the argument ignorantly goes. Fortunately we already know exactly how he would react in that situation, because he was in it last season against LSU. LSU and Arkansas played for a BCS bowl bid last season. Arkansas took over on the one-yard line of LSU and could easily have turned what was a close game for much of the contest into a blowout on paper late. Style points indeed.

Petrino decided to send out the Hogs in the victory formation. Knowing what he knows now about Miles. I doubt he’ll forget what transpired last Friday. And I’d bet my house on Petrino being less kind than he was in 2010 if the Razorbacks are in a position to run up the score in Little Rock next year.

So much has been made this week of whether or not LSU and Arkansas are legitimate rivals. Miles didn’t like losing by such a wide margin, which could have been much worse, in 2010. He took it out on Ar-Kansas the next year, the way he couldn’t in 2007 when he uttered that unfortunate mispronunciation.

If he wanted to let Arkansas know how much he dislikes it, mission accomplished.

I think everyone who watched this game on national television knows how Petrino feels.

As Gary Danielson uttered after the kurt post-game handshake, “They’ll play again. You can sign me up for that one right now.”

Real rivalry? The hate has never been realer.
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TJ Carpenter is host of The TJ Carpenter Show on The Hog Sports Radio Network from 1-4pm (listen live at HogSportsRadio.com) TJ Carpenter contributes to MrSEC.com ArkansasSports360.com and CollegeFootballNews.com.

Tagged: Les Miles, LSU Tigers, Arkansas Razorbacks, Bobby Petrino