Arkansas Coach Petrino Now Safe After Motorcycle Crash with a 25-Year-Old Woman

Arkansas Coach Petrino Now Safe After Motorcycle Crash with a 25-Year-Old Woman

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long placed Bobby Petrino on paid leave after revealing his disappointment when the football coach failed to tell school officials that he was riding with a 25-year-old woman when he crashed his motorcycle on Sunday resulting to four broken ribs and a cracked neck vertebra.

"I don't know what I'm going to find," Long said at a news conference Thursday night after a state police report revealed that the married, 51-year-old coach was riding with Jessica Dorrell, who was a former Arkansas volleyball player and now works for the football program.

Long set no timetable for his investigation, which could result to penalties including suspension or firing of the highly successful coach.

The emerging scandal could also give a severe blow to the Razorbacks on the field, who Petrino has coached in the last two seasons.

"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," Petrino said in a statement.

Petrino, who is in the midst of a seven-year contract under which his salary averages $3.53 million, failed to mention he had a passenger during a news conference two days after Sunday's accident.

Petrino said then that he had spent Sunday with his wife, Becky, at a lake and was going for an evening ride. His only mention of Dorrell was vague, and without identification.

In his Thursday's statement, Petrino asked an apology and acknowledged that he had kept the fact about Dorrell quiet.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Saturday April 07 2012, 3:03 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0