Comment by the judge: "An excellent job of researching one of the most significant events in Arkansas football history. Writing the story chronologically made it easy to follow, even after interviewing so many people. There were quotes from everyone involved. Good ending, telling what happened to people, even the girl and her fiancé."
Inside the rise and spectacular crash of Bobby Petrino’s wild ride at Arkansas
Nov. 22, 2022
By David Ubben
The Athletic
The tip of Bobby Petrino’s nose, forehead, right temple and left cheek glistened with road rash as pain medication coursed through his veins. A neck brace helped hold his C-2 vertebra in place. After a two-minute opening statement, he took questions for eight more.
Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long and other school officials advised Petrino against holding the news conference, but Petrino insisted. He wanted to show his players he was tough, like he asked them to be.
Petrino told the assembled media that Tuesday the same tale he told his bosses. He had been riding his motorcycle on April 1, 2012, and when he went around a turn, the glare from the setting sun sent him and his bike careening into a ditch.
At the conclusion of the news conference, Petrino walked to a waiting golf cart underneath Razorback Stadium that would take him to the elevator to view practice from the press box and direct his assistants on the field. Larry Henry, then a reporter with the CBS affiliate in Fayetteville, tailed him with a cameraman from the station.
“Coach?” he said.
Petrino turned to face Henry.
“Were you alone on that motorcycle?” Henry asked, away from the scrum of reporters but in front of both Long and associate athletic director Jon Fagg.
“Yes,” Petrino answered as the driver stepped on the gas of the golf cart.
“Are you sure?” Henry asked as Petrino drove away.
“Yes,” Petrino answered once more.
Long and Fagg looked at each other, their minds racing.
“I remember thinking, ‘That’s weird,’” Fagg said. “Somebody thinks they know something for sure.”
Arkansas hired Long in September 2007 to replace Frank Broyles, whose 30-plus-year run as athletic director would end after the season. But days after the Razorbacks beat No. 1 LSU in the 2007 regular-season finale, then-coach Houston Nutt resigned to become Ole Miss’ coach, replacing the fired Ed Orgeron.
“I was just getting my feet wet,” Long said. “And then I was thrust into hiring a new football coach when I wasn’t technically the athletic director.”
Long assessed multiple options, including Lane Kiffin, Butch Davis and Jim Grobe, when suddenly, Petrino emerged as a candidate. Petrino’s agent at the time, Russ Campbell, told Long and Arkansas that his client, then the first-year coach of the Atlanta Falcons, would be interested, but Long made it clear he couldn’t wait until the end of the NFL season to make the hire.
By NFL rules, Atlanta had to OK any contact with its coach. Long, unfamiliar with the world of the NFL and Falcons owner Arthur Blank but very familiar with famed Arkansas alum Jerry Jones, asked Jones to make the request on the university’s behalf. Jones obliged. Blank said no. But Campbell had a question for Long: What if his client was no longer the Falcons’ coach?
“Well, then I’d be free to talk to him,” Long answered.
Petrino’s representatives told Long to come to Atlanta. “I asked, ‘What are you saying?’” Long remembered. “(Russ) said, ‘He’s not going to be the coach in Atlanta.’”
Long hopped on a plane and made his way upstairs to a law firm office in Atlanta, not far from the Georgia Dome. Petrino sat in a large boardroom, and Campbell greeted Long at the entrance. Before Long opened the conversation, he asked Campbell a question: Has Petrino resigned?
Petrino hadn’t, and Long didn’t want to begin negotiations in earnest until that happened. Campbell walked across the room and spoke with his client. He returned to Long with a request.
“Give us a few hours,” he said. Long returned to the lobby and waited for Petrino to tie up his loose ends.
Petrino left the office, resigned his position with the Falcons and left his players a 78-word letter to tell them. He returned to the office, negotiated a five-year deal worth $2.85 million annually (it extended to seven years before it officially was signed), and the deal was done. They hopped on a plane and flew back to Fayetteville.
Just before midnight, Petrino was on “SportsCenter” calling the Hogs at a rushed news conference.
For four seasons, it was a perfect marriage. After 13 wins in his first two seasons, Petrino went 21-5 in 2010 and 2011, taking the program to its first BCS bowl and its first 11-win season since 1977. His reputation as an offensive savant carried over on The Hill. In 2010, Ryan Mallett set a program record of 32 touchdown passes, which still stands.
Petrino’s stock, and that of his program, couldn’t have been higher entering spring football in 2012.
On Monday, April 2, Fagg awoke to a message that Petrino had been involved in a motorcycle accident the night before. Fagg thought it was a tasteless April Fool’s joke. Thirty minutes later, his phone rang. It was Petrino calling from a hospital bed. For most of Petrino’s run in Fayetteville, Fagg served as the head coach’s sounding board. Multiple times per day, every day, they talked on the phone about whatever was going on in the program.
“I was one of the only people he talked to,” Fagg said.
That motorcycle accident? It wasn’t a joke. And Petrino had a multitude of injuries from it, including a neck injury and broken ribs in addition to the cosmetic damage to his face.
Petrino wasn’t taken to either of the area’s major hospitals. He was at Physicians Specialty Hospital, a much smaller facility in Fayetteville, and his precise route to get there was hazy. In the coming days, how he arrived became clear.
The university released a statement confirming the accident and offering little detail about Petrino’s injuries, other than explaining he was in stable condition. Critically, the statement also said the accident “involved no other individuals.”
A source had tipped off Henry, the reporter with Fayetteville’s CBS affiliate, that Petrino was avoiding the major hospitals. After running a story informing the public of Petrino’s whereabouts as Petrino healed, Henry’s phone started buzzing with more scoops. A university source told Henry a fact that countered one key point of the athletic department’s initial news release.
“My source says he wasn’t alone,” Henry said. “This was a really, really good, a lock-down, high-up source.”
But it was only one source. And that source wasn’t sure who was with Petrino. So Henry trekked to campus for Petrino’s infamous evening news conference and got Petrino one-on-one in the hallway for an official denial.
“We knew he wasn’t alone; that was a flat-out lie from an SEC coach at a major university,” Henry said. “We knew we had him lying. Then later, I got another tip from a different source telling me he was with a woman.”
After the news conference, Long boarded a bus with other university officials for a chancellor’s retreat in central Arkansas.
For two days, Petrino’s story held up. He returned to practice. Henry kept working the phones. On Thursday, Henry got another call. A law enforcement source told him the police report was going to be released later that day. If Henry came to the state police office in person, his source said they would provide Henry with a copy hours before it was made public.
Henry raced to the office to retrieve the report. He returned to the news truck outside and opened it. There was a detailed police narrative of the incident, but there was also a section with a name listed under those injured in the accident: Jessica Dorrell. Her cell phone number was also listed.
Publicly, there had yet been no acknowledgment that Petrino wasn’t alone on his motorcycle. Now, Henry not only knew that was Petrino was with someone, he knew who that someone was. Henry called the number as quickly as he could punch it in his phone. Dorrell answered. Henry identified himself.
“I’m sitting in the state police parking lot looking at an accident report and it says you were injured. First off, are you OK?” Henry asked.
“Yeah, what do you want?” Henry recalled Dorrell asking.
“Well, would you mind telling me what happened? The university and athletic department said he was alone. He told me he was alone. Can you tell me why that narrative was put forth?” Henry asked.
Dorrell initially stumbled over her answer, Henry remembered, before saying: “I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m not really ready to comment at this time.”
Henry tried to follow up with another question, but Dorrell said she had to go and hung up the phone. Henry posted a story confirming the details from the police report. Before it went public, word spread to Arkansas’ brass that Petrino had omitted a massive detail from his story. Long was on the bus with university leadership returning from the retreat when he received word.
Long was shocked. And the pit in his stomach grew because he knew what lay ahead.
“We’re followed by the entire state of Arkansas. I knew it was going to be a big deal,” Long said. “I walked to the front of the bus and had a surreal conversation with my chancellor.”
Long approached chancellor David Gearhart and quietly informed him of the news. “We just kind of had that look at each other,” Long said.
Long promised he would do what needed to be done and keep Gearhart informed. That same day, Fagg’s phone rang, and an angry Long was on the other end with one key question.
“Did you know?” he asked, knowing Fagg was one of Petrino’s closest confidants on campus.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.
“Bobby wasn’t alone,” Long informed his associate athletic director.
Fagg asked who was with him.
“He was with Jessica,” Long said.
Dorrell, then 25, was a student-athlete development coordinator in the football program, hired by Petrino earlier that year after previously working in fundraising for the Razorback Foundation.
Fagg’s jaw dropped.
“Are you kidding me? Do you realize that’s gonna look like they were having an affair?” Fagg said. “I never even dreamed they were actually having an affair.”
Fagg tried to call Petrino and Dorrell. When Petrino answered, Fagg asked if Petrino could come into the office and bring his wife, Becky.
“I knew we were in trouble when he said he didn’t think Becky would come to the office with him,” Fagg said. “That was my first inkling that it was all going to be real.”
When Long returned to campus, he held a news conference to announce Petrino was being placed on administrative leave in the wake of the police report. The following day, Fagg and Long began what would become a days-long investigation, interviewing nearly a dozen employees, as well as Petrino, Dorrell and Dorrell’s fiance, Josh Morgan, who was also on the athletic department staff.
Fagg, whose background was in NCAA compliance, led the investigation. Slowly but surely, facts began to emerge.
After the accident, the investigation found, Dorrell ran toward a nearby house but returned to the scene after Petrino yelled for her. Multiple cars stopped at the accident, but Dorrell told them to not call 911.
The day after Petrino was placed on leave, police released a 911 call from a man named Larry Hendren who had come across Petrino and Dorrell on the side of the road.
“The rider and the passenger declined for us to call 911. They got into a vehicle and headed toward the hospital,” the caller said, identifying the vehicle as a white SUV. “It looked like his face was bleeding quite a lot. She did not look to be very injured.”
The vehicle they got into belonged to Benjamin Williams, an Arkansas native who came across Petrino and Dorrell while riding in a car with his wife and son.
Lance King, a state police captain who served as Petrino’s police detail on game days, called Petrino after a fellow officer informed him of the accident. Petrino didn’t answer, but a woman returned the call and arranged for King to meet them in a parking lot outside the Rolling Pin Cafe, a popular breakfast spot in southeast Fayetteville.
Dorrell left in her personal car; Petrino got into King’s car to be taken to the hospital.
King, who retired in 2017, did not return several calls from The Athletic. In 2015, the state ethics commission found that King broke the law by accepting football tickets in 2010 and 2011. Police are not permitted to accept gifts valued at over $100. King filed the complaint himself and was issued a public letter of caution as punishment.
Petrino barely could speak in the car, according to King’s recounting in the police incident report. King intended to take him to Washington Regional Hospital, the largest hospital in the area, but Petrino redirected him to Physicians Specialty Hospital. King also said Petrino blamed a gust of wind for blowing them off the road, rather than the glare from the sun as Petrino told Long and Fagg. Petrino briefly mentioned the wind as a possible culprit in his news conference.
The day after leaving Petrino with King, Williams called King and told him he hoped Petrino and his “lady friend” were both OK, according to the police report. That afternoon, Petrino called King from the hospital to inquire about his upcoming interview with police about the accident.
“Coach Petrino asked if passenger information was required and I said that all we need to know is the passenger’s name and address,” King wrote. “I told him that we had been getting phone calls from people who had said there was a passenger on the rear of the motorcycle and if we didn’t get a name, the report would state unidentified white female. I didn’t ask him the name and he didn’t ask me to keep her name off the report.”
At 3 a.m. after the accident, Petrino texted Dorrell to ask if she was OK. Records showed she responded.
Back on campus, the HR investigation began in earnest as Long and Fagg sought the nature of Petrino and Dorrell’s relationship.
“It was uncomfortable,” Long said. “We had to ask people about their personal lives, but we knew we had to do it and get to the truth.”
As they interviewed people in the football office, they quickly realized the affair was a poorly kept secret, but no one had reported it to the administration. Petrino had made a habit of sending gifts from his office to hers, most notably Hot Tamale candies, according to interview notes from the investigation. Fellow employees thought it was odd the 25-year-old, who was earning $55,375 annually, could afford a brand-new Acura. The investigation revealed Dorrell had purchased the vehicle with a $20,000 Christmas gift from Petrino. Dorrell had stored it under her mattress until she purchased the vehicle.
Other employees raised eyebrows when Dorrell wore a knee brace to work in the days following the accident. She told coworkers conflicting stories about how it happened. She told one coworker she injured it falling down a staircase and another that she injured it playing pickup volleyball, Fagg said. Dorrell was a former Arkansas volleyball player.
It was also a breach of ethics that Petrino hired someone for a job in his program and failed to disclose the nature of his relationship with that person. The investigation found their relationship predated her moving from fundraising to the football program.
“The extramarital affair is not the reason he was terminated … it was not actionable,” Long said. “The dishonesty on multiple occasions and levels was something we could take action for.”
Eventually, Long and Fagg sat down with Dorrell, who confirmed the investigation’s findings. Dorrell told Long and Fagg that she never felt “forced” into the relationship or “harassed” by Petrino. Before Petrino’s interview with Long and Fagg, he sought to understand the gravity of the situation.
“He kept asking what was going to happen,” Fagg said. “‘I’m not going to get fired, am I?’ I’d say, ‘Bobby, I don’t know. This is bad.’”
Many outside the Razorbacks program assumed Petrino’s success on the field would insulate him from the most serious punishments and result in a suspension or a fine. Despite a campus rally organized by fans to support Petrino and influence the university to retain him, as more facts emerged, Long knew what he had to do.
“When Bobby lost my trust, I couldn’t support him moving forward,” Long said.
And Petrino’s multiple breaches of school policy and his contract made his dismissal financially possible. Long and Arkansas’ lawyers felt confident they could fire Petrino for cause and not pay his $18 million buyout. (They were ultimately correct.)
When Long and Fagg interviewed Josh Morgan, Dorrell’s fiance who was working as an assistant strength coach for Arkansas’ Olympic sports, he was “as shocked as most of us were,” Long said. “It was difficult for him. Very difficult.”
Morgan told Long and Fagg he didn’t learn Dorrell was involved in the accident until the afternoon of April 3, almost 48 hours after it occurred, when a state trooper visited Dorrell’s home to ask about the accident. Morgan said he believed the car had been purchased with money from a bonus for Dorrell’s new role.
By April 10, Long’s mind was made up. He informed chancellor Gearhart and made plans for a news conference to announce the decision that night. Gearhart passed the word along to members of the university’s board. But Arkansas still had to inform Petrino in writing that he was being terminated for cause.
“There was some argument (among university officials) about who got to take the letter, not who had to take the letter. Who got the privilege of delivering it,” Fagg said. “He was contrite, emotionless. He kind of knew what was coming.” (The identity of the person who delivered Petrino’s letter has remained secret.)
Long named special teams coach John L. Smith interim coach. Dorrell resigned after reaching a $13,933.75 settlement. That August, Morgan left to be a strength and conditioning coach for South Carolina’s swim and dive team.
During their interviews as part of the investigation, both Morgan and Dorrell expressed plans to move forward with their lives together. A decade later, that’s exactly what they’ve done. They’re married with three children; both work with high school athletes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Neither has spoken publicly about the incident.
Reached at their home this fall, Morgan declined to speak with The Athletic.
“We’ve had every opportunity for the past 10 years to discuss this with the media and haven’t for a reason,” Morgan said.
Arkansas won just four games under Smith in 2012 before hiring Bret Bielema away from Wisconsin before the 2013 season. A decade after Petrino took the program to its two best seasons in a generation, no Arkansas team has won double-digit games in a season since Petrino did it in consecutive years.
Petrino sat out the 2012 season but was hired at Western Kentucky before the 2013 season. He called Long before he took the job. They haven’t spoken since.
Petrino returned to Louisville in 2014 (he was the head coach there from 2003-2006) and eventually helped Lamar Jackson win the Heisman Trophy. Petrino went 34-18 in his first four seasons with the Cardinals before being fired in the midst of a 2-8 campaign in 2018. He moved on to Missouri State in 2020 and returned to Fayetteville for the first time this year, leading the Razorbacks by double digits in the fourth quarter before three late touchdowns gave Arkansas a 38-27 victory.
A Missouri State spokesman didn’t respond to a request to speak with Petrino about his exit from Arkansas.
Petrino rarely has spoken about his experience beyond a written apology in the days after his firing.
“The simplest response I have is: I’m sorry. These two words seem very inadequate. But that is my heart,” Petrino said. “All I have been able to think about is the number of people I’ve let down by making selfish decisions.”
Petrino noted that his apology was “not the place to debate Jeff’s view of what happened” but admitted he put his boss in the position of sorting through his mistakes. “I have no one to blame but myself,” he wrote.
Petrino returned to Arkansas in 2019 for a speaking engagement at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
“I was nervous coming here today. I woke up this morning and felt like it was game day,” Petrino said. He apologized for the way it ended and choked up as he recounted his treatment by Arkansas fans throughout his tenure. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.
David Ubben
The Athletic
Age: 36
College: University of Missouri
Background: Ubben won for an in-depth feature unearthing new details and insight into one of the wildest downfalls of a coach in college football history: Bobby Petrino's motorcycle accident, the coverup that ensued and the fallout that cost him his job and abruptly halted one of the most successful eras in Arkansas football history. Ubben joined The Athletic full-time in 2018 and has previously worked for ESPN.com, FOX Sports Southwest, Dave Campbell's Texas Football and The Oklahoman. The Springdale, Ark., native is a four-time FWAA honoree, most recently a second-place finish in Best Feature a year ago for a profile of Tennessee assistant coach Mike Ekeler. He was also the inaugural winner of the Edward Aschoff Rising Star Award in 2020. Ubben lives in Knoxville, Tenn. with his wife Becca and their daughter.