Report: Louisville coach Bobby Petrino causing friction with coaches, players

Louisville’s season hasn’t even started yet and he’s already drawing criticism — from inside his program.

According to Sports Illustrated, which cites sources with ties to the program, Petrino has had feuds with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and several players, who wanted to leave Petrino’s program before it even got started.

Sports Illustrated said there has been quite a bit of “friction” between Petrino and Grantham and that Petrino would have gotten rid of Grantham were it not for the guaranteed five-year contract that pays Grantham $1 million annually.

It’s important to note that Grantham was hand-picked by Petrino. Grantham had spent the previous four seasons as the defensive coordinator at Georgia and had some notable confrontations there. He got into some hot water with Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity in 2011 after Grantham got into a confrontation with Vanderbilt coach James Franklin.

In 2010, Grantham gave the choke signal to Florida’s kicker in overtime.

But Grantham isn’t the only one Petrino is rubbing the wrong way.

Sports Illustrated noted that several players thought of leaving the team and entering the NFL’s supplemental draft in June.

“He’s a mean guy,” Jamaine Brooks, a former Louisville defensive tackle who left this past spring told Sports Illustrated. “He cusses you out. You’re never doing enough. He’s still Bobby Mother------- Petrino.”

No other players from Petrino’s former teams have publicly — publicly —mentioned verbal abuse from Petrino or noted that he’s difficult with which to deal. However, there was a small mention of it in an 2012 column in the Arkansas News.

Brooks told Sports Illustrated he originally supported Petrino’s hiring, but changed his tune after practicing under him.

“The way he came in doing business I didn’t like it,” Brooks said. “The way he treated people. He just wasn’t a good coach.”

For more Louisville news, visit CardinalSports.com.

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