That it’s cheaper for Louisville to fire Brian VanGorder along with Bobby Petrino, rather than as a separate mid-season move, is only my second favorite part of this piece. My favorite?
Specifically, Smith finds fault with the play of the front seven — the defensive line and linebackers — two units coached by Petrino’s sons-in-law, L.D. Scott and Ryan Beard. [Emphasis added.]
Nepotism, for the win.
After giving up 77 points to Clemson (the third time in four weeks that opponents had scored at least 56 points on the Cardinals) and allowing the Tigers to average better than 13 yards per rushing play, Louisville’s defense is 124th in points allowed and 115th in total defense.
VanGorder’s salary this season is just a tick under $1 million.
That’s so bad, I can’t even figure out what’s a feature and what’s a bug.
Get The Picture 
Louisville makes Tennessee look like a simple camp fire. The whole landfill is on fire up there.
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I did notice a peculiar glow to the northwest this morning, but to truly qualify that statement you should check out Volnation.
This post also begs the question: Is it possible that Louisville’s defense is worse than Ole Miss? Is that possible?
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It’s almost kind of a shame we can’t see Louisville and Ole Miss face off in a bowl game. That game would have an o/u in triple digits.
Same with UConn. I project that game would be a 79–62 Louisville victory, though Randy Edsall would still rack up $10K in bonuses for his trouble.
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“As an aside: It should worry Alabama fans that, based on Tennessee’s offensive stats in the respective games, Charlotte has a better defense than they do.”
This is from a post over on Volnation. I could not resist sharing it with the class.
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It appears that Coach Richt is also catching it for making his son the QB coach at Miami. Is Stacy Searles also related to Richt? That is the only reason he could have possibly had for hiring him.
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That was the most puzzling hire Richt made. What about his time in Athens did Richt want to relive?
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Yep. Speaking of nepotism, how about Jon Richt (son of Mark Richt) as Miami’s quarterbacks coach?
Jon was 25 and inexperienced when he was hired by his daddy. Miami’s quarterback play, coaching, and management this season has been dreadful (see, e.g., https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/11/6/18067736/mark-richt-miami-hurricanes-offense-quarterbacks).
Miami fans would be right to be pissed. Nepotism for the win.
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I’m sure there are others out there as well, but damn, Van Gorder just completely tanked as a DC…….
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Frankly, the Athletic Department and Prez at Louisville are at fault for not having an absolute rule banning nepotism. But now Van Gorder can easily say he would have been fine except for having to babysit Petrino’s sons in laws. “I was handcuffed Pawwwwllll!” Should be good enough for another million dollar a year gig somewhere.
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So you’re telling me the same Petrino that was fired for giving a $100K job to his unqualified bimbo girlfriend was allowed to hire his sons-in-law for several $100K’s?
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That was my 1st thought as well.
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Petrino has to hire kinfolks. Who else can stand him? Wasn’t his brother once in his staff also? BVG has been making a living on his reputation for a long time. He’s clearly never made an adjustment to spread, hurry up, wide open offenses. How invested is he in recruiting after all these years?
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That’s what surprises me about BVG. When Richt hired him he made reference to how well BVG’s defense was schemed to slow down one of Richt’s FSU offenses. At that time, those FSU offenses were the closest thing to wide open spreads there were. So, at least in Richt’s eyes, he was a little ahead of his time. It’s puzzling.
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