Sure, Petrino's an imaginative offensive mind. That's great. But supposedly Knapp was too.
The important thing about the next Falcons coach will be discipline -- can he make multi-millionaire 27 year-olds bust it every day?
On that note, here are some comments by one of his Louisville players (from College Sports TV.com) :
Senior RB Kolby Smith
(On Coach Petrino's philosophy) "He wants to establish discipline. It's
going to take hard work to be apart of this team and that you don't
have to be a senior, anybody can come in and play. (He is also about)
perception - how you are perceived is how you are going to be looked
at. It's not hard to work with because he lets you know up front what
he expects from you."
(On how Coach Petrino establishes discipline) "If you break the
rules, he has discipline ways for you. Either you're up six in the
morning running stairs or in the weight room. I don't really know
because I haven't broken the rules. I try to stay out of that path. If
you're late to weight lifting you have to push a 45-lb plate around, as
many times as you want. Some guys have pushed 3-4 times around the
weight room. I've seen guys, while we're warming up, pushing the plate
around. It's not fun - it burns our legs."
"I don't anyone who has missed curfew."
(On the work ethic of the coaching staff) "The coaching staff
is up all times of night. They get up early in the morning trying to
find the best ways to beat the defense. They create scenarios and go
off their tendencies. They are breaking down the team all day trying to
find the best match ups."
(On playing hard for the coaching staff) "All they want us to
do is go out there and play the best that we can. You have coaches
staying up all night trying to put us in the best position to win so
you have to go out and work hard for them."
I'm optimistic.