While Mitch may well deserve criticism for not hiring Petrino, many UK fans who berate him over and over and over are losing sight of a very important fact. Mitch is hardly the only AD who failed to hire Petrino.
Bobby Petrino was hired at WKU for the 2013 season. For that season, UK hired Stoops. A total of 30 FBS, excluding Western, hired new head coaches. 14 of those schools were Power 5 schools, and they included: Auburn, Wisconsin, California, NC State, Tennessee, Colorado, Texas Tech, Arkansas, and Oregon. Arkansas wasn't going to hire Petrino, obviously. How about the other schools? Why didn't they hire Petrino? Not a single one of these schools (all of which are probably more attractive positions than UK) hired Petrino. If Petrino was willing to go to WKU, and was willing to go to UK, is there any doubt that he would have been interested in Oregon or Auburn or Tennessee? Well, they weren't interested in him. So, how is Mitch uniquely stupid for passing on him?
Next year- he goes to Louisville. Jobs opened up at Penn St., Texas, Washington, USC, all programs considerably more prestigious and attractive than Louisville. Why didn't one of these schools pursue Petrino?
I can understand how the guy is ripped for not getting Coach Cal the first time around. The fact is, that very few schools would have passed him up, and he wanted to come here, and we passed. It's not the same situation with Petrino. No credible program in America in '13 or '14 would have touched him. If they would have, he wouldn't have considered coming to UK in the first place.