Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Thanks to his time at Louisville, Bobby Petrino developed such a hatred for the Cardinals’ in-state rival, the Kentucky Wildcats, that reportedly he wouldn’t let his assistant coaches use blue magic markers around the offices. His obsession presumably was only for the Kentucky shade of blue; maybe Carolina blue or navy blue wasn’t so bad.

So, when sports columnists and other guessers now suggest that the fired Razorback head coach might be a candidate for the Kentucky coaching job, should UK grad Joker Phillips wear out his welcome in Lexington, it doesn’t seem logical — unless Petrino can put aside all he despised about Kentucky for the past decade.

If Petrino did resurface in Lexington, he’d easily recognize three members of the Wildcats coaching staff, however: offensive line coach Mike Summers, assistant head coach Greg Nord and defensive backs coach Mike Cassidy.

All three spent time with Petrino at Louisville. Summers accompanied Petrino to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and on to Arkansas for two seasons as the Hogs’ offensive line coach. Summers, who started his coaching career at Kentucky and is married to the daughter of legendary Wildcat basketball coach Joe B. Hall, was summoned home by Phillips after the 2009 season to direct the 'Cats line.

Cassidy, who coordinated the Illinois defense in 2001 when the Fighting Illini won the Big Ten, joined Petrino’s UL staff in 2004 and stuck around in 2007 when Steve Kragthorpe replaced Petrino as the Cards coach. Cassidy left after one season, spent a year out of coaching, and just this year returned to his alma mater to coach the defensive backs. Cassidy was a two-year starter at safety for Kentucky in 1973-74.

Compared to the others, Nord was almost a lifer at Louisville — already on the staff for three years when John L. Smith took over the Cardinals in 1998. He stayed on as running backs and tight ends coach for Petrino, and hung around for the Kragthorpe years at UL before joining Joker Phillips’ Wildcat staff in 2010.

Petrino, who was John L. Smith’s offensive coordinator at Louisville from 1998-2001, then the head coach starting in 2003 after a brief stopover at Auburn for Tommy Tuberville, is notoriously hard on his assistant coaches. The opposite seems to be true for Smith, now the Razorbacks’ head coach.

Smith even said earlier this week that he joins Nord and some of the other UK coaches in once-a-year camping trips.

“Coaching is such a tight fraternity,” Phillips said this week, adding that he had no problems with his staffers fraternizing with the “enemy” during the off-season.

In fact, both staffs can cite numerous connections besides the three coaches linked directly to Smith and Petrino.

Also, Arkansas has a connection too in that Natural State native Rick Minter, a three-year starter at Henderson State and a graduate assistant at Arkansas for Lou Holtz in 1978, is the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator.

Phillips said he’s crossed paths for years with Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Haynes and with UA linebackers coach Taver Johnson. Haynes backed that up this week by saying they often had the same recruiting areas for their respective schools, for instance, the Atlanta and Cincinnati areas when Haynes and Johnson were at Ohio State. Phillips was a UK assistant for Rich Brooks starting in 2003 and then took over as head coach in 2010.