Louisville Football: Top 5 candidates to replace Bobby Petrino

No one should be all that surprised by the Bobby Petrino news, but who could replace the head coach for Louisville football moving forward?

More: Bobby Petrino’s firing was long overdue

Louisville has fired head coach Bobby Petrino amid a disastrous 2018 season that saw the Cardinals completely crater following the departure of Heisman winning QB Lamar Jackson.

Petrino’s offense fell off a cliff without Jackson at the helm, and their defensive struggles compounded to make this a truly miserable season for the Cardinals. Louisville ranked 111th in total offense and 117th in total defense.

A rebuilding year was to be expected after losing a generational talent, but Petrino couldn’t even bring his team to feign competitiveness this season. They’re in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, and seven of their eight losses have been by 18 points or more.

Their wins were uninspiring, coming over FCS Indiana State and staging a come-from-behind victory over Western Kentucky.

The truth is that Petrino’s goodwill on campus had already begun drying up after not capitalizing enough on having a player of Jackson’s talent at QB. Louisville aspires for greater than 17-9 over a two-year span, particularly when the best college football player in the country is on their sideline.

His off-the-field issues were able to be ignored as long as he was successful, but he didn’t win enough in his second sting at Louisville to pull attention away from all of that.

Louisville AD Vince Tyra wants immediate results with his next head coach, as Petrino’s buyout will be around $13 million. Tyra wants the program to take a step toward national prominence, and will be looking to hit a homerun in this coaching carousel. The in-season firing of Petrino gives Louisville a jump-start on the competition.

Here’s five candidates to replace Bobby Petrino: