By Andrew Krumme

When Bobby Petrino jumped shipped a few months ago, I was not mad. Anybody with any sense knew he was destined to leave considering past off-seasons where he was constantly flirting with other jobs. While deep down I thought if he stuck around for another year and made a run at a national championship maybe he could be here for the next 20 to 30 years, but it was not to be.

Overall, as an avid fan and acute observer of the NFL, I thought the hire by the Falcons was a good one. Petrino is one of the brightest young offensive minds in football, has some pro football experience under his belt and fits the NFL mold as a stern, hard working man who will dedicate every waking minute to preparing his team for victory.

It is too often that I see an owner of a team push aside up-and-coming coaches like Petrino to hire some washed up veteran coach with a little track record of mediocrity.

Many other owners followed suit this off-season when looking for a new man to run their team including Miami, Arizona and Oakland (although Al Davis, who clearly has lost his marbles, may have gone a little over the top in hiring Lane Kiffin who is just 31 years old). There was one coaching move made this past week that I did not understand. The San Diego Chargers hired Norv Turner.

Turner, who spent last season working with Alex Smith and a once dead in the water 49ers team, has a terrific track record as an offensive coordinator. He was the offensive brains behind the Dallas Dynasty in the early 90s, has over 20 years of NFL coaching experience. So what’s my beef with Norv? He is 58-82-1 as an NFL head coach. That’s right. Mr. Turner coached the Washington Redskins from 1994-2000 going 49-59-1 and was 9-23 in two years as Oakland’s head coach. So why does this man get to inherit what many NFL experts call the hands-down most talented team in the league?

I’m not implying the Chargers are going to go 4-12 next year with Norv at the helm. The guy who has been carrying around a gas can begging for change over on Hill Street for the past fours years (and not thinking anyone there has caught onto his scheme) could come in and coach this team to eight wins.

But it is my understanding that every team’s goal when they enter the season is to win the Super Bowl. So what is Chargers GM AJ Smith thinking with this hire? Is Turner, a guy with a .411 winning percentage in almost eight years as head coach, going to do that? He had one of the most talented (and highly paid) teams in Washington in 2000 and was let go with three games left in the season.

I do not understand why NFL front offices hire proven losers. Why not throw big money at Bill Cowher or Pete Carroll?

Rumors have always circulated that he will only leave USC for the perfect situation, and what is not perfect about San Diego right now? Has everyone forgotten how good a coach Bob Stoops at Oklahoma is? I guess the lone bright spot for this situation is that Turner and the Chargers do not have someone named Adam ‘Pac Man’ Jones on the team.

Andrew Krumme is a senior majoring in finance. E-mail him at sports@louisvillecardinal.com.