Louisville Cardinal CB Shaq Wiggins wants to graduate transfer (meaning he can play immediately without having to sit out a year). However, head coach Bobby Petrino has crossed 5 potential landing spots off Wiggins’ list for him.
Wiggins told ESPN that coach Bobby Petrino initially ruled that Louisville would not allow him to transfer to Kentucky, Mississippi State, Purdue, Notre Dame and Western Kentucky.
Petrino does not want Wiggins to transfer to Purdue or Kentucky, due to both teams being on Louisville’s schedule this year. Mississippi State presumably makes the list because former Cardinal coach Todd Grantham now serves as the Bulldogs’ Defensive Coordinator. We’re not sure why Western Kentucky and Notre Dame were nixed. Our best guess is that Petrino didn’t know what a Hilltopper was and he also didn’t like the movie Rudy.
While this happens every year, it begs the question: why are coaches allowed to do this? At the bare minimum it should be an Athletic Director or School President involved, if they should even be involved at all. Whatever the reasons each individual coach has from blocking a player going to a certain school, they shouldn’t be the dictator over where a player can go, as they try and further their playing career. There should be more parties involved, allowing there to be distance between the player and coach, preventing any type of vengeful situations.
