Petrino has proven he can coach and develop players, as well as identify talent.
And likely leave us with an even bigger dumpster fire than Kiffin. Kiffin brought in a lot of hot players, he could definitely ID talent. Heck, Hunter and Bray are mostly his recruits.
But a telling fact is that of this year's seniors, there were only 10 on scholarship. Eight with 5-year seniors recruited by Fulmer, and only 2....TWO!...were left from Kiffin's first class. There were also three walk-ons.
That's not to say that there might not be some rising 5th year seniors from the first Kiffin class, but I am too lazy to look.
Just saying...character does matter to a program. Or did you see how Arkansas did this year?