Bobby Petrino wasn’t in the room in Dallas, but the offensive coordinator’s return to the Arkansas Razorbacks was a popular topic of conversation at SEC Media Days on Thursday.
Head coach Sam Pittman told ESPN his decision to hire the controversial Petrino was all about the Razorbacks’ desire to win, going on to claim at the podium that he is not worried about meshing with the man who once held his position.
Petrino was at the helm of the Razorbacks from 2008-11 and led them to a Cotton Bowl win in the 2011 season. But he was fired in April 2012 after a motorcycle accident led to the revelation that he was conducting an extramarital affair with an athletic department employee.
Petrino’s figure now looms behind Pittman, whose seat is getting hot after a 4-8 season in 2023.
“I want to win. I don’t care about all the rest of it,” Pittman told ESPN. “This has never ever, ever been about me. I’m grateful to be the head coach at Arkansas, and I’m trying to make the people of the state of Arkansas, the team and the staff proud to be a part of the program.”
Pittman told reporters that Petrino has been “a great resource for me” with his head coaching background and he is not expecting to butt heads with the Arkansas icon.
“I would want to work for me,” Pittman said. “I would want to work with me if I was an offensive coordinator because I’m going to let you go get them. Now, I’ve got (many) ideas and I’m going to come in and have my tape up there and go, ‘OK, I see this, I see this, I see this.’ But I would think if you ask Bobby and (defensive coordinator Travis Williams) and (special teams coordinator Scott Fountain), they say, ‘He gives me the freedom to run what I think is best.'”
Petrino, 63, spent 2023 as the offensive coordinator for Texas A&M. Jimbo Fisher faced nearly identical questions about Petrino’s persona at last year’s SEC Media Day session and said it wouldn’t make things “volatile” on the coaching staff.
Fisher was fired 10 games into the season with a 6-4 record, and Petrino wasn’t retained by new coach Mike Elko.
“I don’t know about A&M. I don’t know that,” Pittman said. “I just know we’ve given him the freedom to go score points.”
Hired in November to replace the fired Dan Enos, Petrino has already had a big imprint on the Razorbacks’ offensive personnel. Pittman said Petrino “hand-picked” Arkansas’ new quarterback, Taylen Green, a transfer from Boise State.
“I had a relationship previously with Coach Petrino,” Green said. “He was my first offer coming out of high school. Hit the transfer portal, and he called me every morning. Sometimes I wasn’t up, and he would text me. But I took that as that meant a lot to me. He made me a priority. That meant a lot.
“Just the vision that he had and Coach Pitt had, I’m truly grateful for the belief and the vision that they have. I feel like just the opportunity with the weapons that we have offensively and a great defense, I feel like the sky is the limit for us.”
Green emphasized how excited he was to play for Petrino.
“He doesn’t even have to say anything,” Green said. “You just have to look at his resume and turn on the film of the different quarterbacks he had throughout his coaching career and just the development that he has and just the six, seven months that I’ve been … coached by him, it’s crazy just how much knowledge and how much understanding that I got just from talking to him and just taking everything in.”
