After a dismal offensive showing during the 2023 season, Arkansas made a splash hire by bringing back former head coach Bobby Petrino to man the Razorbacks' offense.
Petrino took the podium on Thursday and fielded questions from the media, primarily about his offense. He said he’s excited to be back, and he wants to win.
“I want to win,” Petrino said. “I came back here to support coach Pittman in winning. I appreciate him a lot when he did send that message that, ‘This is coach Pittman I’d like to talk to you,’ the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I was like ‘that’s gonna happen? Really?’”
Prior to arriving at Arkansas, Petrino was most recently the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. He said that while he was the one running the offense there, it was a struggle because of former Aggies' head coach Jimbo Fisher.
“When I took the job at (Texas A&M), Jimbo wanted to keep the same terminology and call things the same way they did,” Petrino said. “It was hard. It was hard on me. I was staying up all night. I can remember the first scrimmage, I was up at 2 a.m. in the morning to get ready to call plays for the first scrimmage. Understanding what the terminology was.”
That won’t be an issue this time around, as Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said Petrino will have full command of the offense.
“He’s the offensive coordinator,” Pittman said. “Just like (Kendal Briles) was, just like Dan Enos was. He’s got a job to do and I don’t know how I can allow him to do a job if it ain’t his offense.
“I’m always going to have input on what my feelings are of things, but he’s the offensive coordinator and that’s what he was hired to do.”
When it comes to how Petrino will run the offense, he said it’s less about the X and Os, and more about the Jimmy and Joes.
“So what I love to do is utilize players, and then be good at the situations of the game and the players really understand what we’re going to see in 3rd-and-short and what we’re going to see in 4th-and-short,” Petrino said. “What we’re going to see in the red zone or what blitzes they run from the 15-yard line. Get everybody on the same page and then practice the heck out of it.”
