New Arkansas offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino is known for his playcalling prowess, but his expertise didn't help him during his previous stop at SEC West foe Texas A&M.
Serving under now-former head coach Jimbo Fisher, Petrino had to completely reform the way he thought about scheming against opposing defenses.
"You know when I took the job at A&M, Jimbo wanted to keep the same terminology and call things the same way they did," Petrino said Thursday in his introductory press conference with Arkansas. "It was hard. It was hard on me. I was staying up all night. I can remember staying up all night just getting ready for the first scrimmage. I woke up at 2 a.m. in the morning to get ready to call plays for the first scrimmage just understanding what the terminology was, what the formation was."
Prior to Fisher being fired on Nov. 12, Texas A&M's offense ranked 52nd in the country in yards per game (400.7), 85th in rushing offense (142.6), 43rd in passing offense (258.1) and 23rd in scoring offense (34.2).
Heavily rumored to meddle in his team's offensive game planning, it doesn't come as a surprise that Fisher made Petrino adapt to his system rather than allowing him to run his own offense.
"And it was different," Petrino said. "It was not only calling the plays different but the formations. The way they called formations was probably different than anybody else that I’ve ever been around. Normally you call the strength where your tight end’s going to align. There it’s where your slot receiver is going to align. Just getting the connection to be able to do that was very difficult, but I worked hard at it."
In the final two games of the year without Fisher at the helm, the Aggies' offense scored 38 points against Abilene Christian and 30 points against No. 14 LSU. Between both matchups, Texas A&M averaged 419 total yards, 135.5 rushing yards and 283.5 passing yards.
"I thought we had a pretty good year," Petrino said. "We went through a couple quarterbacks, which was hard. But I really enjoyed it. I think that’s the one thing that, when that happened, when Jimbo lost his job, I thought I wanted to still coach.
"Just because how much I enjoyed being in the classroom with the quarterbacks, spending time with the offense, just coaching football, teaching. It was fun being back in the meeting room and teaching. I started getting in this profession as a teacher, so it was really fun to get back and do that."
Fortunately for Petrino and the Arkansas fanbase, head coach Sam Pittman made sure to emphasize on Thursday that the Razorback offense was going to be Petrino's.
"Well, he’s the offensive coordinator just like (Kendal Briles) was, just like Dan (Enos) was," Pittman said. "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. We hired him because he’s a brilliant offensive mind. It’s his offense. That’s just what it is. Just like it was Kendal Briles’, just like it was Dan’s. 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."
Up next, Petrino and the rest of the Arkansas football coaching staff will have plenty of recruiting to do through the month of December. Prioritzing the NCAA transfer portal — which is open from Monday (Dec. 4) until Jan. 2 of 2024 — and locking down the 2024 recruiting class is crucial to building towards next season.
To keep track with what is set to be a wild offseason, be sure to follow along on HawgBeat's premium message board, The Trough.
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