The future of Sam Pittman's head coaching tenure at Arkansas rides on the offensive success of play-caller Bobby Petrino, who's provided a pool of wisdom for Pittman since Petrino's hiring last November.
While speaking at SEC Media Days on Thursday at the Omni Hotel in Dallas, Pittman talked in detail about Petrino and his impact heading into a decisive 2024 season, which is Pittman's fifth leading the Razorbacks.
"If you're familiar with football, you're familiar with (Bobby Petrino)," Pittman said. "Did a wonderful job at the University of Arkansas and other places. Been a head coach in the National Football League as well. Bobby has been a great resource for me.
"Not only do I think he's a wonderful offensive coordinator, he also was a very successful head coach. So there are a lot of times where I'm able to run things by him and we decide collectively at times what is best for the University of Arkansas football team."
A former head coach for Louisville, the Atlanta Falcons, Arkansas, Western Kentucky and Missouri State, Petrino has seen both the pinnacles of success and the valleys of despair during his 40+ coaching career.
During his four seasons in Fayetteville (2008-11), Petrino amassed a 34-17 (17-15 SEC) overall record with appearances in the Liberty, Sugar and Cotton bowl games. Despite all the controversy that resulted in his firing from Arkansas, Petrino still led the Hogs to heights they haven't reached since in the SEC — including multiple high-scoring offenses.
"He likes to win, likes to win and score points," Pittman said. "So it's been great. Again, I mentioned it before. I had Barry (Odom) before that I could bump some head coaching questions off. But it's like a security blanket. I got Bobby there. I had Barry there.
"I'll ask them a question and I want their opinion and they know it. We'll agree on it or won't, but we're both grown men. If we do, we do. If we don't, we don't. We move on down the road. That's been very beneficial to me, and I really like him and I have a lot of respect for him. It's just -- he spends more time in my office than anybody, and I apologize to him. I don't know if he likes it or not. I do make him talk to me a lot."
Petrino's knowledge of how things go as the head coach at Arkansas also played a factor in Pittman viewing the hire as beneficial.
"I knew that he knew alumni," Pittman said. "I knew that could help us in NIL. I knew he knew our state with our coaches. I knew he that he knew Texas, knew California. There was so many benefits. I also knew he was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, the head coach at Louisville, Western Kentucky, Arkansas. All of that stuff meant a lot to me.
"Listen guys, I'm not worried about my job. I'm worried about winning games for Arkansas, and that's it. If I think getting Bobby Petrino is the best guy I can get to do that for our state and for our players and our staff, then that's damn sure what I was going to do. And it was very easy."
Petrino's work as an offensive mastermind eventually led to his hiring as an offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, where he led the Aggies to the 24th-best scoring offense in 2023 (33.3 PPG) under then-head coach Jimbo Fisher.
While in College Station, Petrino had to adapt to Fisher's offensive approach and even said he 'didn't sleep for a month' while studying his scheme. Don't expect that to be the case under Pittman, who has given Petrino, along with his other two coordinators, a long leash to work with.
"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 my ideas and I'm going to come in and have my tape up there and go, 'okay, I see this, I see this, I see this.'
"But I would think if you ask Bobby and Travis (Williams) and Scott (Fountain), they would say he gives me the freedom to run what I think is best, and I don't know about A&M. I don't know that. I just know we've given him the freedom to go score points."
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