When Arkansas fans look at the opposing sideline inside AT&T Stadium on Saturday, they will see an infamous and familiar face calling plays for Texas A&M.
Head coach Jimbo Fisher made the decision to hire Bobby Petrino as his offensive coordinator over the offseason following years of outcry from fans and boosters for Fisher to modernize his archaic pro-style offense and hire an experienced play caller.
Petrino’s impact in College Station has been felt immediately. After failing to score 40 points in a game against an FBS opponent all of last year, his offense put up 52 points in the season opener. A road loss to Miami in which the defense gave up 48 points can hardly be blamed on Petrino.
Quarterback Connor Weigman has looked the part of his five star potential, and the Aggies are averaging just under 40 points per game. While Weigman is out with a lower leg injury and former LSU Tiger Max Johnson will run the offense, the Aggies are still an extremely tough team to stop. This success comes as no surprise to Arkansas fans.
"Coach Petrino is one of the best offensive minds in the game and we respect him a lot," Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said Monday. "They’re doing a really nice job on offense. I think the quarterback threw five touchdowns in the first game, Wiegman, against New Mexico. So they’re throwing it well and they’re running it well. They have the same staple of physicality that they’ve been using in the past."
As head coach of the Hogs from 2008-11, Petrino led them to back-to-back 10-win regular seasons, a Sugar Bowl berth and a Cotton Bowl victory. These are heights that the program has yet to reach in the tumultuous 11 seasons since his firing. Petrino’s offenses broke a number of school records, and two of his quarterbacks at Arkansas — Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson — are regarded as two of the best in Razorback history.
What followed was one of the most infamous scandals in college football over the past few decades. Petrino wrecked his motorcycle, and the subsequent fallout revealed an extramarital affair with a member of the football staff — which led to Petrino being fired for cause. The following decade has been a chaotic one for all parties involved.
For Arkansas, John L. Smith’s interim leadership brought a 4-8 record in 2012. The Bret Bielema era peaked with an 8-win season and flamed out in 2017. Chad Morris turned Arkansas into a national laughingstock with consecutive 2-10 seasons.
Despite recent criticism, Sam Pittman deserves a lot of credit for restoring the Hogs to a respectable level. Nine wins and an Outback Bowl trophy in 2021 was a huge step forward. But the Razorbacks have still yet to reach the heights Petrino brought them to.
For Petrino, the last decade has been a rollercoaster ride including a stop at Western Kentucky, a return to Louisville and a three-year stint at Missouri State. While he hasn’t achieved the success he did in Fayetteville, his innovative offensive mind remains.
That genius showed in his return to Fayetteville last year as head coach of Missouri State, which nearly pulled off the upset over the Razorbacks. Despite the massive talent gap, the Bears put up over 400 yards of total offense. They raced out to a 17-0 lead to start the game, and held a 10-point advantage in the 4th quarter.
Arkansas fans at Reynolds Razorback Stadium were left stunned as Petrino’s gameplan picked apart an SEC defense with ease. But part of them had to have seen it coming — there was a collective bad feeling going into the game from a fanbase all-too-familiar with Petrino’s ability.
It was a villain-esque performance from the former Head Hog, and the now-62-year-old coach looked just like his old self: red-faced and hot-tempered as he paced up and down the sideline. The Razorbacks came back to win 38-27, but Sam Pittman had only good things to say about Petrino and his Bears afterwards.
“Missouri State outplayed us,” Pittman said in his postgame press conference. “He [Petrino] prepared his kids better than I did.”
Pittman said he and his staff have gone back and watched the tape from that Missouri State game to prepare for Petrino's offense with the Aggies.
"Missouri State's quarterback was mobile as well as what Max (Johnson) is," Pittman said. "So, we'll see, but yeah we have looked over that to see what some of his tendencies might have been and how they relate to the team he his coaching this year."
This year, Petrino will get to face the Razorbacks again — this time with blue chip talent at his disposal. Five straight top-10 recruiting classes, spearheaded by a historic No. 1 class in 2022, have the Aggies loaded at every position. The problem has never been talent in the Jimbo Fisher era, it’s been the underwhelming X’s and O’s — a problem Petrino was hired to fix.
Arkansas can expect Petrino to throw his very best at the Razorback defense. As much as he’ll try to ignore the question, this game is personal to him. Whether fans love him or hate him for his controversial legacy in Fayetteville, they have no choice but to respect his ability.
If Petrino leads an Aggie offense to victory in Arlington this weekend, it will be salt in the wound for a Razorback fanbase divided on how to remember one of the best coaches in their school’s history.
