Arkansas Razorback football coach Bobby Petrino smiles at his weekly radio show at the Catfish Hole in Fayetteville. | Photo credit: Chance Kolman.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – On Sept. 28, Bobby Petrino was named the interim head coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks Football team after the firing of Sam Pittman. Petrino is no stranger to Arkansas. Petrino was the head coach at Arkansas from 2008-11, and he led Arkansas to an 34-17 record during his first tenure at Arkansas. He led Arkansas to become one of the most explosive offenses in the country. He took Arkansas to the Sugar Bowl and the Cotton Bowl in back-to-back seasons, earning a Top 15 national rank along the way.
PETRINO MAKES HIS RETURN TO ARKANSAS
In November 2023, Pittman made the shocking hire of bringing back Petrino as offensive coordinator. This sent shockwaves throughout the land of college football and through the state of Arkansas. Pittman said in his press conference that he brought Petrino back because he “believes in him” and he’s a “man of Arkansas that loves the state”.
In the 2023 season, Petrino brought back the spark that the Arkansas offense needed. The offense was in the top 10 in every offensive statistical category in the SEC and nationally. So far Petrino has made the Arkansas offense one of the best offenses in the country and in the SEC.
PETRINO’S ROUGH PAST
In 2012, Bobby Petrino was involved in a motorcycle accident just outside of Madison County on Highway 16 near the Crosses community on a two lane road. Local television station 5NEWS reported that Petrino suffered “four broken ribs” and “cracked or broken vertebra”. Petrino was taken to the hospital for his injuries. Following the accident, Petrino showed up to a media press conference in a neck brace and a scarred face with red marks and several bruises. Petrino said he was alone on the motorcycle and there was nobody with him. But news leaked that he was having an affair with his assistant, and she was on the motorcycle with him at the time of the crash. Eventually, Petrino was fired by Jeff Long, the athletic director at the time.
Because of this, the thought of Petrino being the interim head coach for the Arkansas football team in 2025 would surprise even the most ardent Razorbacks fans. But that’s exactly where the program finds itself.
DOES PETRINO DESERVE ANOTHER SHOT?
With the Razorbacks playing competitive football, Petrino is a candidate to be the next head football coach at Arkansas and has expressed his interest in retaining the job. Now the real question: Do Arkansas fans want him to be the head coach again? Some Arkansas fans think he deserves another shot, but some fans think it’s time to move on.
Weston Penny, a senior at the University of Arkansas, said “Bobby Petrino would be an amazing head coach… 5-10 years ago. Although we have seen more fight from our football team in the last few games than we’ve seen over the last few years, there’s still one side of coaching that we haven’t seen from Bobby, and that is his recruiting. He hasn’t been a head coach of a major football program since the start of the NIL era, and we’ve seen many notable coaches that were phenomenal coaches five years ago fail to recruit good talent … I believe Arkansas has the resources to attract a top tier head coach and we should not risk the future of our program with Petrino”
Peyton Sanders, a diehard Razorback fan, said “I believe that Arkansas shouldn’t hire the current interim head coach Bobby Petrino because of how much the landscape of college football has changed since his last tenure at the University of Arkansas. College football has drastically changed over the past several years with the introduction of NIL and Arkansas has struggled to grasp the way college football is now. Although Bobby Petrino has completely transformed the Arkansas offense, it’s not enough for him to be given the head coach position. In my personal opinion I believe Arkansas needs to hire a proven coach and one who embodies and embraces NIL head on such as former Penn State Head Coach James Franklin.”
Matthew Welborn, a junior, said “I think Bobby Petrino doesn’t deserve to be the head coach next year. I would have liked to see some wins out of all these close games, and since we haven’t won with him yet I don’t see how you can give him the job. I think it’s in Arkansas’ best interest to seek a younger head coach who knows the NIL and transfer portal era of college football well.”
Only time will tell what the Arkansas Football program decides to do after the season is over. Who will be the head coach at the University of Arkansas?