Bobby Petrino's last stint in Fayetteville ended in disaster. But 13 years later, Petrino is back in the saddle, so to speak, at the helm of the Arkansas football program.
In 2012, Petrino, who had just led the Razorbacks to back-to-back double-digit-win seasons, a feat only achieved by Frank Broyles and Ken Hatfield, was fired by the university after a motorcycle crash revealed the head coach was having an affair with a woman he had just hired as a staffer in the football program. Subsequent reports, statements, and admissions made it clear that Petrino had given the woman thousands of dollars in gifts, circumvented hiring policy to give her a job in the program, and did not disclose the relationship to then-Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, who dismissed Petrino nine days after the crash.
Now, following the firing of Sam Pittman, Petrino, Arkansas's second-year offensive coordinator, is the Razorbacks' interim head coach, and he's committed to making the most of his second chance.
“I felt like I had a lot of unfinished business here, and I still feel that way,” Petrino said [h/t On3's Chris Low. “I left a lot of friends here and a lot of people I love the first time, and I let them all down. This is a chance to help improve a football program we all love.”
After less than year off after his scandalous firing at Arkansas, Petrino was hired as Western Kentucky's head coach, and in his first and only year, he led the Hilltoppers to an 8-4 record. He was subsequently hired by Louisville, his first head coaching stop, and led them to alternating eight and nine-win seasons before a 2-8 start in 2018 led to his firing. He then bounced around to FCS Missouri State, which he led to its first FCS playoff appearance in 30 years, to UNLV for three weeks, and then to Texas A&M, where he became Jimbo Fisher's final offensive coordinator.
After Fisher was fired mid-season, Petrino was not retained, opening the proverbial door for one of the most unlikely returns in college football.
Then-Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman, feeling the heat after a 4-8 season and 1-7 record in the SEC, surprisingly decided to bring Petrino back to Fayetteville as his new offensive coordinator. The move paid off in 2024, as the offense improved, and so did the team's record. However, after a 56-13 shellacking at the hands of Notre Dame in the fourth-worst loss in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium history, Arkansas fired Pittman on Sept. 28 and named Petrino, whose offense is averaging more than 500 yards per game this season, the new interim head coach.
Whether Petrino will be able to shed the interim label remains to be seen, but a win this weekend vs. Tennessee would go a long way regardless. The Razorbacks have won four straight and five of their last six games against the Volunteers, including in 2011, when Petrino's last Arkansas team pummeled Tennessee 49-7.
