Jimbo Fisher steals Bobby Petrino from UNLV in bombshell move

Bobby Petrino joined Texas A&M head football coach Jimbo Fisher at College Station after agreeing to the offensive coordinator job at UNLV.

Bobby Petrino is finalizing a deal with Texas A&M to be the team's next offensive coordinator under head football coach Jimbo Fisher just weeks after he returned to the FBS level as a coordinator for UNLV, ESPN senior writer Chris Low tweeted on Wednesday.

Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M football expressed interest in bringing Bobby Petrino in as the team's offensive coordinator after the let go of coordinator and tight ends coach Darrell Dickey. The Aggies finished second-to-last in the Southeastern Conference in scoring at 22.8 points per game, second-to-last in total points with 273 and third-to-last in total passing yards with just over 2,600 in Dickey's final season with the Aggies.

Bobby Petrino was the head coach of the Missouri State Bears for the last three seasons with the Missouri State Bears. He was hired to take over for now St. Louis Battlehawks linebackers coach Dave Steckel in 2019 after he went 1-10 in his final season with the Bears. Petrino went 18-15 with Missouri State in three seasons, making the Missouri Valley Conference Championship in 2020.

Bobby Petrino's long list of left-behind teams begins far beyond his three-week commitment to the UNLV football program. Petrino started his head coaching career at Louisville in 2003 after working his way through a number of universities and the Jacksonville Jaguars as an offensive coordinator. He stuck around for three seasons before taking a head coaching job with the Atlanta Falcons just ten months after signing a 10-year, $25.6 million contract with the Cardinals that would earn him up to $1.3 million per year plus bonuses.

Petrino would resign from the Falcons after a single season before heading to the Arkansas Razorbacks on a five-year deal.

“Today was a day of decision,” Bobby Petrino said at a 2007 press conference. “It was difficult on one side, very easy on the other. It was difficult to leave Atlanta, the staff, players, fans. The timing of it probably is the thing that made it most difficult. Coming to Arkansas was the easy part.”