Kolby Smith and Ronnie Fouch both know where the bread is buttered, so to speak.
Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman hired Bobby Petrino as the team’s offensive coordinator in the fall and, in turn, Petrino brought along some of his disciples when jobs presented themselves as available on the Arkansas staff. Last year’s wide receivers coach, Kenny Guiton, left for Wisconsin and Fouch hopped onboard in late winter. Smith took over Jimmy Smith, who left in March for the same job at Texas Christian.
Fouch coached with Petrino when the two were at Missouri State and Louisville. Smith played for Petrino when he was running the Louisville program. Petrino greased the wheels for both of them to join him at Arkansas.
“I received a text from coach (Petrino) saying ‘Hey, there may be an opening,'” Kolby Smith said. “And then he said ‘I can get you on the phone with Catch Pittman, and you’ve just got to sell yourself from there.'”
Fouch’s story is much the same. Petrino floated his named to Pittman and both Fouch and Kolby Smith impressed the Arkansas head man enough to get the gig almost independent of Petrino’s recommendation.
Their work is cut out for them, certainly. All three of the new faces. Arkansas is coming off a 4-8 season in which the Razorbacks ranked 107th out of 133 FBS teams in total offense.