It felt like just yesterday that Texas A&M made media waves after hiring controversial yet productive coach Bobby Petrino as the program’s new offensive coordinator, as then-head coach Jimbo Fisher was essentially forced to give up play-calling duties to save his Aggie Career.
With Jimbo Fisher out the door, new Aggies head coach Mike Elko has already made several staff changes, including the dismissal of Bobby Petrino after just one season. However, blaming Petrino for any issues that plagued the Aggies offense this season is unfair, as Fisher’s need to maintain complete control over the playbook hindered any significant progress.
After leaving the program, Petrino received an offer from Arkansas and head coach Sam Pittman to return to Fayetteville after over a decade. Yes, this transition is ironic, but it might be a perfect fit, as Pittman will surely hand over the offense to Petrino.
On Wednesday, in his first interview with Hogs Plus, Petrino finally revealed what many of us already suspected regarding Jimbo Fisher’s need to maintain offensive control in 2023:
“Jimbo wanted to keep his terminology, and I did not sleep for months. It was hard. It was studying every night, trying to figure this out — why are we calling it this way?”
What’s becoming clearer day after day is that if Fisher were to hire an above-average offensive line coach and a special teams coordinator, coupled with turning the offense over to Petrino in its entirety, he might have just saved his Aggie coaching career.
What’s the difference between how he led the offense at Texas A&M vs. Arkansas?
Listen to Bobby Petrino’s first interview since coming back to Fayetteville on today’s episode of The Razorback Daily!
🎧 Listen on Apple, Spotify, and more
🎥 Watch on @HogsPlus pic.twitter.com/Wccg6KXZ9A— Hogs Plus (@HogsPlus) November 30, 2023
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