In an interview with Hogs Plus on Tuesday, Hunter Yurachek emphatically denied that former Razorbacks head coach Bobby Petrino was hired to eventually replace current embattled head coach Sam Pittman.
“He’s not here to take Sam’s job,” Yurachek told Matt Zimmerman. “He’s here to help change the dynamics of our offense. And who better to do that than one of the brightest offensive minds in college football.”
Petrino helped lift the Razorbacks to as high as No. 3 in the country during his four-year stint as the head Hog, from 2008-11, amassing a record of 34-17. Arkansas finished second in the SEC West in 2010, before losing to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.
In 2011, Arkansas finished 11-2 by beating Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl, before ending the season No. 5 in the AP Top 25. The Razorbacks were then ranked No. 10 in the 2012 preseason poll, until a well-documented motorcycle crash began to reveal some deceit, which ultimately ignited the program’s implosion.
Now, 12 years later, the program is still feeling the effects of Petrino’s dismissal. But maybe Petrino, himself, is the answer to help turn things back around.
“I think he has paid his dues,” Yurachek said. “When he reached out through back channels, what he said was he wanted to come here and right his wrongs, and really help Coach Pittman get this program back to where he believed it could be, and back to where it was when he was the head coach.
After leaving Arkansas, Petrino took the reins at Western Kentucky for the 2013 season, before making a return to his old stomping grounds of Louisville, where he remained for five years and coached Heisman Trophy winner and current NFL star Lamar Jackson.
He then spent three seasons at Missouri State and gave the Razorbacks all they could handle when he brought his Bears to Fayetteville for a game in 2022. Arkansas needed a 21-point fourth quarter to eventually win the game, 38-27.
After spending this past season as the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, prior to being let go by the departure of head coach Jimbo Fisher, Petrino was looking for a job and Arkansas was looking for a proven offensive coordinator.
Petrino is now tasked with helping Pittman turn around a program reeling from a 4-8 season, during which they fired former offensive coordinator Dan Enos.
“One of the things I said, in one of my criteria that I wanted, was a man that loved the University of Arkansas,” Pittman said. “It would be hard to find someone that felt stronger toward Arkansas than Coach Petrino. Once I knew his interest back in us, it was really a no-brainer at that point in time. It was just about making the contract and timeline and all that, making those things work.”