Bobby Petrino on his goals at Arkansas: 'I want to win'

Bobby Petrino hopes to bring the winning ways back with him to Arkansas. The former Razorbacks head coach returns to Fayetteville as offensive coordinator more than a decade after his firing with that goal in mind.

Arkansas finished this season with a 4-8 record, including 1-7 in SEC play. That is the worst conference record since coach Sam Pittman took over in the 2020 season, and it became clear a change was needed.

After firing offensive coordinator Dan Enos, Pittman opted to bring Petrino back despite his controversial past at the university. Speaking at his introductory press conference last week, Petrino explained that he is all in on helping the program get back to where it wants to be, though he was a bit surprised at the opportunity.

“I want to win,” he said. “I came back here to support coach Pittman in winning. I do appreciate him a lot when you sent that message that ‘this is coach Pittman and I’d like to talk to you.’ The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I was like, ‘that’s gonna happen? Really?’ Then we talked for a short amount of time and he said that he had an interest. We set a time to talk where we both had time later on. That was exciting. I felt maybe this is really gonna happen. Could it possibly happen?”

Petrino led Arkansas to a 34-17 record in four seasons as the head coach from 2008-11. That included a combined 21-5 over his final two years. The Razorbacks ended the 2011 season with a Cotton Bowl victory and finished the year at No. 5 in the AP poll.

However, Petrino found himself in hot water later that offseason when he got into a motorcycle accident with former Razorbacks volleyball player Jessica Dorrell as a passenger. It was later determined that the coach had been in an adulterous relationship with Dorrell, whom he had hired to be the student-athlete development coordinator. Petrino was later fired and it seemed unlikely he would ever have a chance to return to Arkansas.

When Pittman came calling, however, he was immediately interested in the opportunity.

“I talked to my family and stuff that could possibly work,” Petrino said. “Then we had a great talk, great conversation. I think it was over an hour, maybe more than that. When I got off the phone I went, ‘man, he didn’t offer me the job. Maybe I need to a better job interviewing.’ But it was a process he was going through and taking his time. I was just anxious to talk to him again.”

Despite Petrino’s initial worries, Pittman eventually called back to offer him the job. Now he faces the tall task of turning around an Arkansas team that finished this past season 13th in the SEC in total offense.

Petrino brings a solid track record with him to Fayetteville. The Razorbacks led the SEC in both total offense and scoring offense during his final season in 2011, while also ranking second in both categories in 2010.

That should give fans confidence in his ability to turn things around as Arkansas aims to raise the number in the win column.