It’s always good to retread your steps. You might find your keys, maybe your wallet, possibly an old university to head coach — twice over — if your name is Bobby Petrino, who has never learned the right way to say goodbye.
With high-flying offenses and a checkered past, Petrino has floated around the college and National Football League ranks. In college, he led the Louisville Cardinals to two top-10 finishes in the early 2000s and guided quarterback Lamar Jackson to the 2016 Heisman trophy in his second stint with the Cardinals.
Petrino has found a way throughout his career to always leave the door open, no matter how he leaves or where he goes.
Six months after signing a 10-year extension as head coach at Louisville, the Falcons dragged Petrino up the ladder in January 2007. Three starting quarterbacks, 10 losses in 13 games and one of the shortest stints in the NFL later, Petrino resigned as the Falcons’ head coach and took the reins hours later for the first time in Fayetteville.
Bookended by two sly contract scenarios, Petrino’s brief sabbatical in the NFL as the Atlanta Falcons head coach during the 2007 season ended how it started.
The Razorbacks’ last double-digit win seasons came under Petrino in 2010-11, when he led the teams to the Sugar and Cotton Bowls, with a win over the Kansas State Wildcats in the latter.
On April 1, 2012, not even four full months after Arkansas’ Cotton Bowl victory, Petrino was involved in a motorcycle crash down a two-lane highway outside of Fayetteville, leading to a press conference in a neck brace and plenty of scrapes on his face.
Petrino would be dismissed from being the Razorback’s head coach just nine days later on April 10, after a police report contradicted previous knowledge that a passenger, student-athlete development coordinator Jessica Dorrell, was also on the bike. The pair not only were in an inappropriate workplace relationship, but Petrino, a married father of four, had also given preferential treatment to Dorrell throughout her time with the Razorbacks.
Time heals all, though. Or maybe college football fans have new levels of desperation that few people can relate to.
After 11 years away from the program, the Razorbacks hired Petrino as offensive coordinator for the 2024 season, and he has since been promoted to interim head coach after Sam Pittman’s dismissal in September of this season.
Coming off five straight losses since Petrino took the wheel once again, the results may not indicate it, but Petrino has brought some stability to Fayetteville. The offense has averaged 30.8 points per game, all in conference play, since falling flat and firing Sam Pittman with 13 points against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sept. 27.
Familiarity and winning, along with a lot of baggage, follow Petrino to Fayetteville. Turning back to an old friend — if anyone can call the cunning Petrino that — may be the best option for a lost Arkansas program.
