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Arkansas

Bobby Petrino, Arkansas hire former NFL assistant Jay Hayes as Razorbacks DL coach

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh10/03/25griffin_mcveigh
steve spurrier bobby petrino
Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Some NFL experience is heading to Fayetteville. According to On3’s Chris Low, Arkansas and interim head coach Bobby Petrino are hiring Jay Hayes to be the defensive line coach.

“Bobby Petrino is adding veteran NFL assistant Jay Hayes as Arkansas’ DL coach, sources tell On3,” Low said via X. “Hayes was with the Bengals the longest and has coached some top DL, including Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap. Hayes also coached in college at Notre Dame and Wisconsin.”

When Petrino took over for a fired head coach Sam Pittman, some changes came on the defensive side of the ball. None bigger than DC Travis Williams, fresh off a blowout loss to Notre Dame. Williams was joined by co-defensive coordinator Marcus Woodson and defensive line coach Deke Adams.

Hayes comes in to replace Adams, bringing a good amount of experience to the table. As Low mentioned, some top defensive linemen played under Hayes’ watch during his NFL days. Getting into college football is nothing new, though.

Thankfully, some time to get settled into the program is available. A game does not pop up on the Arkansas schedule this Saturday, observing a bye. Oct. 11 against Tennessee is the next time out there, heading to Knoxville after beating the Vols in 2024.

Bobby Petrino reacts to upset players over defensive coordinator Travis Williams firing

Williams was among one of the players’ favorite coaches on staff. So, when the news of him getting let go came through, some were upset. Not too surprising but in reality, it’s part of the process of making an in-season move. Not too long after, Petrino gave his thoughts on some of the reactions.

“We’ve all got to learn that there’s change and things that happen,” Petrino said. “I think in football you have to always talk about courage and being courageous. That’s part of what we have to do now as a team is understand that we all have to take the arrow in the forehead.

“We didn’t win Saturday and we didn’t perform like we needed to offensively and defensively. We didn’t come up with any big plays on special teams. It’s all of us and we just gotta get together and become one. That’s one of the issues we’ve had with the separation of offense and defense. We need to be able to come together as one unit.”

On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this report