Sam Pittman goes in-depth into his decision to hire Bobby Petrino as Arkansas OC

Sam Pittman’s decision to hire former Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino to be the Razorbacks offensive coordinator as part of a greater staff overhaul was met with plenty of raised eyebrows. But the Arkansas head coach is confident he made the right call.

In an interview on The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday, Pittman acknowledged that hiring Petrino, who was fired by the Razorbacks infamously in April of 2012, would bring out the skeptics. Pittman, though, was really just worried about one thing.

“Well I just wanted to win and to be honest with you, I thought Bobby gave us the best chance to win and that really the reason that I picked up the phone and called him. Then after I visited with him, his love to come back to Arkansas and his drive to come back and be a part of the university,” Pittman said.

Sam Pittman talks about what Bobby Petrino is bringing to @RazorbackFB as Spring Camp opens this week pic.twitter.com/Y6fKhoT74m

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) March 6, 2024

Petrino was highly successful during his stint with the Razorbacks, winning 10 games in 2010 and following that up with an 11-win 2011 season.

Since his fall from grace at Arkansas, Petrino continued to be a head coach before eventually spending the 2023 season as the Texas A&M offensive coordinator.

“I know a lot of folks may think, ‘Well he came back to be a head coach’ and all this kind of stuff. I don’t worry about any of that. I just want to win,” Pittman said. “I want to win for the university, for the state of Arkansas, I want to make the people proud and I thought this was the best way we could do it.”

And on that front, Pittman said, Petrino’s hit the mark perfectly.

“But it’s worked out extremely well. Bobby’s a wonderful person and has been very, very loyal and been very, very good with our kids since he’s been here,” Pittman said.

Pittman dished on his staff shakeup, too

Pittman fired then-offensive coordinator Dan Enos midstream and things generally went awry. And since he couldn’t stop the slide in-season, it’s critical to reverse course for the program with new staff.

Arkansas added a number of new coaches, some of them old faces. The biggest name is offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, who was previously the head coach for the Razorbacks. But the likes of Ronnie Fouch and Eric Mateos coaching wide receivers and offensive line, respectively, are key to what Pittman hopes is a successful 2024 campaign.

“Well Paul, when things start heading south on you, it’s very, very hard to stop it,” Pittman said on The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday. “And I had a hard time of getting it turned around last year and then of course we made a change and things of that nature. You know, hiring Bobby Petrino, Ronnie Fouch, Eric Mateos as our O line coach, I think we’ve really done a nice job there.”

But making changes isn’t without risk, and Pittman admitted he was anxious about the possibility that he might not find greener grass.

“So those things, you’re always very, very nervous about who you hire,” Pittman said. “And as I’ve been in my past when I lost coordinators, that petrified me. I was nervous about it, especially when things were going well.”

The new Arkansas staff isn’t a complete overhaul, though. Pittman retained defensive coordinator Travis Williams. And even in the new, there’s plenty of the familiar.

Petrino, by virtue of having been a head coach — at Arkansas, specifically — shares a perspective into Pittman’s role. It’s similar, Pittman said, to how he and Barry Odom worked when the latter was on staff in Fayetteville.

“But I love the fact that we have Bobby because he’s got that love for the Razorbacks and obviously I think he’s a very, very brilliant offensive coordinator and started spring well,” Pittman said. “And he’s helping me out, too, Paul. A little bit like what Barry did for me when he was here, because he was a former head coach. Obviously Bobby’s doing it with me now and even better because he coached specifically as a head coach here. So he understands the region and he understands everything about the state of Arkansas.”