Texas A&M hires Bobby Petrino as new offensive coordinator, per reports

The highly anticipated decision has been made and the wait is over. Texas A&M has hired Bobby Petrino as the new offensive coordinator and play caller.

According to Chris Low of ESPN, Texas A&M is “finalizing” a deal for Bobby Petrino to become the program’s next offensive coordinator.

This is a change in action for Petrino, who was originally heading to UNLV to work as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Bary Odom. Before accepting that role, he spent the last three seasons as the head coach of Missouri State.

The offensive coordinator position has been vacant since November 28, when Jimbo Fisher released Darrell Dickey from his duties. The process was certainly not a quiet one for fans as rumors ran rampant and speculation grew with each day.

At the start of the process, TCU offensive coordinator, Garret Riley, seemed to be the favorite, at least among talking circles. However, with him still planning for the college football playoff and weeks more of work ahead for him in Fort Worth, the timing simply did not work out. Fisher and the Aggies program hoped to get something quickly to help finish the 2023 recruiting class and help recruit the transfer portal.

North Carolina’s Phil Longo was another name being discussed heavily but he elected to join Luke Fickell’s new staff at Wisconsin.

Change was needed

Darrell Dickey had served as Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator since Fisher first took over in 2018, though his duties in terms of position changed going into 2022. After working with quarterbacks from 2018-21, Dickey moved over to the tight ends group this year.

Along with that move, Texas A&M shifted receivers coach Dameyune Craig over to the quarterbacks.

Things obviously didn’t go quite as expected.

Texas A&M’s offense finished ranked near the bottom of the country statistically in several categories: 82nd in passing offense (219.4 yards per game), 83rd in rushing offense (141.5 yards per game), 94th in total offense (360.9 yards per game) and 101st in scoring offense (22.8 points per game).