Bobby Petrino Coaching Arkansas in Their Next Game Against Tennessee

Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said Monday he felt sixth-year coach Sam Pittman had “lost the team” and it was time for a change.

The Razorbacks fired Pittman on Sunday, a day after a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.

“I just felt like how we performed on Saturday gave me an indication that maybe Sam had lost the team a little bit because they generally had played really hard for him throughout his tenure,” Yurachek said.

Yurachek promoted offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino to interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Petrino will lead the Hogs in their next game against Tennessee on October 11th at 4:15pm in Knoxville.

It’s familiar territory for Petrino, who served as the Razorbacks’ head coach from 2008 to 2011 before he was fired due to a scandal. Petrino, 64, was brought back as offensive coordinator by Pittman in 2023.

Is Petrino a shoe-in for the job?

“Coach Petrino, as we met yesterday, he accepted this opportunity with the understanding that he also wanted an opportunity to formally be a candidate for our head coaching position, and he will have that opportunity, but we’ll also subsequently run a search for our next head coach at the same time,” Yurachek said.

Pittman’s dismissal and Petrino’s temporary promotion weren’t the only changes. Defensive coordinator Travis Williams, co-defensive coordinator Marcus Woodson and defensive line coach Deke Adams were all let go. Chris Wilson was named the team’s interim defensive coordinator.

Petrino had high praise for Wilson, who was in his first year with the Razorbacks as an assistant defensive line coach.

“My experience (with Wilson) goes way back to having to battle against him when he had all the great defensive linemen at Mississippi State,” Petrino said. “Very, very impressed with what he’s done throughout his career. Guy’s got a Super Bowl ring. He brings a lot of credibility into the room.”

“The number one thing is, you have to get used to change. You know, your whole life there’s going to be change. So how we handle that, our attitude on how we handle that, will determine how quickly we improve,” Petrino said.

Why now?

Pittman is the fourth power conference coach to be let go this season, all within the past two weeks (Brent Pry at Virginia Tech, DeShaun Foster at UCLA and Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State). Besides the bye week giving the Hogs a chance to adjust and make changes before an Oct. 11 game at No. 15 Tennessee, the firing was far in advance of the transfer portal window to give current and prospective players a taste of the new era.

“The portal is a key factor in this. But I think more than anything, just heading into a bye week to have a transition with the head coach, having a bye week before we head to Tennessee, this was kind of a natural point to make that (change),” Yurachek said.

The timing also worked from a contractual standpoint, given Pittman’s unique buyout clause. Had the school waited until Pittman dropped below a .500 record since 2021, his buyout would have reduced from $9.8 million (75% of his remaining salary) to $6.9 million (50% ). Yurachek believes the parties found a happy medium with a buyout around $8 million.

“We negotiated in the middle,” Yurachek said. “Right now, he’s at 75%, and if the season continued the direction it was, he would have fallen below .500. So part of our meeting was getting his representatives on the phone, and we landed on a sweet spot for both of us. 62.5% saved the university about $1.5 million and kind of fell between that 50% and 75% mark.”

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