It may seem shocking that the University of Arkansas does not have a rule against rehiring former employees it has fired for cause. Like former football coach Bobby Petrino, who departed the school in scandal in 2012 after lying about a motorcycle crash he had while riding with a former Razorbacks athlete (and football department employee) with whom he was having an affair. And whom the university has now rehired as its offensive coordinator.
Well, it does have a rule against it. But there’s also a loophole: A University of Arkansas board of trustees policy allows for an employee who has been dismissed to be rehired with approval of the president of the University of Arkansas system, who oversees 10 schools, including the flagship Fayetteville campus.
Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/USA TODAY NETWORK
According to an official letter the university shared with Sports Illustrated, on Tuesday, with the stroke of a pen, system president Donald R. Bobbitt excused Petrino’s past and welcomed him back to Arkansas.
Bobbitt wrote that he “appreciate[s] the diligence Coach [Sam] Pittman and AD [Hunter] Yurachek used to guide their hiring decision.”
When institutions do something that makes you scratch your head, the answer as to why is often simple: They wanted to, and so they did. In the coming days, the school will find ways to message Petrino’s return, because you can justify any decision in college sports if you try hard enough.
Petrino has already begun that work on his own. He’s tweeted twice so far, dialing up the sentimentality play. He put out a video Tuesday night of his granddaughter performing the hog call tradition, then upped the ante the next morning by posting a picture of himself with former quarterback Ryan Mallett, who piloted his Razorbacks to a Sugar Bowl and died over the summer, alongside the text: “It’s you and me 15.”
It’s you and me 15. Proud to be coming home. Now let’s bring the Hogs a Championship!! 🐗 #WooPig pic.twitter.com/PCYA2iuHbs
— Bobby Petrino (@CoachBPetrino) November 29, 2023
He also told ESPN of his hiring, “It’s something I hoped would happen. Wasn’t sure if it ever would, but it is a dream come true to be able to go back to the University of Arkansas and do anything I possibly can to make it right this time. I’m grateful to coach Pittman and Hunter Yurachek for making it happen.”
It’s as desperate a messaging tactic as it is for Arkansas to bring him back at all.
There is a faction of the Arkansas donor base who has wanted Petrino back for a while. It appears they have their wish. He’s seen as a savior by some of them, because you can ignore the bad things anyone does as long as they win. He’s the only coach who’s finished with back-to-back top-15 seasons (2010 and ’11) at Arkansas since Ken Hatfield did it in 1988 and ’89, and the first coach who’s delivered a top-five finish (2011) since Lou Holtz in 1977. The Hogs finished third in their division in 2011, behind LSU and Alabama, who played each other for the national championship.
For head coach Sam Pittman, it’s hard not to see the writing on the wall if things don’t go well at the start of next season. There is a clause in his contract that allows for his buyout to be slashed in half if his record going back to the start of the 2021 season is under .500, according to a copy of the deal obtained by SI. He is currently 20–18. There is certainly a world in which, if the Hogs struggle during the 2024 season, Petrino can comfortably slide in to be interim head coach, and the restoration process is complete.
Petrino’s run in Fayetteville ended in April 2012, when he was fired from Arkansas after crashing his motorcycle with a former Arkansas volleyball player, Jessica Dorrell, with whom he was having an affair, on the back of it. Petrino initially claimed to Arkansas administrators, and the public, that he was alone on the bike—a lie that soon fell apart. Then AD Jeff Long said he was also misled by Petrino about hiring Dorrell. Days earlier, Arkansas had hired her to a position as student-athlete development coordinator in the football program, choosing her over 158 other applicants, although she lacked qualifications for the job. She was the only candidate that did not have an advanced degree (listed as a preferred qualification in the job description), and her résumé did not mention any previous experience in football. Petrino secured a waiver that allowed his program to circumvent a university affirmative action policy and hire Dorrell on an expedited basis. Petrino was fired for cause and did not contest the firing.
Petrino becoming the Razorbacks offensive coordinator is different from him taking a head job at Missouri State or even any of the other places he has destroyed bridges at, like Louisville or the Atlanta Falcons. Remember that the Petrino fiasco was more than just a motorcycle crash and press conference photo. This isn’t just a situation where Petrino simply was a jerk or left his post in the dead of night unprofessionally, like he did with the Falcons. He abused his power as head coach and lied to his superiors and the public.
“The extramarital affair is not the reason he was terminated … it was not actionable,” Long told The Athletic in 2022. “The dishonesty on multiple occasions and levels was something we could take action for.”
So how is he back at UA?
There was no comment from any school official in the press release announcing Petrino’s rehire. SI requested comment from Yurachek, Arkansas’s current AD, but was referred to the overall University of Arkansas system.
A spokesperson for the system responded that Bobbitt, who has been in his post since 2011, was traveling and unavailable for comment. But he shared a letter dated Monday from Charles Robinson, the chancellor of the University of Arkansas Fayetteville campus, requesting for Bobbitt to approve Petrino’s hire, as well as Bobbitt’s response the following day signing off on it. In response to additional questions, the spokesperson referred back to the letters.
“Hunter and Coach Pittman are familiar with the circumstances surrounding the termination of Coach Petrino’s employment by the University of Arkansas which was warranted at the time,” Robinson wrote in his letter. “They have also conducted a due diligence inquiry into Coach Petrino’s character and subsequent employment. Coach Petrino has been employed by three separate institutions since 2012, the time that his employment ended at the University of Arkansas. By all accounts, he has conducted himself in an appropriate manner and has not engaged in any conduct that has negatively or adversely affected the reputation of any institutions or their athletic programs. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge he has not committed any material violations of NCAA rules, institutional policies, or applicable law.”
Bobbitt, Robinson, Yurachek and Pittman all literally signed off on Petrino’s hire, according to his contract, which was released by the school. They are all sticking their necks out for him. The man who used a loophole to make an unethical hire then is the beneficiary of a loophole now.
Arkansas will hide behind the news cycle and hope the headline vanishes, but make no mistake, if history is any guide this will all end up in a wreck, just like a guy on a motorcycle did back in 2012.
