FAYETTEVILLE -- Bobby Petrino is Arkansas' offensive coordinator and his presence gives Razorback fans hope for the 2024 season.

Petrino was a very successful head coach for the Razorbacks for four years and returned this offseason to run the offense for Sam Pittman. The Hogs open the season on Thursday, Aug. 29, against UAPB. Petrino talked about how the install has gone for his offense.

"Yeah, right, we did put a whole bunch in," Petrino said. "Kind of like we've always done. We took it in spring and had an install, seven-day install, and tried to throw it all in there. Came back in the summer, in June when the coaches are here, rules have changed. We get to meet with them. We get to do that. So we did it again. We just finished it again right before the scrimmage.

"Now we're kind of going back and refining certain things and taking portions of one and three together, and that's all we're working today, really trying to find our identity. I think that's the key right now is to find our identity. I've always believed you take this big old playbook and then that as you progress and progress, it goes down and down and down and, 'Okay, this is who we are.' That doesn't mean we're not going to keep working on the other parts of it, because you're going to need that at some point during the year. But we've still got a few weeks to go to really figure out who we really are."

The Razorbacks held their first preseason scrimmage last Saturday and will hold another one this Thursday. Petrino reflected back on the one last week.

"Yeah, we got off to a really good start," Petrino said. "We made big plays and we were aggressive with it, and I was really happy. That tells me that our players were, it was very important to them. They really took to what our first series was going to be and studied it and worked on it and were ready to go out and play.

"And then we got a little bit complacent. So we didn't finish the scrimmage the way you would like to finish it. We've got to have a little bit more killer instinct, aggressive and go for it. It was a long, good, long scrimmage, so it challenges you both mentally and physically. I thought that we met the challenge in the probably three quarters of the scrimmage and then failed at the end."

Petrino admitted that as offensive coordinator he doesn't have to deal with much the NIL aspects of coaching which is something that doesn't make him sad.

"Yeah, you know, Coach Pitt works really hard at it, and the organizations that we have around him and Hunter (Yurachek) work really hard on it," Petrino said. "That allows me to coach football. So I'm excited about just coaching football and being in the meeting rooms with the quarterbacks. It's a lot of fun. I think that's the most fun I have all day long is in the meeting room with the quarterbacks."

Petrino is considered among the best in the business calling plays. He admitted that Arkansas' Travis Williams, who coordinates the defense, is good at what he does and causes the Arkansas offense problems.

"I think we're going to have a really good defense," Petrino said. "They do a good job of taking away what you do well and making you try to beat them left-handed. It gets a little bit old going against them all the time because they start knowing some of your plays, some of your calls. It makes it harder and harder. The more you go against the defense, the more advantage they have. It causes us to have to switch it up a little bit, change up what our checks and certain things are, but I think we've got really good intelligence on the defensive side of the ball, starting with the defensive front, and then in the secondary guys, our young linebackers - or new linebackers, I guess they're not young anymore - but the new linebackers are learning, but the guys are helping them take care of it."

The Arkansas-UAPB game in War Memorial will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. and be televised on ESPNU. 

Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action