FAYETTEVILLE -- When Arkansas lost to Notre Dame 56-13 most knew changes were coming and they were correct.

In addition to Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek firing Sam Pittman and promoting Bobby Petrino to interim head coach for the remainder of the season three assistants have also been let go all on the defensive side of the football.

Coordinator Travis Williams, line coach Deke Adams and secondary and co-defensive coordinator Marcus Woodson were all fired by Bobby Petrino.

"First, let me say how thankful I am to Coach Pittman for bringing me here and giving me this opportunity to come back to a pace that I love," Petrino said. "Very grateful for Hunter and Chancellor (Charles F.) Robinson and the Board of Trustees for allowing me to come back a year ago and be an assistant coach here and then being able to do this. You know, whenever you make a decision, you base if off of, No. 1, what’s best for the team. No. 2, what’s best for the individual players, and I felt it was in our best interest to do what we did this morning for our players to improve individually, get a little bit more motivated, and I think it will help our team overall get out on the field and compete and find ways to win the game."

Chris Wilson will take over defensive play calling duties as the team’s interim defensive coordinator. Wilson has experience as a defensive coordinator in his long career in college and professional football, having recently served as the defensive coordinator for the Houston Roughnecks in the UFL this past spring. He won Super Bowl LII as a part of the Philadelphia Eagles’ staff as the team’s defensive line coach. He also coordinated defenses for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL and in the college ranks at Colorado (2021-22) and at Mississippi State as the co-defensive coordinator in 2010 then the defensive coordinator for two seasons (2011-12). Wilson is in his first season at Arkansas and was previously working with the Razorbacks’ defensive line this season as the team’s assistant defensive line coach.

Che Hendrix will coach the team’s safeties. Hendrix is in his first season at Arkansas after serving as the head coach at Boerne (TX) High School. He joined the Hogs as the assistant defensive backs coach/high school relations earlier this year. At Boerne HS, he was 71-19 as the head coach.

While Kolby Smith, who coaches running backs, will take over as offensive coordinator nothing will change in that Petrino will continue to call the plays. Petrino is looking to hire one more assistant on defense.

Petrino is also a candidate to get the head coaching job on a full-time basis. Yurachek was asked Monday if he feels they can attract quality candidates?

"Yeah, I mean coming out of board meeting last Friday I received a charge from our board to come back to Chancellor Robinson and then with a plan of how we can increase the head coaches’ pool, the assistant coaches’ pool, the support staff pool, the operational pool moving forward, and how we would support the increases in that, and I have an opportunity to do that in the next couple of weeks, and I truly believe that we will be able to have everything that we have needed in place to attract the best head coach for our program and give that coach the resources they need to be competitive in the SEC," Yurachek said.

Whether it's Petrino or someone else what is Yurachek looking for in a candidate?

"I think you have to have someone, first and foremost, that's a proven winner and proven that they can build a program, someone that can come in and establish what your culture is going to be as a football program on both sides of the ball and special teams," Yurachek said. "You want somebody that that has some energy and can re-energize this program and re-energize our fan base. Ties to what means to compete within the Southeastern Conference, I think, is really key. But I think probably the key thing is, they've got to be able to embrace and adapt to what is a changing environment in college athletics, and to be able to have some advanced scouting that's really in-depth, and you can go headfirst into the transfer portal. And that's the way you're going to build a program quickly. The days of bringing in 25 or 30 freshmen and thinking that you can turn a program with freshmen, they're going to go by the wayside, especially in football, and you've got to be able to really use that transfer portal, and that takes some in-depth, advanced scouting across Division II, FCS, G6 and even Power Four so that when that transfer portal opens up, you're ready to hit the ground running and we're going to provide that staff with the resources they need to do so."

Petrino also talked about the best case scenario for the football team that has seven games, all SEC opponents, remaining.

"Well, the best case scenario is we come out tomorrow and we work hard and we practice hard and we get well-prepared in how we're going to change the defensive structure and how we're going to go about running to the football and tackling well," Petrino said. "We've got to go back to some individual drills, tackle circuits, pursuit circuits and turnover circuits, and do the little things that make the difference in the game. So I'm excited about the way our staff has been handling it and the plan that we have going forward defensively. Offensively, we've got to get back where we get the ball across the 50-yard line and we go score touchdowns like we were early in the season. That hurt us the last three halves that we weren't able to convert touchdowns when we crossed the 50-yard line, so we're going to continue to work hard on that. And then we've got to come up with a way where we can make difference-making plays in special teams. Right now, in special teams, we haven't had a big return, blocked punt, forced fumble, that turns into points. So to score a lot of points, you have to score in all three areas."

The Razorbacks have four home games remaining this season. Yurachek addressed what he wants to see from the fans those games.

"Well, I mean, we have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of college athletics, as demonstrated by what we saw Saturday at 11 a.m. as they showed up, and you see that across all of our sports," Yurachek said. "So I hope our fans will come out and give these kids 100% support, and I hope in return, the kids that you see on the field will give 100% maximum effort and show that energy. I think this is a state that, boy, if they see that team playing really hard and carrying some of the characteristics that Coach is talking about, they'll get behind them, win, lose or draw. But they want to see that effort. I know our fans want to see that effort on the field. I think that was something that was really glaring Saturday, that there was not a great deal of effort, and I think you'll see that change as we move forward."

Arkansas has a bye this week.