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Texas A&M Football Recruiting

Why I like the hire of Bobby Petrino as A&M's offensive coordinator

January 5, 2023
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Seven more points. One more touchdown.

That would’ve been the difference in Texas A&M going 10-2 instead of 5-7 last season.

That’s why the hiring of a new offensive coordinator should be celebrated in College Station… regardless of identity.

That the identity is Bobby Petrino has opened up Texas A&M and head coach Jimbo Fisher for ridicule and scorn.

Frankly, that’s why I like the addition of Petrino.

Fisher knew Petrino’s hiring would be controversial. He knew hiring Petrino could elicit criticism from Paul Finebaum and other national media. Yet, he felt strongly enough about Petrino to make the move anyway.

Aggies should respect that. Too often, it seems, Aggies look to the media for approval and confirmation only to be met with double standards and dismissal.

Andrew Jansen/News-Leader
In three years at Missouri State, Petrino took the Bears to the FCS playoffs twice.

Of course, national media will ridicule the Petrino hire. That’s what the media does when A&M is the subject.

That’s what the media did when A&M pursued Jimbo Fisher. That’s what the media did when Fisher angrily responded to Alabama coach Nick Saban’s unsubstantiated allegations about A&M buying recruits.

Petrino has given the media plenty of ammunition.

Yes, as offensive coordinator at Auburn, he conspired with boosters to take the head coach position away from Tommy Tuberville.

Yes, as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, he quit before the season ended to take the head coach position at Arkansas.

Yes, at Arkansas, he was involved in an illicit affair with a staffer he had personally hired.

That was 11 years ago.

Petrino paid his penance just as Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, LSU coach Brian Kelly and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin paid theirs.

Petrino can coach offense. He’s a brilliant play-caller. He’ll have more overall talent with which to work than he ever did at Arkansas or Louisville. In four years at Arkansas, Petrino never had a recruiting class ranked higher than 20th. In nine years (two stints) at Louisville, his highest-rated recruiting class was 23rd.

A long-time friend close to the Arkansas program called Petrino an “evil genius.”

The genius is his mind for game-planning offense and maximizing the talent on hand. The evil part is his personality.

Kirby Clarke, TexAgs
Petrino most recently crossed paths with Texas A&M at the 2015 Music City Bowl, and led by Lamar Jackson, his Louisville offense racked up 534 yards vs. the Aggies.

Petrino is as cuddly as a cactus and has the disposition of a copperhead. He doesn’t like recruiting. Spending time with prospects and their parents was a laborious part of the head coaching profession to him.

But the guy can coach. He can take decent players and create an explosive offense.

In 13 seasons at Arkansas and Louisville, nine of Petrino’s teams ranked among the nation’s top 17 in scoring. Ten of his teams averaged at least 31.2 points per game.

Imagine what Petrino could potentially do with emerging quarterback Conner Weigman, a receiving corps that may include Ainias Smith, Evan Stewart and Moose Muhammad, big-play running back prospect Rueben Owens‍ and a more experienced, healthier offensive line.

Last year, A&M averaged 22.8 points per game. With Petrino’s influence, the Aggies will score more. Maybe much more.

If that happens, the Aggies could/should be legitimate SEC championship contenders in 2023.

Petrino isn’t the politically correct hire. A&M’s rivals just hope he’s not the right hire.

Discussion from...

Why I like the hire of Bobby Petrino as A&M's offensive coordinator

22,263 Views | 54 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Houstonag
Detmersdislocatedshoulder
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if you can get passed the optics of BP as the offensive coordinator you will see that olin is correct on his assertions this is a good hire. i fully expect BP to light it up next season for no other reason than we have 10 out of 11 starters back. sprinkle in a potential stud qb and he will do great things and then be gone.
TAMU74
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AG
I think the hiring of Petrino will be good for A&M but, I don't expect him to be here long.
Bill Superman
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I like it. It's time to embrace being the villain.
12thMan9
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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

if you can get passed the optics of BP as the offensive coordinator you will see that olin is correct on his assertions this is a good hire. i fully expect BP to light it up next season for no other reason than we have 10 out of 11 starters back. sprinkle in a potential stud qb and he will do great things and then be gone.


You must've read "passed" the part where Olin said Petrino hated recruiting.

Don't be surprised if we get to see him here longer than many think.

One of the other lead candidates, who wouldn't leave his current position, also hates/hated recruiting. So maybe Coach has made a deal where Petrino doesn't have to recruit. We'll see.
Ronnie '88
ABATTBQ87
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AG
Petrino Louisville vs Jimbo FSU 2016

greg.w.h
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Generational QB talents certainly help any offense!!!
ABATTBQ87
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greg.w.h said:

Generational QB talents certainly help any offense!!!
Maybe Weigman is that generational QB talent to lead the offense
Canyon99
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Holy **** he looks like the crypt keeper.
akm91
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Onlin was wrong about JetGate (Auburn HC job). Petrino as the HC at Louisville when JetGate happened, not the OC at Auburn.
nu awlins ag
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Good hire, but not great optics. Optics don't win games…..he's 61 and I don't think he's actually looking for a big time HC gig. Sometimes it just good to call and scheme plays without having the other responsibilities that go with it, plus it will pay well and the COL is relatively cheap in BCS….er…CStat according to my son.
jpbrad
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Aggies will see a huge improvement if BP stays only one year. Each successive term will boost our offense exponentially.
ABATTBQ87
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AG
Petrino is 61, the same age as Brian Kelly and 10 years younger than Nick Saban
greg.w.h
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ABATTBQ87 said:

greg.w.h said:

Generational QB talents certainly help any offense!!!
Maybe Weigman is that generational QB talent to lead the offense
He certainly looked the part against LSU!
SA-AG72
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AG
Bobby Petrino will be 62 in March. As Jimbo has seen the light that he needs to be a HC and leave the play calling to an OC, perhaps Bobby realizes that he needs to be where his skill set is. One can only hope this works out for us and him.
nu awlins ag
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ABATTBQ87 said:

Petrino is 61, the same age as Brian Kelly and 10 years younger than Nick Saban



And your point?
ABATTBQ87
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nu awlins ag said:

ABATTBQ87 said:

Petrino is 61, the same age as Brian Kelly and 10 years younger than Nick Saban



And your point?


Just pointing out the ages of a few coaches in the SEC
nu awlins ag
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ABATTBQ87 said:

nu awlins ag said:

ABATTBQ87 said:

Petrino is 61, the same age as Brian Kelly and 10 years younger than Nick Saban



And your point?


Just pointing out the ages of a few coaches in the SEC


Those are HC's. Some were talking about his age and my point was he's going to be the OC not HC. Maybe he doesn't want to be a HC again and maybe that's why he came here along with a bigger check. No harm in that.
Bring n WOOD
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I believe he can and will improve our offensive output, and perhaps significantly….that being said I believe he has an ulterior motive within a 2-3 year period to take over a power 5 HC spot somewhere. Like others here, I don't see him sticking around much longer. He will use TAMU as a springboard to better himself and move back into the national relevance spotlight. If he succeeds here….he can just about write his ticket to another prominent HC seat…..
AgBQ-00
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Not a bad thing. If he succeeds and does not have any oddities will wish him well and we go get another who can take the position. If it does not work out, well we are probably looking at other issues and will be looking any way.
AG81
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AG
Petrino has left a wake of destruction behind him everywhere he's been. The argument that he's done his penance is ridiculous at best. Look up the meaning of the word. Penance is something one does VOLUNTARILY. He's not voluntarily ostracized himself from Power 5 programs, they all (except now us apparently) reject him because of his career long character lapses. Those lapses didn't end 11 years ago, they've continued until as recently as, well, now when he leaves one program to join another, then leaves them for us. If there aren't 20 other coaches that could get you those 7 points a season, then the problems aren't going to be solved by someone so terribly flawed as Bobby Petrino.
redjalapeno-87
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I'm thinkin' the Jimbobby offense will leave a "wake of destruction" on the SEC defenses next season. He is great at the things Jimbo is not. Think of all the timeouts we will have at our disposal at the end of halves. The offense will speed up and have tempo when needed. The offense will attack the soft spots of the defense and pound it over and over until they stop it.

Remember all the times the offense forgot about the TE's? Sometimes we stopped running the ball all together while it was working. Remember how easy it was for every defense to predict our offensive plays and get there before our own players did? And the tempo was so slow the defense had time to recover and prepare. Yeah, that's not happening next year.
4
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Quote:


Why I like the hire of Bobby Petrino as A&M's offensive coordinator

Cause what else are you going to say publicly Olin?
newbie11
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Mark this post and we can revisit this article in a year when we're sitting at home watching someone else play in the SEC Champ game and playoffs.

Antiquated coach with antiquated offense.
GoAgs92
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AG
Another retread, not too excited, but we will see.
Bill Superman
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Bring n WOOD said:

I believe he can and will improve our offensive output, and perhaps significantly….that being said I believe he has an ulterior motive within a 2-3 year period to take over a power 5 HC spot somewhere. Like others here, I don't see him sticking around much longer. He will use TAMU as a springboard to better himself and move back into the national relevance spotlight. If he succeeds here….he can just about write his ticket to another prominent HC seat…..
If he doesn't stick around because we did so well with him then who caress
TAM85
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With this hire 8 wins is the floor for this year.
Houstonag
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I do not care about anything other than performance. For darn sure I could care less what Finebaum thinks.

I do believe it can be a great match with Jimbo for they both are seasoned.

Interesting the non Aggie naysayers. Go to your own board.
jigsaw87
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Quantum Entanglement
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Miami and the field goal by Piggy.
We could have very easily been 3-9.

3-9

Let that sink in.

As a whole we absolutely sh## the bed.

3-9

I'm sick of the what if's. There are a lot of teams that could have had three more wins if one little thing went a different way. 10-2 vs 5-7. In nobody's universe were we a 10 -2 team. We could just as easily been
3-9


3-9
Gramercy Riffs
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AG
AG81 said:

Petrino has left a wake of destruction behind him everywhere he's been. The argument that he's done his penance is ridiculous at best. Look up the meaning of the word. Penance is something one does VOLUNTARILY. He's not voluntarily ostracized himself from Power 5 programs, they all (except now us apparently) reject him because of his career long character lapses. Those lapses didn't end 11 years ago, they've continued until as recently as, well, now when he leaves one program to join another, then leaves them for us. If there aren't 20 other coaches that could get you those 7 points a season, then the problems aren't going to be solved by someone so terribly flawed as Bobby Petrino.

You sound fun. If you feel that strongly about it, quit watching.
Gramercy Riffs
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AG
newbie11 said:

Mark this post and we can revisit this article in a year when we're sitting at home watching someone else play in the SEC Champ game and playoffs.

Antiquated coach with antiquated offense.

So when we don't make the title game, for which we'll still be far from the favorites to participate in, you'll claim some kind of victory? I hope that makes you happy.
Gramercy Riffs
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Houstonag said:

Interesting the non Aggie naysayers. Go to your own board.

They're far less annoying that most of the Aggies who post here.
94chem
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You're making a point, but not the one you think you're making. Of course we were terrible. Even unwatchable. But we were still close to being 10-2. We were, in that regard, much like Sherman's last team. And the next year we had our best team of the last 30 years. This mess isn't far from fixing. You just have to make sure the next step is forward and not sideways.
94chem,
That, sir, was the greatest post in the history of TexAgs. I salute you. -- Dough
LB12Diamond
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4 said:

Quote:


Why I like the hire of Bobby Petrino as A&M's offensive coordinator

Cause what else are you going to say publicly Olin?


Yeppers

Why Olin likes it

Bc he has no choice

He can't cut off the hand that feeds him.

LB12Diamond
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Gramercy Riffs said:

newbie11 said:

Mark this post and we can revisit this article in a year when we're sitting at home watching someone else play in the SEC Champ game and playoffs.

Antiquated coach with antiquated offense.

So when we don't make the title game, for which we'll still be far from the favorites to participate in, you'll claim some kind of victory? I hope that makes you happy.


The SEC West is not super strong right now. It was not last year which makes our craptastic season even more frustrating. And next year all teams have issues. The fav is probably LSU and the Hogs maybe second since KJ is coming back. It's funny those are the two teams we beat.

If Jimbo can not make it to the SEC champ game next year, doubt he's ever going to do it.
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