Bobby Petrino
Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 5-6
Louisville’03L’04W’05L’06W’14L’15W’16L’17LArkansas’09W’10L’11W
Show all 11 games
2003GMAC BowlL 28-49
2004Liberty BowlW 44-40
2005Gator BowlL 24-35
2006Orange BowlW 24-13
2014Belk BowlL 14-37
2015Music City BowlW 27-21
2016Citrus BowlL 9-29
2017TaxSlayer BowlL 27-31
Arkansas2009Liberty BowlW 20-17
2010Sugar BowlL 26-31
2011Cotton Bowl ClassicW 29-16
Coordinator years
Offensive coordinator across 3 programs, 4 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.
How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from our coordinator career records; head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from the staff assignments record. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.
Fans
No fan talk about him on our list yet. His record is on Career.
Stats
Big games
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
8-0 against his rivals at Louisville. Nobody he faced three or more times there has a winning record against him.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
2-2 against his rivals at Arkansas. Winless in 4 tries against Nick Saban.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
3-1 against his rivals at Louisville. Winless in 5 tries against Dabo Swinney.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
0-2 against his rivals at Arkansas.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
13-5 against his rivals. Winless in 5 tries against Dabo Swinney.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
How he plays
Run/pass mix, by field position
Called about what the situation called for.
533 run and pass snaps at Western Kentucky, 2013–2013, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Pass rate, stint by stint
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Building the roster
Five numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
His recruiting, really
None of his Arkansas classes is ranked and fully his yet. Across his other stops, his own classes averaged #30 nationally.
Louisville
ArkansasAcross every program: 1 ranked class of his own, averaging #30 nationally.
His class — he had the full signing cycleInherited — signed before he arrived
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his; inherited and mid-transition classes still show here, faded, but stay out of the average.
Roster ownership
Roster ownership
of his 2013 roster arrived on his watch — 45 of 102 players. The other 57 are holdovers from before he was hired.
This coach's entire tenure (2013-2013) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Size up front
Size up front
Offensive linemen on his Arkansas rosters have averaged 11 lb heavier than the FBS average (2010–2025 (3 seasons) rosters on record) — heavier than 96% of FBS coaching runs since 2010.
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
Where he recruits
is his biggest recruiting state: 14 of 33 signees (42%) across his 2013–2013 tenure, drawn from 11 states in all. Next: AL (5).
61% of his signees come from FL and its 2 border states (AL 5, GA 1).
Off this map: 2 signees to the west (CA 2).
- median hometown distance
- 264 mi
- within 100 mi
- 24%
- within 500 mi
- 63%
- beyond 1,000 mi
- 2%
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
The NFL pipeline
The NFL pipeline
players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. None were his own recruits yet: all 1 roster-verified picks arrived under Willie Taggart. 1 more can’t be traced to who brought them in (no roster record).
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | R6.27 | Andrew Jackson | Inside Linebacker |  Indianapolis Colts | recruited under Willie Taggart |
| 2014 | R7.32 | Jonathan Dowling | Cornerback |  Oakland Raiders | Estimated |
A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.
News
No outlet on our list has written about him by name yet. His record is on Career.
Career
Coaching career
The arc of his career is on Now.
Builder meaningfully raised a program that wasn't one · Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
Followed Willie Taggart (2010–2012) · succeeded by Jeff Brohm (2014–2016).
5th-best Arkansas tenure of 22 by the numbers.
Followed Houston Nutt (1998–2007) · succeeded by John Smith (2012) · returned in 2025, succeeding Sam Pittman (2020–2025) · succeeded by Ryan Silverfield (2026–now).
| Season | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 5-7 | 8-5 | 10-3 | 11-2 | 0-7 | |
| Postseason | — | W bowl | L bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | — | — | — | — | Bobby Petrino / Kolby Smith | |
| DC | — | — | — | — | Marcus Woodson / Travis Williams | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | 65 | 75 | 92 | 86 | 81 | |
| Defense | 50 | 68 | 49 | 44 | 16 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 55.5 | 55.1 | 54.6 | 61.6 | 45.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 34.9 | 44.9 | 43.9 | 53.5 | 40.2 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 40.5 | 28.6 | 28.6 | 35.3 | 18.5 | |
Outperforms his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
A portal-built roster.
Typical size for position, once adjusted for position mix.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
13 NFL Draft picks: Jonathan Luigs (2009), Mitch Petrus (2010), Ryan Mallett (2011), D.J. Williams (2011), Demarcus Love (2011), Jake Bequette (2012), Joe Adams (2012), Jarius Wright (2012) + 5 more
AI Narratives — “Arkansas' Rough Season Continues” and 6 more on the team page.
1st-best Louisville tenure of 15 by the numbers.
Followed John Smith (1998–2002) · succeeded by Steve Kragthorpe (2007–2009) · returned in 2014, succeeding Charlie Strong (2010–2013) · succeeded by Scott Satterfield (2019–2022).
| Season | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||||
| Record | 9-4 | 11-1 | 9-3 | 12-1 | 9-4 | 8-5 | 9-4 | 8-5 | 2-8 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | L bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||||
| OC | — | — | — | — | Garrick McGee | Garrick McGee | Lonnie Galloway / Chris Klenakis | Lonnie Galloway / Mike Summers | Lonnie Galloway / Mike Summers | |
| DC | — | — | — | — | Todd Grantham | Todd Grantham | Todd Grantham | Peter Sirmon | Brian VanGorder | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||||
| Offense | — | 98 | 96 | 100 | 56 | 64 | 82 | 98 | 17 | |
| Defense | — | 95 | 80 | 63 | 90 | 75 | 86 | 52 | 2 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 46.5 | 46.7 | 48.1 | 43.5 | 47.5 | 47.5 | 51.5 | 47.5 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 30.2 | 32.9 | 33.6 | 41.0 | 37.0 | 36.9 | 36.4 | 31.8 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 54.5 | 45.2 | 15.8 | 27.0 | 22.0 | 29.6 | 48.6 | 25.0 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
31 NFL Draft picks: Eric Shelton (2005), Stefan LeFors (2005), Kerry Rhodes (2005), Robert McCune (2005), Lionel Gates (2005), J.R. Russell (2005), Jason Spitz (2006), Elvis Dumervil (2006) + 23 more
2 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): Elvis Dumervil (2005), Lamar Jackson (2016)
All-time wins
Wins at programs this site tracks, 1936–present — one consistent count for every coach, not each program’s own historically reported total.
1st all-time at Louisville
Was he good?
The data leans positive, where the data can separate from zero: every conclusive reading points the same way.
+18.8 pts at Louisville · #80 of 1290 · top quarter