Petrino's fourth down philosophy to be tested in second run with Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas continues to try and transition away from the Sam Pittman era as interim coach Bobby Petrino takes over the controls once again.

Petrino will serve as both the final decision-maker on in-game decisions, including 4th downs and when to call to a timeout.

Petrino has chosen to retain play calling duties, which means he will know and make decisions immediately, which should make the process move faster and run smoother. Arkansas has only gone for it three times on fourth down, the second fewest of any FBS team through five games.

In four of the five full seasons under Pittman, Arkansas finished in the Top 40 in the FBS on fourth down conversion percentage, but never finished in the Top 70 in number of attempts on fourth down.

"You understand when you are going to call a timeout," Petrino said about retaking controls of the in-game decisions. "When you want to keep going and when you want to flow, how it goes. So it actually makes the play calling a little bit easier in the two minute situations, end of half situations. Whether you're going to go for it on fourth down or not, you're thinking ahead on that and not just hearing it through the headset."

Petrino's fourth down decision making will be put into practice for the first time since 2022 when he was the head coach at Missouri State. Analytics have become far more pervasive in the sport since then, but definitely since he was last at the controls as a Razorback coach in 2011.

"It does matter besides analytics," Petrino said. "It matters who their Mike linebacker is, who our right guard is, [it] matters who their left defensive end is, who our tight end is, and it's not just a computer game where you punch it in and say, analytics says, go for it."

With Petrino, expect Arkansas to at least be slightly more willing to roll the dice on fourth down. Petrino described himself as an "aggressive person."

Pittman opted not to go for it on 4th-and-2 at the Ole Miss 33-yard line, instead choosing to kick a 51-yard field goal, which true freshman Scott Starzyk missed.

Arkansas never recovered on the field after that moment and spent the rest of the night chasing the Rebels in an eventual 41-35 loss.

Coaches have never been more aggressive in the a new era of college football. According to CBS Sports, the number of raw fourth down attempts go up from 20% to 25.4% in just the span of eight years.

Pittman relied heavily on a book provided by Championship Analytics (CAI) in 2022. It was also the lone year that Arkansas saw its conversion rate plummet to just 45%, after sitting in the 60s every other season. 104 out of the 136 FBS teams have consulted with CAI.

Petrino will blend analytics and feel, but tries to keep it more of a people question than a math equation.

"It's a good way to hide when you make a bad decision," Petrino said about anaytics. "So maybe I'll say that on 4th-and-1 if we get stopped, I'll say, well, analytics told me I should go for it. But I'm not going to do that. I believe in the players. It's a player driven game."

Arkansas will face off against Tennessee 3:15 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.

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