Bobby Petrino made a guest speaking appearance at an event hosted by the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday, and he came ready to issue an apology to Razorback fans. Making his first trip back to Little Rock since being removed as the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Petrino reflected on the happier times he had in Little Rock.
“Little Rock has and will always be a special place to me,” Petrino said at the event. “I wanted to come here today and apologize to everyone for how things ended.”
Petrino was removed as head coach in April 2012 after it was discovered a motorcycle accident had a few more wrinkles to it than initially believed. Petrino had been involved with an Arkansas football staffer, Jessica Dorrell.
During the luncheon event, Petrino said the hardest part about the whole ordeal back in 2012 was not being able to address the team. His run at Arkansas was a solid one with the Razorbacks going 34-17 from 2008 through 2011. Petrino’s last team finished the season ranked No. 5 in the final AP Top 25 after winning the Cotton Bowl, which was a year after Arkansas made an appearance in the Sugar Bowl (notable for being the final game coached by Jim Tressel at Ohio State following the infamous tattoo scandal in Columbus). Arkansas has struggled mightily to duplicate the success of the Petrino era with just three winning seasons since 2012.
But Petrino thinks Chad Morris will get things cooking again with the program.
“This team will turn things around, but they need this fan base to stick with them. That is the only way they will get over the hump.” -Bobby Petrino
— LR Touchdown Club (@LRTouchdownClub) September 9, 2019
Arkansas won two games in 2018. They’re already halfway to that win total this season.