The Arkansas Razorbacks were not competitive in their Week 5 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday, losing 56-13 in a game that showed just how far the Razorbacks are from truly competing against the elite teams in college football. This was enough for the program to make a decision on the future of their head coaching situation.
Sam Pittman’s first five years at Arkansas were largely a mixed bag, finishing over .500 in three seasons while struggling to the tune of a four-win season in 2023 and a three-win season in 2020. And the 2025 season has been much of the same, winning their first two games of the year before losing the last three as their competition got tougher.
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Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek seemingly hasn’t loved the trajectory of the football team after the blowout loss to Notre Dame on Saturday. And this led to the program parting ways with Pittman on Sunday in the middle of his sixth season at Arkansas.
A total record of 32-34 over Pittman’s six years at the program simply isn’t good enough for a once-proud Arkansas football program. So it will be interesting to see who they ultimately choose to lead the program into the next era in Fayetteville.
As for who will ultimately lead the program for the remainder of the 2025 season, it will be a familiar face that a select portion of Arkansas football fans are quite fond of. Former Arkansas head coach and current offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino will reportedly become the interim head coach at Arkansas moving forward, according to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports.
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Despite the fact that Petrino’s tenure as head coach at Arkansas ended in scandal, he did have a level of success at the program that very few ever had. In fact, Petrino was able to lead Arkansas to back-to-back double-digit win seasons, a feat that hadn’t been done since the 1988 and 1989 seasons.
It remains to be seen whether Petrino will get a real shot to be the long-term head coach again at Arkansas. But at the very least, he provides a level of comfort for Arkansas fans for the time being as they figure out the direction of the program moving forward.