UNLV Football: Bobby Petrino Named Offensive Coordinator, Per Reports
Former Louisville Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino is headed to Vegas to work under new Rebels coach Barry Odom.
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A big splash.
After UNLV brought in Barry Odom to be its new head football coach last week, the Rebels have made an arguably bigger splash in news first broken by ESPN’s Chris Low.
Bobby Petrino, who has spent the last three seasons as the head coach at FCS Missouri State, will head to Las Vegas to join Odom as the Rebels’ offensive coordinator. It will mark the first time he’s held such a position since 2002, as since that time he has twice been a head coach at Louisville, leading the Cardinals to an Orange Bowl appearance during his first stint in 2006 and engineering Lamar Jackson’s Heisman Trophy-winning season during the second stint in 2016, and led the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons as well as Western Kentucky and Arkansas in the FBS ranks.
Petrino, however, has often made headlines off the field as well as often as he has with his offensive acumen on it. In 2012, he was fired from Arkansas after an infamous motorcycle incident in which it was revealed he’d lied about having an affair and gifting money in exchange for an off-field staff position. That came after he left the Falcons for the Razorbacks under dubious circumstances in the wake of Michael Vick’s indefinite suspension in 2007, which had itself come after Petrino bolted Louisville for the first time roughly six months after signing a ten-year contract in the summer of 2006.
There’s little doubt that, on the field, however, he can be an asset for the Rebels, particularly quarterback Doug Brumfield. He’s posted an overall record of 137-71 as a head coach at both the FBS and FCS ranks, finishing in the top 25 nine times with just three losing campaigns across 17 seasons. In addition to guiding Jackson’s memorable ascent, other quarterbacks like Ryan Mallett, Brian Brohm, and Jason Shelley have also thrived under Petrino’s tutelage.
https://twitter.com/unlvfootball/status/1603526597255913472?t=pAVuNdKJqyskB2dHTgOzaw&s=19
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