Bobby Petrino is seeking a chance at redemption as Arkansas’ interim HC. Though the role is temporary for him, Petrino knows that he is a serious shot at the job he once had. However, Arkansas is yet to take the final call. They’re still looking for more names, and one interesting name has come up in consideration. In fact, he’s making a serious pitch for the job himself, despite having recently come back to college football.

Sam Pittman’s departure made Petrino an easy choice to take care of things at Fayetteville during this crisis. He’s created top-ranking offenses in this season and the last. And, he used to don the head coach cap during the heydays of his career. He looks set to make his way back to that role eventually. But Dan Mullen seems to be giving him a tough competition. Arkansas insider Mike Irwin reported that the UNLV coach is “lobbying hard” to get the job. The question is, what are the circumstances that revolve around this big jump?

Mullen is coming up as a consideration not just for the Arkansas job, as some want him at UCLA and Virginia Tech. And the former Florida coach has just returned to the arena after a break with UNLV. Dan Mullen is 4-0 with the Rebels so far, but has yet to begin conference play. It’ll be a huge move for someone who’s just returned to an arena where he struggled in the end. But Dan Mullen felt a connection when UNLV pitched him. “When I looked at things, one, I wanted to come in. I want to have to start from scratch,” he told Jim Rome about his decision to choose the Rebels.

Mullen, of course, has more than a decade’s worth of head coaching experience. He spent 9 seasons with Mississippi State and put the program on the SEC’s map during his tenure. And he’d had a really great time at Gainesville, too, having produced two double-digit finishes with the Gators. In 2020, he took Florida to the SEC Championship game – a feat that seems like a distant memory ever since Billy Napier took the job. Dan Mullen still has a job to do at UNLV and is so far proving to be good in his comeback to coaching. He’s on a 5-year contract that should pay him $17.5 million, getting $3.5 million a year. He’ll still have $14 million up for grabs after 2025, but UNLV might be struggling to hold up its end of the contract.

The money might be a huge factor for the coach to consider moving out. He said recently that he’ll “still be here next year.” But UNLV has also admitted in March that it only has funds to pay Mullen for the first two years of his contract. The Rebels took a huge risk by hiring a high-profile coach like him to take over. But they don’t have enough juice to keep him for the long run. If 2027 already seems murky for Dan Mullen, he might as well just leave next year. There are a lot of places that can consider him to take over, after all. He’s already making his case at Fayetteville, per Irwin. But he will still have to beat out Bobby Petrino, who seems like a done deal for the Razorbacks.

Bobby Petrino might receive good news from Arkansas

Petrino was initially rehired for just 2 years by Arkansas in 2023. But his results in 2024 appealed to the board enough to keep him on for one more year.  Now that Sam Pittman is out, Petrino is serious about establishing himself as the top choice. CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello reported that the interim HC “has expressed his desire to be a candidate for the full-time job” to AD Hunter Yurachek. And according to Mike Irwin, Petrino is “considered a long shot” by Arkansas football. His efforts are getting him close to where he wanted to be.

Bobby Petrino already has one foot through the door. He produced a 10-win and 11-win season in his last years at Arkansas, and has once again created an offense that ranks No. 10 in the FBS. Petrino seemed to have an inkling that this crisis was bound to happen and was already planning ahead. “I will tell you from the people I’ve spoken to, Bobby Petrino has been working them phones, baby,” Marcello revealed before Petrino was named the stand-in. “He’s been talking a lot behind the scenes. He’s positioning himself to take over the Arkansas football program at least on an interim basis, if Sam Pittman is fired,” he added.

Bobby Petrino is locked in on securing the position for himself. He knows his way around the program, and wants the program — and fans — to forget his dramatic exit from Fayetteville. Dan Mullen is also an extremely good candidate for the role, but he’ll have to plan his way ahead in college football carefully after this season.