Bobby Petrino

Bobby Petrino, hired as Missouri State's head football coach in January 2020, has gained renown as an offensive innovator during a 36-year career highlighted by 15 seasons as a head coach, including two stints at the University of Louisville (2003-06 and 2014-18) and another at the University of Arkansas (2008-11).

In all Bobby Petrino has gone 119-56 as a college head coach and finished in the Top 25 seven times, including Top 10 showings at Louisville in 2004 and 2006 and at Arkansas in 2011.

Bobby Petrino, whose other head-coaching stops were at Western Kentucky in 2013 and with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons in 2007, has seen his college teams reach 11 bowl games in all. He has also coached numerous All-Americans, most notably Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2016.

Bobby Petrino favors a wide-open, fast-paced offensive style, one he outlines in his book “Inside the Pocket: an In-Depth Analysis of the Xs and Os,” written with Joe Metzka, PhD, and released in February 2020. Petrino discusses various concepts, as well as his philosophy for developing QBs like Lamar, who ran or passed for over 13,000 yards while generating 119 touchdowns during his three-year collegiate career. In his Heisman-winning season, Lamar passed for 3,543 yards and 30 touchdowns, and rushed for 1,571 yards and 21 scores.

Bobby Petrino, a native of Lewistown, Mont., played quarterback for his father, Bobby Sr., at Carroll College in nearby Helena, then began his career as a graduate assistant at the same school. Over the next two decades he served as an assistant under head coaches John L. Smith (at Idaho, Utah State and Louisville), Bruce Snyder (at Arizona State), Tommy Tuberville (at Auburn), Chris Ault (at Nevada), Mike Price (at Weber State) and Tom Coughlin (with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars).

Bobby Petrino and his wife Becky have four children and six grandchildren.