Bobby Petrino is aware of what's going to happen.
He has been called a lot of things over the years.
The job he did in resurrecting amoribund Missouri State program and turning the Bears into title contender speaks for itself. When his team travels to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the focus will be on the past, not the present.
The picture of him with a battered red face and neck brace after a motorcycle wreck that set off a chain of events leading to his dismissal at Arkansas is the first thing that pops up when someone searches for him.
Ten years after an accident and national embarrassment that followed, Bobby Petrino is returning to Arkansas to face the school he was supposed to play for a national championship in 2011.
"Unfortunately, I will always be able to carry that with me, how it ended there," he said.
Between the end of his time at Arkansas and a previous reputation for job-hopping and profanity-laden rants, there's not much ground for his reputation.
When you hear my name, there's a reaction. It's probably more negative and a lot of that is on me. A lot of them don't know me. They know what happened when I was fired at Arkansas and how bad I was at handling things.
Jeff thought it was a joke.
On April 1, 2012 the then-Arkansas athletic director received a call that his football coach had been in a motorcycle accident.
The accident involved no other individuals, according to the Arkansas statement. The news conference that Petrino held on April 3 was against the wishes of Long and others. A media member asked if he was alone on the motorcycle as he was leaving the room.
But then, minutes before an Arkansas State Police report was scheduled to come out, Long said Petrino acknowledged that Jessica Dorrell, a 25-year-old female staff member, was also on the motorcycle. After Arkansas launched an investigation, Long held a news conference and announced that Petrino had been placed on administrative leave. According to Long, Dorrell said that she had received $20,000 to buy a car.
On the night of April 10, Long held another news conference and announced that he had fired Petrino.
Long said that it wasn't an extramarital affair that got Bobby fired. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to fire him for that. He was fired because he lied so many times. The piece of deception that got him was a lie. I still think Bobby is a great football coach and knew that when I hired him.
The statement from Petrino accepted full responsibility for what had happened.
"I let a lot of people down, my players at Arkansas, all the great fans there who had been so good to us and supported us and everybody in my family -- but nobody more than my wife," Petrino said during a sit-down interview with the sports network. It has been the hardest on her. She's been incredible, even though I embarrassed her.
Had it not been for my family and forgiveness, I don't know if I would have come back from it. We were fighting and loved each other.
It was clear to the Arkansas administration that it wasn't possible for Bobby to stay as coach. The program that had gone 21-5 in the last two seasons and was ranked No. 5 in the AP poll was picking up the pieces from the scandal that affected this area.
"He was winning games, so we knew some fans would not be happy about it," said David Gearhart, who received anonymous, threatening letters and spent several weeks with a police officer outside his office.
The Razorbacks were still trying to recover from Petrino's dismissal. The Razorbacks won 12 SEC games in the last two years. The Razorbacks won 13 in the eight years after that.
The Razorbacks are currently ranked 10th in the AP Top 25.
"I'm thankful for the man," he said. It will be different on Saturday. I don't think we would have recruited as well if it weren't for him, because we were able to use his success to show that we could do it here.
He doesn't know what kind of reception he's going to get from the crowd. He got a standing ovation when he spoke at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in 2019.
D.J. Williams, an All-SEC tight end at Arkansas under Petrino and now a Little Rock news anchor, said that it will be interesting to see how many people equate him to getting Arkansas back to winning.
A lot of the players were told by their coach to do the right things, but they went off and did things that were not in line with what being a man is about. People mess up because of grace. Everyone told us how good we were, and we thought we were bulletproof. Maybe he did the same thing.
After the Arkansas debacle, Petrino took a break. After one season at Western Kentucky, he was hired by Tom Jurich again. After he was fired at Arkansas, Petrino reached out to Jurich.
"I told him the only way I would talk to him was face-to-face, and he drove all night to Louisville," said Jurich, who was fired at Louisville in the wake of a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in recruiting.
The only times in school history that the team finished in the top 10 was in 2004 and 2006. The former players were vocal in their support.
Eric Wood, a Pro Bowl center for the Buffalo Bills, said that he ended up being a first-round draft pick because of the pressure Bobby Petrino put on him. I quote him a lot today. Sometimes, I remove curse words if I'm around my family, but I learn a lot from him.
It was ugly at the end of the tour. After a heartbreaking loss to Florida State in Week 5 of the season, the Cards went on to lose their final nine games. The Louisville AD decided to fire Petrino with two games to go in his contract.
The man who resigned as Louisville's AD didn't want to talk about the details of Petrino's departure.
The time with Bobby was difficult, but I enjoyed my time there. I'm sure he would concur.
There was never a connection between the players and the coaches on that team, according to C.J. The Cards went 21-11 in league games over the course of four years.
Lorenzo Ward, Louisville's assistant head coach and defensive backs coach, said the death of Petrino's father affected him a lot. Bob Petrino died a week before preseason camp started. He played for his father at the college. After his retirement, Bob Petrino was a frequent visitor at his son's practices and was willing to give his opinion.
According to Ward, people don't realize what his father meant to him. We had to make Bobby go back home to be with his father because he struggled with that. He wanted to stay on the team.
To friends and foes alike, Petrino is an odd man out. An offensive guru who takes teams to unprecedented heights while often leaving on bad terms and alienating some players, coaches and administrators A man who embarrassed his family on the biggest stage.
The Razorbacks won 11 games and beat Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl under Tyler Wilson. Wilson said that he was an acquired taste.
"My sincere statement has always been that Bobby Petrino was one of the greatest coaches that I played for or was around," Wilson said. I didn't like the way he talked to people and treated them, but I appreciated the mentality he brought.
I realized that mentality was not geared to an individual. It was designed to create a harder individual, to create a tougher individual and to create a tougher player.
One of the best offensive minds in the game is still being considered by many. He elevated Arkansas and Louisville to national relevance for the first time in years and has won more games as a college head coach than any other coach in the country.
"He could take a group of college students and put them out there on the field and help them win football games, that's what he could do," said Jeff Brohm, who was the coach at Western Kentucky and Louisville. He is a good coach.
The way his players are coached and the things they do on offense is phenomenal. I have always respected Bobby as a coach, even though I don't know him very well. He is one of the toughest people I have faced.
His on-field success is obvious, but it was his demeanor, his reputation for always looking for his next job and the manner in which he left jobs that drew criticism. Petrino is a different kind of professional nomad. He has been a coach at Missouri State for 17 years.
In 2003 there was the "JetGate" scandal, when Louisville coach Bobby Petrino was secretly interviewing for the job at another school. He interviewed with LSU, Notre Dame and the Oakland Raiders before signing a 10-year contract with Louisville. He became the Atlanta Falcons head coach.
The Falcons had a terrible season in 2007, and with three games left in the season, Bobby Petrino left to become the head coach at Arkansas.
The Falcons' players and assistant coaches were angry. He left notes in the locker room. He was skewered by his defensive coach a few years later, who called him a "gutless bastard".
It's never an easy way to do it, but that's not how it should be. I want to have it back but I have to own it. I would have liked to know the players better with the Falcons. I was too aggressive.
The football program at Missouri State was in bad shape.
The Bears finished the year with a 1-10 record. They haven't been to the playoffs in 25 years. Clif Smart said there was a serious discussion about dissolving the program.
He was fired at Louisville and sat out in 2019. He wrote a book about football and traveled to visit his friends and coaches. Petrino didn't get a head-coaching opportunity after two hiring cycles. Missouri State's job opened late in January 2020. Kyle Moats was the AD at Missouri State when he worked with Petrino at Louisville.
Smart said that they needed to change the game. Bobby did it very quickly.
It was called a Hail Mary by some. It was an easy risk to take, as Smart grew up in Arkansas and sold sodas at the games.
Smart said that football drives everything in college athletics. He's shown us that we can win in football at Missouri State and do it the right way, even if he's here for one more year or 10 more years.
When Smart called, Larry Benz immediately recommended hiring Petrino. Both Smart and Benz were in the army.
"Fall down nine times and get up 10 is a good example of the proverb," Benz said.
The family is in Springfield. The ones who are old enough to talk are the ones who call him coach. His son is in charge of the offense. One of his sons-in-law is his defensive line coach.
The small office on the second floor of the athletics center is empty of items from previous stops. There are no pictures of memorable wins, helmets or bowl trophies. Most of the photos on his shelves are of his children.
There are many different versions of him. Scott was a member of the 2006 Louisville team that went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl and was coached by Bobby Petrino.
After 34 years as a college coach, Petrino isn't sure if he will ever get another chance. He makes less than most SEC position coaches. The Bears travel to half of their road games on a bus and the stadium capacity is 17,500.
There are plans for a project that would house a new locker room, meeting rooms, coaches' offices and club seating at Missouri State, thanks to the back-to-back appearances in the playoffs.
"I'm in a great place right now, mentally and physically," he said. A lot of kids are getting second chances here at Missouri State.
The Bears have 47 transfers on their roster, including a star quarterback. After starting his career at Utah, he moved to Utah State and then to Missouri State, where he was named the Missouri Valley Conference's offensive player of the year.
The 'Bad News Bears' were given a nickname by Missouri State's quarterback, who threw five touchdown passes in the win over UT Martin. Everybody has a tale to tell. Everyone has a struggle that brought them to this point.
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