Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino was reviewing game film from a loss to Texas A&M when a play he should have called differently jumped out at him.

Then he spotted another.

Why, he wondered, did he call that particular play? Another pick from the Razorbacks’ playbook would have surely put the offense in better position to score on the Aggies.

Arkansas lost that game 58-10 and was an abysmal 1 of 5 inside the 20-yard line. Critical breakdowns in what the Razorbacks call the critical zone wiped out potential scoring opportunities and Petrino felt there was plenty of blame on his end for the way he called the game.

Petrino’s view wasn’t formed only from hindsight. He was watching plays filmed from an angle above the field, and it provided him with information he wasn’t able to process from the sideline.

“I just felt like there was a couple of things that I kicked myself in the butt that I would have come back to, to be honest with you,” Petrino said.

A week later Petrino was again kicking himself in the butt. Just for a different reason.

Why, he wondered after abandoning the sidelines for a seat in the coaches’ box, hadn’t he made the move sooner? Sitting inside the Jordan-Hare Stadium press box at Auburn made him much more comfortable during the game.

Arkansas (2-4, 1-2) put together one of its more complete offensive performances Saturday in a 24-7 victory against Auburn. Petrino felt he was able to more effectively mix the run and the pass because he had a view of the entire field for himself.

Having a better sense of what the defense was doing helped him adjust his play calls. Petrino dialed up more play action passes and bootlegs with quarterback Tyler Wilson, moves that seemed to keep the Tigers’ defense off balance.

While the Razorbacks didn’t put up record-breaking numbers of total yards — 372 was actually one of the lowest outputs of the season — they did enjoy one of their more productive days in the red zone (3 of 4) and rushing offense (116 yards). Wilson’s totals against Auburn weren’t spectacular. He finished with 281 yards passing and no touchdowns, but his 78-percent completion rate was the highest of the season and kept the offense moving.

“He was in the box, calling plays which I think gave us a tremendous advantage in terms of things he was able to see up there,” Wilson said.

Having Petrino in the booth also improved the back-and-forth between the coach and his quarterback. Oddly enough, the three stories separating the field and box actually improved communicating for Petrino and Wilson. They figured being face to face would help on the field, but there were just too many distractions to keep their conversations efficient and productive.