Pittman on hiring Petrino as OC at Arkansas - 'I want to win' - ESPN

DALLAS — Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said Thursday he knew his hiring of offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino would be controversial, but he remains convinced that bringing back Petrino was what was best for the program.

The Hogs are coming off a 4-8 record a year ago, and Pittman is well aware of the hot-seat talk and the narrative that Petrino might be a popular choice to replace him if things don't go well this season.

«I want to win. I don't care about all the rest of it,» Pittman told ESPN during an interview at SEC media days. «This has never ever, ever been about me. I'm grateful to be the head coach at Arkansas, and I'm trying to make the people of the state of Arkansas, the team and the staff proud to be a part of the program.»

Pittman, who has a home in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and plans to retire there, paused and said with a firm smile, «Now, if they send me down to Hot Springs, it wouldn't be the end of the world.»

To be clear, he's not planning on going anywhere, and while he said the media may not like this team in its predictions, he likes this team and said that bringing Petrino aboard was something he carefully considered before making the decision.

«He's got instant credibility,» Pittman said. «I mean, I'm not for sure there's a whole lot of coaches that would've hired him.»

Petrino, widely considered one of the top offensive minds in football, was Arkansas' head coach from 2008 to '11 and led the Hogs to 21 wins and top-15 finishes his last two seasons. He remains extremely popular among many of the fans. But prior to the 2012 season, he was fired in the wake of a scandal after misleading his bosses about an affair he was having with a woman staffer whom he had hired. It all came to light after Petrino