Bobby Petrino’s arrival as Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator was one of the most talked-about stories of the college football offseason.

Much of the conversation focused on whether Petrino, the former Louisville, Arkansas and Western Kentucky head coach who spent the past three seasons in the FCS at Missouri State, would get along with Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher and how much control Petrino would have over the offense.

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Fisher and Petrino both say things have gone smoothly so far at Texas A&M. On Saturday, any lingering intrigue over the coexistence of two big personalities will take a backseat to curiosity about what the Aggies’ offense will look like. For the first time in his head coaching career, Fisher is relinquishing play-calling duties. Petrino will be at the controls for Texas A&M’s season opener against New Mexico.

Few question Petrino’s track record as an offensive mastermind. But what does that mean for the Aggies in 2023? Statistical research, group interviews and a perusal of Petrino’s 482-page book “Inside the Pocket: An In-Depth Analysis of the Xs and Os” that he authored with Joe Metzka in 2020, provide several clues into what to expect from the Aggies this fall.

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‘Feed The Studs’

Petrino believes players should be central to play calling. In his book, he dubs the philosophy as F.T.S., which stands for “Feed the Studs.” The premise is simple: Get the ball to the best players. And he has an impressive collection of talent at his disposal this fall, from all-around weapon Ainias Smith to receivers Evan Stewart, Moose Muhammad III and Noah Thomas.

“I’ve never really called a play just because, ‘Oh, this is a fancy play, let’s call it,'” Petrino said in August. “You call plays for players. … I call a play to get the ball to Noah or Ainias or Evan or Moose.”

Petrino serves as A&M’s quarterback coach in addition to his coordinator duties, and that relationship is pivotal. Like most coaches, Petrino prefers a quarterback who’s a strong leader, with intelligence and arm talent. “I never like to say ‘arm strength,’” Petrino wrote in “Inside the Pocket.” “I think it’s about snapping wrists and fingers. That’s how you generate spin and the velocity to throw the ball.”

He likes quarterbacks with baseball backgrounds because they can often throw accurately from varying release points. Mobility is also important, whether the player is better suited to navigate the pocket or rack up rushing yards as a true dual-threat.

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Starting quarterback Conner Weigman checks many of those boxes. A high school baseball star, Weigman can effectively throw from multiple arm angles. He’s comfortable moving inside and outside the pocket as well as throwing on the run. Petrino said Weigman has done a good job of leading, complimented his quick release and accuracy and said he has a good understanding of coverages.

In Petrino’s book, he notes that “feeding the studs” begins with the game’s opening script. During weekly game planning at past stops, he would ask each offensive coach to give him three plays, and Petrino would add three of his own. The coaches would put them all on a board, sorted by category (runs, quick passes, dropback passes, play action, screens and draws), and from that list they would select the calls for the first series. As they discussed the series, it would quickly become clear who was or wasn’t getting the ball, and Petrino would adjust the script accordingly. “Great players play better if you get them the ball early,” Petrino wrote. “Confidence and momentum really go together.”

Petrino wrote that in the past, his opening game script was usually eight plays, but some years it was as many as 12. “I don’t think you need 20 or 25, that’s excessive to me because third downs and certain places on the field take precedence to staying on script,” he wrote. Petrino also prefers to script the first series of the third quarter to ensure his “studs” are getting the ball early in the second half.

There’s nuance in all of it. Matchups play a role. Players’ individual strengths dictate how Petrino wants to get them the ball, as do the defense’s counters to those actions. And after freshmen accounted for 27 starts along the offensive line last year, the health of that unit’s five returning starters will be critical to making it all work.

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“We study the defensive schemes, but we really study personnel to determine what matchups we can get for our ‘studs’ against their worst players,” Petrino wrote.

Tendencies

Expect Texas A&M to utilize a variety of formations and personnel packages under Petrino’s direction.

In the last three seasons, the Aggies have largely operated out of two personnel packages: 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three receivers) and 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers). With Fisher as the play caller from 2020 to ‘22, Texas A&M lined up in 11 personnel 67.2 percent of the time and in 12 personnel 16.4 percent of the time, according to TruMedia. No other personnel package was used more than three percent of the time over those three seasons.

In 33 games at Missouri State, Petrino used 11 personnel on 34.8 percent of snaps, 12 personnel on 23.3 percent of snaps and 10 personnel (one running back, no tight ends, four receivers) on 19.3 percent of snaps, per TruMedia.

Petrino also used two-back formations 15.2 percent of the time, compared to Texas A&M’s 7.2 percent over the last three seasons.

Aggies backup quarterback Max Johnson said he has seen much more variation in personnel packages in practice under Petrino. That includes three-tight end formations: Petrino used 13 personnel on 3.2 percent of snaps the last three seasons.

Empty formations, with only the quarterback in the backfield, will be seen regularly. “We will utilize empty in every game we play,” Petrino wrote in the book. At Missouri State, Petrino used empty on two percent of snaps, virtually all of them in five-receiver formations in order to work mismatches on the linebackers.

Fisher uses empty, too, but favors including tight ends in those formations. Texas A&M ran empty with one tight end 3.1 percent of the time and empty with two tight ends 1.2 percent of the time since 2020. The Aggies went five-wide only 0.2 percent of the time in the last three years.

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The run-pass split

Petrino and Fisher went head-to-head as coaches in the ACC (Petrino at Louisville, Fisher at Florida State), splitting the series 2-2. Fisher said he hired Petrino in part because of that familiarity and the similarities in philosophy.

“It’s not just all throw, it’s not it’s all pass,” Fisher said of Petrino’s offense. “It’s a balanced attack.”

The stats show that when it comes to emphasis on the balance between running and passing, the two have been similar in the last decade-plus.

“A lot of the things he believes in and how he looks at the game … we’re very similar in philosophical nature,” Fisher said.

Petrino and Fisher as HCs since '09

*Numbers are from all seasons spent as head coaches since 2009. Petrino did not coach in 2012 or ’19; Fisher was promoted to FSU head coach in 2010.

Tempo, option looks and more

The Aggies could play at a slightly faster pace than the methodical one Fisher has seemed to prefer, but recent history suggests it won’t be often. Both Petrino and Fisher have used an up-tempo pace in the past, but neither coach specializes in it.

In the last three seasons, Petrino’s offenses have moved slightly quicker than Fisher’s. At Missouri State, Petrino’s teams averaged 27.2 seconds of possession per play, per TruMedia. That would have ranked 89th among FBS teams from 2020 to ‘22.

In that same span, Fisher’s offenses averaged 28.1 seconds per play, which ranked 110th in the FBS from 2020 to ’22, per TruMedia.

Since 2009, Petrino’s teams have averaged 69 offensive snaps per game. On five occasions in that span, his teams have averaged more than 70 snaps per game. At Missouri State, the Bears averaged 66.1 offensive snaps in 2020, 70.5 snaps in 2021 and 63.4 snaps in 2022.

Since 2010, Fisher’s teams have averaged 66 offensive snaps per game but have gone over 70 snaps per game in only two seasons out of the last 13. In Fisher’s first season at A&M, the Aggies averaged 75.3 snaps per game, but they have averaged fewer than 68 snaps each of the last four years. Offensive snaps have trended down, going from 67.8 in 2020 to 65.6 in 2021 to 63 in 2022.

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Johnson said the team has been implementing more pace into the offense this offseason.

“We’re not gonna be helter-skelter and just go as fast as we can,” Petrino said. “(We prefer) the ability to change tempo: go fast, slow down, huddle, do different things. I think that has a bigger effect. … We (want) to create advantages in the run game, pass game and take advantage of personnel matchups.”

Run-pass options, or RPOs, have become prevalent across the sport. They are part of the offense, but Petrino wrote in his book that he doesn’t “major” in RPOs to alleviate strain on his quarterback.

“Lamar Jackson was doing so much read option and dropback pass, so every play was a decision for him,” Petrino wrote. “It became, ‘When are we going to give this guy a mental break?’ Then I heard Peyton Manning on TV saying, ‘You know, sometimes it’s good to just take a break and hand the ball off.’ That really resonated with me.”

The read option, in which the quarterback reads an unblocked defender and decides whether to hand the ball off or keep it, was a major part of Petrino’s offense with Jackson because of the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner’s athleticism. Because none of the Texas A&M quarterbacks possess the speed Jackson does, it’s unrealistic to expect as heavy a dose of read option.

The unknowns

Because Petrino has been away from FBS football since 2018, there’s the possibility he plans to incorporate fresh looks and ideas. His last three seasons at Missouri State offer helpful context, but he faced a different level of competition while turning around a struggling FCS program. The talent he has to work with at Texas A&M and the opponents he’ll face in the SEC provide a different dynamic.

Even though Petrino is the play caller and Fisher isn’t handling the bulk of the game planning as he was before, Petrino said he and Fisher have spent the offseason “putting in the Texas A&M Aggie offense together, with input from everybody.” So although Petrino’s past is informative, the merging of the two minds opens the potential for new wrinkles.

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“It’s not about me, it’s about the offense and the input that you get from all the assistants and from Coach (Fisher),” Petrino said. “I’m excited about it.”

To close out his book, Petrino summed up his offensive philosophy.

“We know we believe in taking care of the quarterback,” he wrote. “We believe in ‘feeding the studs,’ and doing that with personnel, formations and shifting. We believe in defeating the blitz, particularly with the run game, because you must run the football to win.

“We believe in effort and finish. We believe you get that done with fundamentally sound play. And maybe most importantly, you get the best out of great players by confronting them, demanding their best mental and physical effort and then coaching them hard on all the little details within everything they do, inside the Xs and Os.”

(Photo: Wesley Hitt / Getty Images)