[4] While at Carroll, he played quarterback for the Fighting Saints and began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant during the 1983 season.

The next year, he began a three-year stint as offensive coordinator at Utah State University, reuniting with Smith.

Petrino's first stint in the NFL was with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 1999 to 2001, where he spent two seasons as the quarterbacks coach and a third as offensive coordinator.

After only one season at Louisville, Petrino secretly interviewed for the coaching job at Auburn, as the Tigers were considering whether to retain his former boss, Tuberville.

[12] On January 7, 2007, less than six months after signing the 10-year contract above, it was announced Petrino had accepted the head coaching position for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.

However, before Petrino's first training camp, it emerged that Vick had bankrolled an illegal dog fighting operation near his hometown in Newport News, Virginia.

The terms of Vick's bail barred him from leaving Virginia before the November 26 trial, ending any realistic chance of him playing a meaningful down in 2007.

In a case of exceptionally bad timing, the Falcons had traded Vick's backup, Matt Schaub, to the Houston Texans in the offseason.

Thus, Petrino was forced to begin the season with back-ups Joey Harrington, Byron Leftwich, and Chris Redman as his quarterbacks.

On December 10, 2007, with the Falcons at the bottom of the NFC South with a 3–10 record after suffering a home loss to the division rival New Orleans Saints, Petrino resigned to become head coach at Arkansas, less than 24 hours after personally promising owner Arthur Blank that he was staying in Atlanta.

[24] Arkansas would go on to finish the season 8–5 after beating the Conference-USA champion East Carolina Pirates in the 2010 Liberty Bowl, 20–17 in OT.

The Razorbacks also enjoyed success under Petrino in the 2010 season, finishing 10–2 and notching their first major bowl appearance in two decades, against Ohio State.

In the 2011 Sugar Bowl, Ohio State built an early lead behind the play of Terrelle Pryor and Daniel Herron, but Arkansas came back in the second half.

The Hogs concluded the 2011 season with an 11–2 record, with their only losses at Alabama and at LSU, both of whom played in the BCS national championship game.

He was riding with former Arkansas All-SEC volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, whom he had hired on March 28 as student-athlete development coordinator for the football program after she served as a fundraiser in the Razorback Foundation.

According to The Athletic, shortly after the accident, Larry Henry of KFSM-TV got a tip from "a lock-down, high-up source" at the university that Petrino was not really alone on the motorcycle.

The police investigation revealed that Petrino and Dorrell refused offers to call 911, then flagged down a passing car who drove them to a Fayetteville diner.

[28] In the course of hiring Dorrell, according to Sports Illustrated, Petrino also circumvented university affirmative action guidelines requiring job postings to be listed for 30 days before interviews could begin.

In July, Petrino contacted Smith and members of his former team, including quarterback Tyler Wilson, who said the outreach provided "a little closure."

He also expressed profound remorse for his actions, and his deep admiration for the Arkansas Razorback football program, stating that he was a different person from the man who was fired seven years earlier.

On December 10, 2012, Western Kentucky hired Petrino as their new head coach, replacing Willie Taggart, who had departed for South Florida.

[37] In Petrino's only season at WKU, the Hilltoppers began with a second straight win over Kentucky and finished with an 8–4 record; however, they were not invited to a bowl game.

After Charlie Strong left Louisville for the University of Texas, Petrino was rumored as one of the candidates to become the next head coach, even after his departure in 2007.

However, in early 2014, Eric Crawford of WDRB recalled that athletic director Tom Jurich had been somewhat critical of Petrino's tenure there.

Petrino led the Cardinals to a 2–8 record in 2018, which included a seven game losing streak and consecutive blowout losses to rival ACC teams Clemson and Syracuse.

Days after the loss to Syracuse, Louisville fired Petrino on November 11, 2018, agreeing to buy out the remaining $14.1 million of his contract.

Athletic director Vince Tyra said that he did not believe the players were responding under Petrino, and felt he needed to make an immediate change to start the turnaround.

In a postmortem, ESPN's Andrea Adelson wrote that Jackson's presence masked serious deficiencies in the Louisville program that were exposed in full in 2018.

[43] In Petrino's first season with Missouri State, the Bears compiled a 5–4 record and were selected to compete in the FCS playoffs for the first time since 1990.

[49] Petrino's tenure as the offensive coordinator for Texas A&M lasted one season, as he was not retained by new head coach Mike Elko.