Bobby Petrino knew quarterback Taylen Green could become a big-time college football star when he first watched film of the recruit in 2020. He just didn't know he would have to wait four years to coach him.
Petrino, then the coach at Missouri State, was excited about Green's big arm and duality as a runner but quickly realized a player of Green's caliber wasn't going to end up in the FCS.
"I had a bunch of young guys on the staff, aggressive recruiters," Petrino told reporters during Arkansas' practices in the spring. "They brought Taylen to me and they were all fired up. They had great talks with him. And I said, 'We ain't getting him. Sorry guys, we're not getting him'. (It was) just because of his ability, his size and speed and the way he can throw the ball."
Three years later Petrino returned to the sport's big stage as an offensive coordinator in the SEC, and as luck would have it, Green entered the transfer portal just days after Petrino was hired to serve as Arkansas' playcaller.
The Boise State star was fresh off a standout performance in the Mountain West Conference Championship Game, where he was named the MVP after completing 12 of 15 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns while adding 90 yards and two more scores on the ground. Days before the performance, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman issued an order to Petrino.
"When I got here, coach Pitt said, 'Go get a quarterback. Do whatever you want to do. Get us a quarterback,'" Petrino said.
Rated the nation's No. 47 quarterback in the portal by 247Sports, Green was No. 1 on Petrino's board.
"The thing I was most impressed (with) was when I was talking to him: I could see him picturing the plays and the formations and everything in his mind and his ability to do that," Petrino said in the spring. "I've always felt that's the one thing a quarterback has to be able to do."
Arguably one of the sport's best play-callers, Petrino is known for his photographic memory. So it's easy to see why he admired Green's mental acuity and quickly fell in love (again) with Green in December.
Green emerged in the spring as Arkansas' successor to K.J. Jefferson, who broke several school passing records before departing in January for UCF. In the season opener last week against UAPB, Green was electric, throwing for 229 yards and two touchdowns. On the ground, he added 88 yards and two more scores on six carries in a 70-0 win. It was the largest margin of victory in nearly 100 years for the Razorbacks, who also became the first FBS team in 20 years to score a touchdown on their first 10 possessions of a season. They piled up 687 yards, ranking third in program history.
"Bobby, I'm sure he feels pretty good tonight," Pittman said after the game. "Ten tries and 10 touchdowns, that's hard to do. I don't care who you play. ... it's the first time in history that's happened, and it happened when Bobby came back. The legend is going to continue to grow. Good for him, he deserves it."
Arkansas fans quickly compared Green's night to the heydays of Matt Jones, the long-legged quarterback who terrorized SEC defenses with his running ability in the early 2000s. For Petrino, Green is very much a quarterback in the mold of Lamar Jackson, who he coached to a Heisman Trophy previously at Louisville. Comparisons aside, Arkansas fans were in a fervor during the season opener, especially after watching their Hogs sink to a 4-8 season behind a milquetoast offense in 2023.
"We've seen him at practice, and we thought he'd play like he did," Pittman last week. "We didn't know how well he would run. We knew he was fast, but we just hadn't seen it."
Green is one of 11 players on Arkansas' roster who topped out at 22 mph in sprints during the offseason. When he arrived at Arkansas in January, however, he struggled with his throwing mechanics and foot placement on drops. His over-the-top release was especially sloppy.
"He's 6-foot-6," Petrino said in the spring. "He's an outlier, so his advantage is to be 6-6. When he first got here he was dropping down and sometimes making himself 6-foot. That's been tremendous improvement, just his technique and his release and his accuracy have went way up."
Green also added 12 pounds of muscle to his frame, bulking up to 230 pounds. Whether he can surpass his numbers at Boise State over the last two seasons -- 3,794 yards and 25 touchdowns against 15 interceptions while also rushing for 1,022 yards and 19 scores -- against SEC defenses remains to be seen. But a strong performance may be enough to push the Hogs to a bowl game in a crucial season for Pittman's job security.
"He's pretty special," Petrino said. "When he turns it on and that stride and that speed that he has, he can really run."
