Bobby Petrino announces hiring of new defensive line coach at Arkansas
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Bobby Petrino is putting his stamp on the Arkansas coaching staff not even a week after taking over as interim head coach.
Petrino is hiring veteran NFL coach Jay Hayes to be the Razorbacks’ new defensive line coach, it was formally announced on Friday.
Hayes comes to Fayetteville with a ton of coaching experience in different leagues. Since 2022, he has served as the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach for the Arlington Renegades of the UFL. He also coached in 2021 in The Spring League, which is a developmental league, with the Jousters as their defensive coordinator and defensive line coach.
Right before that, in 2020, Hayes was the defensive coordinator and defensive line coach for the St. Louis Battlehawks’ inaugural season in the XFL.
But the bulk of Hayes’ coaching experience came over 2 decades in the NFL, starting in 1999 as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ special teams coach. He also coached with the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals, where he spent 13 seasons coaching the team’s defensive line. After his long and successful run in Cincinnati, Hayes coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive line for 2 seasons in 2016 and ’17 before finishing his 2-decade run in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers in 2018 as the team’s assistant defensive line coach.
Hayes played college football at Idaho, where he was a 4-year letterman, and he played professionally in the NFL, USFL and CFL before launching his long coaching career. He was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame in 1988 under former Razorbacks head coach Lou Holtz, and that year he helped Holtz lead the Fighting Irish to a national championship. Hayes also coached in the college ranks at California and Wisconsin before heading to the NFL for those 2 decades.
With Arkansas on a bye week, Hayes will start his new coaching life in Week 7 when the Hogs visit No. 15 Tennessee.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
