FAYETTEVILLE -- Believe it or not, Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino is a Harley-Davidson rider.

He was at an auction last spring with his wife, Becky, when the next item up for bid was a red Harley-Davidson with the word "Hogwild" painted on it. His wife couldn't resist and outbid everyone for the motorcycle.

Since then, some motorists in Northwest Arkansas might have seen the coach pass them on the road around Beaver Lake with his wife sitting on the back of his Harley-Davidson.

"It's nice," Petrino said, smiling as he talked about his motorcycle. "It's a lot heavier than any bike I've driven before, but it drives great. Once you get the balance down, it's really easy to drive."

Consider him the Boss Hog.

Sure, Petrino doesn't look like many of the approximately 300,000 bikers who will ride into Fayetteville this week for Bikes, Blues & BBQ. He's clean-shaven, physically unassuming and more likely to be seen wearing a sweatsuit than a leather jacket.

But Petrino has been an avid rider since he was 10 and his friends taught him how to ride a dirt bike around his childhood home in Helena, Mont.

Along with the Harley-Davidson, Petrino owns four other motorcycles and his son, Nick, rides a Kawasaki that has no problem picking up speed.

"It's relaxing to me. You get out and you get to see good scenery, and I like to ride up to Beaver Lake. It's pretty up there," Petrino said. "I've been around the outdoors. I grew up around the outdoors my whole life."

As much as he'd like to be among the bikers on Dickson Street this week, Petrino won't get a chance to stop by Bikes, Blues & BBQ. He'll be too busy dealing with another set of Hogs -- in this case, his Arkansas football team as it prepares to face No. 7 Texas on Saturday.

Petrino said he doesn't get a chance to ride during the football season.

SEE PETRINO PAGE 3C

The last time he got on his motorcycle was in August when the Razorbacks had a weekend off at the end of two-a-day practices and before the season opener against Western Illinois.

"I think it's good for him," said Arkansas offensive Paul Petrino, Bobby's younger brother. "It's good for him to have something he likes, that he can kind of just get out and get away and let some stress off."

Paul Petrino doesn't ride anymore. He said he rode dirt bikes in the woods like every other kid who grows up in Montana, but he stayed away from motorcycles.

Bobby Petrino, on the other hand, graduated from dirt bikes to bigger, more powerful motorcycles. When one of his three sisters was dating her future husband, a young Petrino liked to hop on the boyfriend's Honda motorcycle and take off on it.

Petrino said he has never gotten into a bad accident on a motorcycle. But when he was a kid learning how to ride a dirt bike, he admits he and his friends didn't always stay on two wheels.

"Well, there was always the school of hard knocks," Petrino said. "We fell off a few times and learned about it."

Petrino is perhaps the least likely of all of Arkansas' football coaches that one might expect to see on the back of a Harley-Davidson. He's reserved at times and doesn't show much of a wild streak.

Arkansas backup quarterback Tyler Wilson said he could see defensive coordinator Willy Robinson -- who had a thick mustache before shaving it in the offseason -- on a motorcycle.

As for Petrino, Wilson doesn't see him as a rider.

But Wilson said the coach mentioned his passion for riding when he was recruiting the Greenwood High graduate last winter. Petrino talked about one of his recent trips on his motorcycle.

"But definitely (he) didn't strike you as a guy that would ride one around," Wilson said, smiling.