College Football Message Board: Arkansas Frustrations, Kentucky Breakthrough and Grumors at Oklahoma

After Week 3, we examine the reactions fans had to their team’s play, coaching decisions and more to determine if the sentiment is warranted.

Is it time for Jon Gruden to return to college football? | USA TODAY Sports

One of the great things—perhaps the greatest thing—about college football is there’s always something you’ve never seen before every Saturday during the season. Week 3 certainly reinforced it with a few teams snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat and a few others doing the opposite. 

Fan bases across the country did the only thing they could in the aftermath: channel their grief (or excitement) into posting online comments they may want back in a few weeks. 

The Monday Morning Message Board is here to help however and make sense of the weekend that was and all those complicated feelings which flow from results few expected. Here’s a sampling of some of those reactions. To continue the conversation, join SI’s free College Football Forums to give us your thoughts.  

Ryan Silverfield will be the head coach of the varsity football team at the University of Arkansas at the beginning of the 2027 season. —nschlut.bsky.social

It felt wholly appropriate on Saturday morning, as if the universe was conspiring to send a message to Arkansas fans about the, ahem, stinky state of their team, to see a skunk running around pregame at Razorback Stadium. Attendance this past weekend was announced as roughly 10,000 fewer than capacity (a generous estimate, based on crowd shots), and some in the crowd on a hot day to see the team steamrolled by Georgia showed their displeasure by wearing paper bags over their heads. 

Such frustrations directed at the state of the football program do not seem to be entirely about new coach Ryan Silverfield and it does not appear either rational or irrational sections of the fan base want to see him run out of town after just three games in charge. Yes the results have been bad (a 1–2 start with both losses coming by a combined 61 points), but the angst in Fayetteville, Ark., is being directed at the school’s administration, athletic director Hunter Yurachek in particular, for letting it get to this point. 

Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield is in his first season and already feeling what it’s like to be at one of the least-resourced teams in the SEC. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

That’s a good thing, actually, because if the Hogs want to dig themselves out of the basement of the SEC, it’s going to take investment that has not been there since NIL/revenue sharing arrived. It certainly is not present with their current roster which is among the lowest paid in the conference. The university’s board already seems to have taken the hint and indicated it is going to review how it can enhance resources for the program (i.e. raise money). Until that produces tangible dollars to upgrade the caliber of players coming in, the rest of this season could be a rough reminder that if you’re not spending at a certain level, don’t expect a competitive team.

Silverfield will be back in 2027 even if it will be hard to judge what he’s capable of against a schedule that really may offer up two or three potential wins the rest of the way.

I have absolutely zero idea what the last two weeks of Kentucky’s schedule says about them, Alabama or Texas A&M. —jackluminous420.bsky.social

I think it says plenty about the Wildcats being a competitive team under Will Stein as much as it does the margin for error in the SEC is just not what it once was as the league’s middle class has improved significantly. 

Stein talked a big game during the preseason and as much as you like that kind of confidence out of a young coach before games are being played, what really allowed others to buy in to what Kentucky was going to do this season had to be the personnel moves the Cats made to significantly make the roster better. Quarterback Kenny Minchey was an excellent find out of the portal who a lot of other programs wanted, tailback CJ Baxter seems healthy and capable of carrying the load on the ground and Kentucky has enough in the trenches to where it won’t get pushed around this season.

That’s a recipe for success that showed up in leading Alabama at halftime and then beating Texas A&M this past weekend in College Station, Texas. Kentucky has a brutal stretch in its final seven games, but it is capable of winning more than it loses based on what we’ve seen so far. That’s not an indictment of the Tide struggling for a stretch in Week 2 or the Aggies faltering in a game where they were a significant favorite. Instead, it’s a reminder that the gap between anybody on a given Saturday isn’t quite what it once was and teams like Kentucky are capable of giving anybody a game even if some opponents have a much higher ranking next to their name at kickoff. 

Does Louisville buck the Jeff Brohm tradition of losing as a favorite after a big win? —villefan.bsky.social

Speaking of the state of football in the commonwealth, the Cardinals’ impressive second half to beat a good SMU team might have been one of their biggest wins in recent memory considering that’s a game they seemingly found ways to lose in the past. I really like what I’ve seen out of quarterback Lincoln Kienholz. He seems like the kind of QB who will continue to get better as the season wears on under Brohm’s tutelage. Perhaps most encouraging was running back Isaac Brown’s resurgence against the Mustangs to add to a formidable offense that should be right behind Miami as the best in the ACC.

The schedule sets up nicely, and the Cardinals should be favored in every remaining game. That’s as much about their conference opposition as it is the strength we’ve seen from Louisville so far. If everything aligned nicely to make a College Football Playoff run, this 2026 campaign just might be it. 

Via the folks at Message Board Geniuses

#Oklahoma Offensive Coordinator Hot Board Version 1.0:
1. Art Briles
2. Jon Gruden pic.twitter.com/vwOAzyzMJu

— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) September 20, 2026

What a great combination of absurdity this is, from the potential to bring back a coach who is persona non grata at the FBS level to thinking Grumors is the way to salvation in Norman, Okla. 

That said, the frustration about Oklahoma’s offense is understandable after it scored just 14 points against New Mexico on Saturday and faltered on the road at Michigan two weeks ago. The Sooners have the eighth-worst scoring offense among Power 4 teams and are 99th in FBS in yards per play. What’s worse, all of the issues that plagued the team a year ago—the lack of a consistent run game, John Mateer throwing the ball inaccurately when there’s a hand in his face—doesn’t seem to have improved at all. OC Ben Arbuckle will draw plenty of the ire for that, but head coach Brent Venables also deserves plenty of the blame because his conservative, defense-first mindset is always going to handcuff the team’s offense a bit from returning to the days where the Sooners were throwing it all around the yard under Lincoln Riley and for stretches under Bob Stoops. 

I’m not sure either of those two names are realistic options for any team, much less Oklahoma, but you could definitely see some changes to the play-calling setup if the Sooners can’t move the ball at all against Georgia and Texas the next few weeks.

Too many angry posts to sort out calling for Dave Doeren to be fired at NC State

Don’t think anyone will blame them for wanting Doeren out, which is something to keep in mind once he rallies the team in Raleigh and puts together yet another good-but-not-great season. While making a change for change’s sake tends not to work out for most college football programs, the Wolfpack might make an exception after losing in the most inexplicable fashion at Vanderbilt. 

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