Five Reasons to Believe Arkansas Can Exceed Expectations This Season

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The dog days of summer are upon us and football is coming in hot.

While there hasn't been much hype or excitement surrounding the Arkansas Razorbacks this offseason, it's easy to continue feeding into negativity. It's also unfair to a brand new coaching staff, more than 80 new players and tell them how bad they are going to be before playing a single game together.

Silverfield Knows What Winning Looks Like

Every college football fan is sitting around waiting to see which program can become the next Indiana. But that success had to start somewhere, and that place for Curt Cignetti was taking James Madison to the FBS level in a stretch of five consecutive conference titles in two different divisions.

As good of a coach as Cignetti was prior to his arrival in Bloomington, Ind., he fell short of national championship expectations time and again. That was oftentimes spent having the best resources at the FCS-level, but he kept building.

To simply put it, coach Silverfield has been successful everywhere else he's been, but he's in big trouble because he's at Arkansas now. That's a point very hard to sell when the man hasn't been on a coaching staff with a losing record since his first season at the college level in 2006 at Central Florida.

Since taking over at Memphis, he's beaten the likes of Iowa State, West Virginia, Florida State, Mississippi State and Arkansas. While so skeptics will say that's not very impressive, the fact still remains that he's 5-1 against Power Conference opponents and 5-1 against coaches currently in the SEC.

If that doesn't cool the jets on him not deserving the Arkansas job then absolute truths won't help.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback AJ Hill during spring practice drills. | Arkansas Communications

What If Both Quarterbacks Are Actually Good?

Here's one that everyone has dissected to end throughout spring practice and into the offseason.

"Oh, Silverfield and Tim Cramsey brought their Memphis guy over to steal the job from KJ."

"It's KJ Jackson's job to lose."

There's one that always comes up when talking about the quarterback battle:

"If you've got two quarterbacks, you don't have none." -NFL legend John Madden

Now, there are some exceptions to the rule because no one knew Chris Leak had a inspirational leader behind him in Tim Tebow at Florida, who would soon become the most talked about football player for better or worse for much of the next six years. Their combination sparked a run to the national championship in Urban Meyer's second season at the helm.

That shouldn't be the expectation at Arkansas for now, but there is a chance both of KJ Jackson and AJ Hill turn out to be solid options for the starting quarterback job. They both made it to college as top-10 passers following prolific prep careers, but bring very different skillsets to the table.

While it'll be wise for this decision to play out in fall camp instead of into the season, there's a possibility that Arkansas will be fine with either quarterback leading the way.

Arkansas Razorbacks defensive back Khmori House makes one handed interception during spring practice. | Khmori House, Twitte

Secondary Thoroughly Improved

It doesn't matter how many points, yards or time of possession an offense has if the defense allows opponents to run wild all over them.

That's been the case for Arkansas most of the past decade, including finishes in the bottom 100 among FBS teams in pass coverage. Secondary coaches Eddie Hicks, Deron WIlson and CJ Wiliford plucked 14 defensive backs from the portal, signed for out of high school and have Miguel Mitchell as the lone returnee off a defense that gave up nearly 240 yards per game and 22 passing touchdowns.

Impact transfers such as Jahiem Johnson, La'Khi Roland, Carter Stoutmire, Christian Harrison, Khmori House and Shelton Lewis are all expected to play major roles in the rebuilt unit. Each of them have a history of forcing turnovers and other big plays, which will be an emphasis under defensive coordinator Ron Roberts this fall.

Arkansas Razorbacks running back Braylen Russell during spring practices. | Nilsen Roman-allHOGS Images

Braylen Russell Lives Up To Recruiting Hype

The Natural State native is in the best shape of his college career following a major offseason transformation from his listed playing weight in 2025.

That alone should help him become more explosive in the Razorbacks' rushing attack that will present more downhill physicality and shorter splits than in previous seasons.

Russell, 6-foot-1, 227 pounds, compiled more than 3,574 total yards of offense and 52 touchdowns over his final two seasons at the varsity level. Most of that damage was done during the first half of multiple games at Benton due to blowouts and mercy rules where he hardly played in the second half.

While he could've as easily entered the transfer portal again and received attention from teams across the country, Russell remained loyal to Arkansas and has inserted himsefl as a leader among the group of running backs.

“He's looking good, looking strong, looking a lot faster,” running backs coach David Johnson said during spring practice. “He's buying in. He's doing a good job of kind of being one of the leaders in that room.”

Defense Ranks Top-20 Nationally in Sacks

Now, this is going to be a bold prediction more than why the Razorbacks will exceed expectations as Arkansas has struggled to generate much of a pass rush the past two seasons.

With the move to a hybrid 3-4 defensive look, Roberts is wanting to bring pressure from several spots, which will in turn help the secondary out. Having someone like Quincy Rhodes, who is coming off a season with eight sacks, there are going to be others who will need to step up such as JACK linebackers such as Charlie Collins, Jamonta Waller and Steven Soles.

During his time at Kentucky, Soles was known by the nickname "Sack'Em" given to him by his father, and he defintely lived up to it given he was very productive under former coach Mark Stoops. There are other options to bring pressure, including linebacker Ja'Quavion Smith, who transferred in from Howard (FCS) and has already been praised by Silverfield throughout spring practice.

The Razorbacks recorded just 22 sacks last season, ranking No. 93 nationally but only 12 of those were made against SEC competition. Just improving to the mid-30s brings a team up toward the top-25, and it's never been easier to flip a position group to hopefully make it more productive.

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