It's Time For Arkansas To Make A Change At Offensive Coordinator

FAYETTEVILLE — It's time for Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield to cut ties with offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey.

Arkansas' defense nor its special teams unit were perfect in Saturday's game, especially in the second half. But with a competent offense, Arkansas would've beaten Auburn on Saturday inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.

The problem was that Arkansas' offense, as it has been for much of the season, was largely imcompetent. QB KJ Jackson went only 14-30 passing for 188 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He didn't have over 100 yards passing until early in the fourth quarter.

To the offense's credit, the run game worked at times on Saturday. Both Sutton Smith and Cam Settles had huge runs that got the Hogs deep into Auburn territory, and Braylen Russell scored the Razorbacks' first touchdown of the day.

But the ground game dried up late in the fourth quarter, and Cramsey didn't bother keeping the ball on the ground late in the third after Settles' long run, instead opting to call a bizarre play action play that resulted in a sack and a field goal from Max Gilbert.

Arguably the worst P4 defense Arkansas has faced all season. Averaging just 2.13 sacks per game this season, and they sacked KJ Jackson 6 times. Gives up an SEC-worst 408.1 yards per game, holds Arkansas to 352. Giving up 25.3 points per game, holds Arkansas to 23. #wps
— Trey Biddy (@TreyBiddy) November 7, 2026

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The first half was arguably more maddening. Arkansas took a 10-0 lead but, despite Auburn's best efforts to shoot itself in the foot constantly, couldn't add to its lead. Jackson threw a terrible interception into double coverage as the Razorbacks opted to put the ball in the air with a two-score lead rather than keeping its momentum up on the ground.

To Cramsey's credit, the Hogs had a nice drive to tie the game at 23 on Arkansas' second-to-last drive of the afternoon. But with the Hogs trailing 26-23, Jackson committed an intentional grounding penalty that all but sealed the game.

The offense made some clutch plays on Saturday and showed more life than it did against Missouri, but against a poor Auburn defense, that's not necessarily worth writing home about. Arkansas' poor defensive play in the fourth quarter and atrocious special teams effort deserve their share of the blame for Saturday's loss, but the ineptness of Arkansas' offense has been a constant throughout the season.

Had Saturday's game been an outlier, it would be excusable. But Cramsey's offense, which entered Saturday ranking 114th of 138 FBS teams in total offense at 336.1 yards per game and 19.6 points per game, has been consistently lackluster.

After Saturday, Arkansas is averaging only 17.5 points per game in its six SEC contests this season.

When asked on Nov. 2 about in-season staff changes, Silverfield said he's willing to make whatever move necessary to help his team. Cutting ties with a longtime colleague and friend in Cramsey may be tough, but so far, it's hard to say that Cramsey has justified keeping his job until the end of the season and certainly hasn't done enough to come back in 2027.

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