Listening to Silverfield, Chaos in Store for Razorbacks' Spring Start

There weren't any bombshells in new Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield previewing spring practice with the media Wednesday afternoon. Nobody really should have expected any.

Since we've had a lot of experience with new coaches and their first spring practices, this one came without any promises or over-hyping of anybody at any position. There was more honesty than anything.

Maybe the best example is the quarterback question. Too many of us in the media and even fans will admittedly over-analyze things to death from the first snap of spring practice to the end of the season.

"I'll call it what it is," Silverfield said. "If we come out and you ask me post-practice, you know, hey, why was this? Who won the coin toss?"

💪💪 pic.twitter.com/ExNKrdk0RQ
— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) March 10, 2026

Right now the first guy under center may be the one that wins on a simple flip of the coin. You probably don't want to assume that will be the case when they start keeping score, but it is an honest assessment right now.

It may be much of the same for everywhere else on the field. "Open competition" for starting jobs and playing time appears to be the order of the day right now. The coaching staff doesn't know much of anything right now.

They've looked at every bit of previous game and practice film they can lay their hands on, but that doesn't really help when they are lined up in an SEC game. Nobody really knows what anybody can do.

Practices early in the spring may look that way, too. With the Hogs we've just about seen it all from the extremely organized to all-out chaos where you got the idea at times the guy in charge really didn't know what he was doing at the SEC level.

The bottom line to it all is this new coaching staff is on a learning curve about their players and what's going to be the best way to run things.

One thing was clear, though. Practices will be fast-paced and that includes the head coach running around like he's on fire.

"We bounce around, we move around," Silverfield said. "I used to wear one of those Nike watches. We'll see if I wear one now. I'm not very fast, and no one's ever called me an athlete, but I probably put on about 5 miles just running back and forth."

We've seen it before. Some of the previous coaches just looked lost while others appeared confused and we discovered later that wasn't an act. No prediction on Silverfield. We'll have to wait and see like everybody else.

"Like a wild man," Silverfield said. "Just trying to get, hey, I'm with the DBs now, no, let me go be with the offensive line now. Hey, gotta go handle the quarterbacks now. I may see something over there, it's across the field.

"it looks like I'm trying to run as fast as I can, going to tell a wide receiver something. Our coaches are the same. I told our coaches this morning, I want them coaching hard."

nothing like some team competition 💪 pic.twitter.com/MdSwaviIwX
— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) March 6, 2026

That includes celebrations. The guess is practices will be enthusiastic and that will slow down as practices grind through spring and fall camp.

It's honestly the only time Silverfield has to have an idea of exactly what he's got on the roster. Then everybody just has to hope it translates into something positive in games.

"Spring practice number one." he said. "There's gonna be some organized chaos and some things that we're gonna immediately say, hey, I'm gonna have to tell a coach or a quip manager or a video guy we need this over here, this should have been on this hash.

"Organize it to the best of our ability, but I think people are gonna say, okay, wow, there's a little bit of a flow to this thing."

We'll start looking for that by the third practice. Then everybody has to hope they don't forget it over spring break.

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