New Razorback QB Coach Another Part of Putting Memphis Band Back Together

It didn't take Arkansas long for Ryan Silverfield to fill a hole that may not have been expected earlier this week.

Maybe not surprisingly, it's just another addition to the staff that was at Memphis under Silverfield.

Tigers quarterback coach Mitch Stewart is the new quarterbacks coach for the Razorbacks, per a report from 247Sports' Matt Zenitz. Former Hogs quarterbacks coach Clint Trickett left to be Maryland's offensive coordinator on Tuesday.

In the world of college football where everybody appears to be playing musical chairs and the trick is not be left without a chair these days.

Players have the transfer portal, coaches have buyouts but these days contracts appear more to be little more than a nodding agreement between all of the parties.

At least until the 1990's, some teams simply stated job terms for head coaches on an index card. That was all former Arkansas coach Kenny Hatfield had until he hired an agent from Florida and former athletic direct Frank Broyles wan't really big on that idea.

Hatfield left quickly for a job at Clemson where he'd never even visited the town or the school that anyone has found out about all these years later.

Nobody would even be surprised these days at a coach doing that.

Stewart was going to be the wide receivers coach at South Alabama, but is now joining the former Tigers staff looking to see if they can re-capture the success there in the SEC. We'll see how that plays out and confidence levels on it vary depending on who you talk to.

Stewart had been an offensive analyst at Memphis in 2024 before moving to the quarterbacks coach spot last year. He will be directly under offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey and the two know each other pretty well because they were doing the same thing last year for the Tigers.

It's probably not a stretch to think that Cramsey was good with the hire. Silverfield hiring Stewart without the stamp of approval from Cramsey probably wasn't going to happen.

All of it worked at Memphis. Two years ago they were 11-2 and the offense was ranked high in college football, especially in time of possession (33:14 per game). The Hogs haven't done that an awful lot, especially the last couple of seasons under Bobby Petrino's offense.

Whether that makes a difference or not depends on how you do your analytics. Like most of all those stats, it depends on the interpretation but the Tigers were able to do more than just hang onto the ball for awhile.

Memphis was 17th in third-down conversion percentage (46.1%) and 20th in passing yards per game with 270.5

The biggest question is does he have the players to make it all work?

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jackson wearing a VR camera like starter Taylen Green during fall camp practices on the outdoor fields in Fayetteville, Ark. | Andy Hodges-Hogs On SI Images

KJ Jackson was the presumed starter, but Silverfield made it clear in a press conference Tuesday that nothing was guaranteed at this point for anybody. We'll see how that plays out in spring practice.

Even that won't really settle things. It all depends on how this offense can handle SEC defense.

Don't bother reminding folks how the Tigers beat the Razorbacks last season. That probably isn't the win over an SEC team anybody would want to use to prove a position group can do against the other teams in the league.

Stewart and Cramsey are going to try, though. How it works out might depend more on how the guys running the plays develop.