Arkansas Football Must Make Effort to Repair Broken Relationship with Fans

New Razorbacks football coach Ryan Silverfield is dealing with an issue that perhaps no new coach at Arkansas has ever faced. He and his players have to somehow push through a giant wall of fan apathy, which is almost unheard of when there is a coaching change.

Making a move at the top, especially considering how hard a large number of fans were pushing to replace former head coach Sam Pittman, almost always comes with a big burst of energy for the next chapter.

That's just not the case in Fayetteville right now. Fans have clearly adopted a "Talk to me when they bother winning a game" approach.

Seriously, that is the most common phrase out the mouth and keyboard of Hogs fans. They aren't interested in all the coach speak and slogans that come with a new guy hitting the door.

The combination of repeating "All In" and "You don't come to play for the University of Arkansas, you come to play for the state of Arkansas" not only hasn't pumped fans up, it's given them flashbacks to the previous two coaches and has borderline made them mad to see or hear those words.

When they hear "All In," fans immediately make a mental turn to Chad Morris and his constant reprisal of "Left Lane, Hammer Down." The last thing Hogs fans want to hear is another slogan, even if there is a meaning to each letter.

It's almost caused a lot of them to turn on Silverfield without watching him coach a game. They literally label him a fraud like Chad Morris because of something so petty.

As for the constant use of the phrase about coming to play for the state of Arkansas, while they believe it's true, Razorbacks fans link it to Pittman. He said it often as he roped it into his "Proud Damn State" phrase later in his tenure.

Silverfield might was well be leaning against a jukebox every time he says it. As a result, a lot of fans unfairly tuned him out before he even got to spring practice.

As a result, Arkansas football has an image problem. As in literally no one sees them.

That shouldn't be possible. As stated, for numerous reasons, fans typically want to know everything possible about a new regime and its players.

However, after years of watching computer data to analyze what Razorbacks fans want to talk about and read, football rates as low as it's ever been. Perhaps it's because more than a decade of average to bad play has worn on Hogs fans, but they literally don't care.

At this point we are writing stories covering spring practice because it's the right thing to do, not because it's a good use of resources. Basketball still draws massive numbers, then there is a gap to baseball that is wider than normal because hitting struggles, occasional pitching adversity and even bad fielding have Dave Van Horn's Hogs looking down right average.

However, far below the woes of the baseball team resides the attention paid by fans to anything football. They don't know the coaches, don't know the players and they don't care.

Beyond Quincy Rhodes, Jr. and cult favorite Maddox Lassiter, they don't know anyone on this team, which is ironic considering how much money had to be given to these players for names fans don't know, images they don't recognize and likenesses they have no clue if they like.

Even head coach Ryan Silverfield, after his podcast tour he did a couple of months ago, could be picking out his favorite flavor of cereal in the grocery aisle among six or seven hard core Razorbacks fans and not get recognized.

It will be interesting to see if it impacts ticket sales. Razorbacks Athletics could be facing the perfect storm.

Fans have been upset about rising costs for a product that hasn't shown little to no improvement throughout the tenure of its last six or so coaches. It's hard to keep up with how many took the reigns here and there after Bobby Petrino's motorcycle accident.

They also checked out and never checked back in around halftime of the Notre Dame game last season. Based on the analytics, there is a real chance a lot of fans don't come back to the stadium this year.

The schedule isn't doing Silverfield any favors. Four wins is going to be a big achievement, which won't exactly have people breaking down the gates to get in.

North Alabama, Tulsa, South Carolina and maybe a surprise win at Utah offer opportunities for wins, but not much else. If the Hogs drop one of those games, it might can be made up with an upset of Vanderbilt.

Either way, four wins looks like the destiny, which, although it's technically twice as many wins as last year, will keep fans heavily steeped in apathy. Silverfield needs to find a way to make a personal connection with fans.

His players need to get out in the community and engage with the people of Arkansas. Whether it's painting fences, popping up on local radio unexpectedly to talk about their lives and why they chose Arkansas without demanding more cash, or showing up in the local bowling alley to host some sort of non-Razorbacks related fundraiser, there has to be connection.

And no, hiding everything about these players and staff that might humanize them behind a Hogs+ subscription pay wall isn't going to do it. The soul of Arkansas fans isn't for sale.

It might even be worth dragging those old fashioned Sunday afternoon coach's shows back on broadcast television where Silverfield watches highlights and provides commentary as to what's going on and the thought process behind it to connect with the people.

Pretty much any effort at all is a step in the right direction. Otherwise, fan apathy will prematurely sour yet another tenure.

The relationship between Arkansas football and its fans is broken. It's time to make true effort to fix it.

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