Arkansas May Have Found Hidden Gem on Silverfield’s Coaching Staff

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When Arkansas hired Ryan Silverfield in November, he vowed in his introductory press conference that he would assemble one of the best coaching staffs in the nation.

While talk is often cheap, he was able to do just that by surrounding himself with plenty of head coaching experience at coordinator spots along with several veteran assistants.

Special teams coordinator Chad Lunsford has been around college football, entering his 31st season of a career that started at Georgia Military College in 1996 as a student assistant.

He climbed the ranks of the Southeastern United States with other stops at Appalachian State (2001-02) as tight ends coach. Then, he'd go on to spend 13 of the next 19 years at Georgia Southern where he climbed from an off-field capacity to head coach by 2017.

Arkansas special teams coordinator Chad Lunsford during his time as Georgia Southern's coach during a game against the Razorbacks in 2021 at Razorback Stadium. | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Lunsford spent many years under current Houston coach Willie Fritz, who helped elevate GSU from FCS status to the FBS level in 2014 with back-to-back nine-win seasons. Fritz decided to take over another rebuilding job at Tulane in 2016, leaving the keys to the rising Eagles program to Tyson Summers who ended his tenure fired after less than two seasons on the job.

Amid an 0-6 start in 2017, Lunsford was promoted from his role as special teams coach to serve as interim, which began one of the greatest turnarounds in Group of Five conference history. Under Summers, the Eagles fell to 5-13 overall including losing 10 of their last 11 games.

GSU instantly became competitive under Lunsford's watch, winning two of its final three regular season games to go into the offseason with momentum. While most predicted the Eagles to finish as also-rans by Sun Belt Conference media members, the Eagles won a program record 10 games, including a 6-2 record in league play and victory over Eastern Michigan in the Camelia Bowl.

Lunsford's extensive experience as a head coach and director of special teams operations gives Silverfield a coach he can trust to have his unit in order.

"As the special teams coordinator you get to touch the entire team," Lunsford said Wednesday. "I love that aspect of it. I tried to kind of grow myself in that in that role and was able to get a special teams coordinator job at Georgia Southern and really got interlocked with the entire team. Then, it ended up leading to a head coaching job, which as the head coach, I continued to do special teams."

Lunsford's teams were always active in special teams during his time at GSU, earning him a Broyles Award nomination for his body of work in 2016. He developed two NFL kickers in Younhoe Koo and Tyler Bass before being elevated to lead GSU from 2017-21.

In just over four seasons in charge, Lunsford went 28-21 overall with three consecutive bowl appearances, and remains the only coach in school history to win at least two bowl games.

Following his ouster from the Eagles, he went on to a successful stint at Florida Atlantic where he built a nationally regarded special teams unit from 2022-24. His success with the Owls gave him the opportunity to take his talents to Auburn, where he developed kicker Alex McPherson to a career-high 20 field goals.

Auburn Tigers special teams coordinator Chad Lunsford talks with Auburn Tigers defensive back Jay Crawford (23) during Auburn Tigers A-Day football practice at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, April 12, 2025. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

His touch on the Tigers' special teams was immediately noticeable as the punting unit allowed just six yards per return (No. 5 SEC) and his kickoff team yielded only 22.95 yards per return returns (No. 3 SEC) in 2025.

Now at Arkansas, Lunsford will have another chance to have his fingerprints on the whole roster, although he is still attempting to perfect what his unit will look like in 2026. The Razorbacks added Cal Poly punter Jesse Ehrlich, who averaged over 43 yards per punt last season.

"I spent a lot of time visiting with coaches, spent a lot of time trying to understand what a kicker, punter, snapper looks like because you got to do a tremendous job of evaluating them," Lunsford said. "A lot like the quarterback, you don't have a whole lot of room to miss on a guy.

"You've got to go make sure you get the right guy at other positions, maybe at running back, linebacker, whatever, you can take guys that maybe aren't all the way polished and really develop them. Whereas at kicker and punter, there's a little bit of room for development, but you don't have as many guys on the team."

Lunsford knows what it takes to turnaround a struggling program and has the mentality to help improve the Razorbacks in a hurry. Silverfield probably knows anytime there's success that his coaching staff can be poached.

With Lunsford's previous heroics, there's a chance his stay at Arkansas won't be long either if the Razorbacks enjoy immediate success within two seasons.

While Lunsford's journey up the coaching ladder paid off, he appreciates the small victories inside a roster that it takes to foster a culture and change the perception of a program. He was instrumental in that once before and can do so once again, this time in the SEC.

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