Ryan Silverfield Doesn't Intend On Letting His Football Obituary Be Written At Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE — Many fans and a lot of people around the country gave up on the 2026 Arkansas football season when the Razorbacks trailed No. 17 Utah 29-3 at halftime on Saturday. Arkansas went on to lose 43-10.

There are still 10 games left in the season, including Saturday's 11 a.m. tilt against No. 2 Georgia in Razorback Stadium. But after an underwhelming Week 1 win and a Week 2 loss in which the Razorbacks were outmatched in every aspect of the game, excitement around Razorbacks football is about as low as it's ever been in mid-September.

That's not a position head coach Ryan Silverfield, who went 50-25 at Memphis, has been in often.

"I’ll shoulder the blame," Silverfield said Monday. "But everybody in this program didn’t do a good enough job... And I understand that. Rightfully so, there should be people that should criticize the performance out there on Saturday. I can completely understand that. I’m not blind to that. But also at the same point, the options — listen, I want our fans to be excited to show up on Saturday and to give them a great product to cheer about and a belief in what we’re doing — but the outside noise, that’s out of our control.

"There’s not enough time to worry about those opinions. I want our players to find ways to continue to improve. And as long as they’re doing that and there’s belief within our locker room, the belief with the way we go about our program and the process and being able to trust that process, we’ll be OK. Where I would be concerned is if that process was no longer being trusted. But we’re two games in."

Sep 5, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Ryan Silverfield during warmups prior to the game against the North Alabama Lions at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Silverfield, 46, is in his 28th year of coaching football. He's coached in the NFL, including in the NFC championship game, and has experienced just about every high and low the game has to offer. But Saturday's loss, his first as the head coach at a Power Four program, took on a new level of national relevancy at a program that is desperate for any semblance of success.

"In my 28 years, there’s a lot of people who have tried to write my obituary," Silverfield said. "And guess what? They haven’t done so yet. And we’ll keep coming out swinging and I plan on doing this thing for a long time and find ways to improve every week."

The road for Silverfield the rest of the year won't be easy. In addition to hosting Georgia on Saturday, Arkansas will play five other top 20 teams this year: No. 1 Texas, No. 7 LSU, No. 9 Texas A&M, No. 15 Tennessee and No. 20 Missouri. The rest of their SEC schedule is comprised of a road trip to Vanderbilt (2-0), a road trip to Auburn (2-0), and a home game against South Carolina (2-0).

Arguably the only game Arkansas might be favored in the rest of the way is their final non-conference tilt against Tulsa in Fayetteville on Sept. 26. Still, even if Arkansas wins that game, the possibility of a fourth 2-10 season in nine years is on the table.

There are still winnable games ahead provided Arkansas flushes Saturday's result and steadily gets better, but if the team doesn't markedly improve, the season could get out of hand in a hurry.

Silverfield's coaching obituary hasn't been written yet and may not end up getting written at Arkansas, but he won't get much grace from fans or pundits if things don't turn around soon.

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