Silverfield puts career on line if Yurachek falls short of promises

Will Arkansas' athletics director follow through on vow made following ouster of Pittman?

Memphis' coach Ryan Silverfield looks down the field during the game between Tulsa and Memphis at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tenn. | Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Arkansas Razorbacks hired Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield to fill its void following the firing of sixth-year coach Sam Pittman, but the Hogs are going to have to stick to their word if he is to bring his level of success with him.

Perhaps coincidentally, once it seemed like the Razorbacks' coaching search began to wind down just ahead of November, the Tigers' season took a nosedive as they went 0-3 down the stretch to finish 8-4 after being ranked for much of the season.

While at Memphis, Silverfield went 50-24 overall, including back-to-back 10-win seasons, but fell just short of projections. The Tigers were expected to contend not only for an American Conference championship, but were a Group of Five favorite for a College Football Playoff berth, especially after taking down Arkansas back in September.

Officially in town @RSilverfield 📍🐗 pic.twitter.com/uz9vXCPEza

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) November 30, 2025

Now, his successful coaching career transitions to Northwest Arkansas where Silverfield takes over a program that's trekked through hard times since 2012. Things are low for the Razorbacks after stumbling to their third 2-10 campaign in the previous seven seasons.

“It became clear during our conversations that Coach Silverfield shares our vision of making the College Football Playoffs and competing for a national championship.

With our new and significant financial investment in the football program, we are confident we now have the coach and resources to make that happen. Throughout the search process, Coach Silverfield’s proven ability to win games over a sustained period separated him from the pack and make him the right choice to be our next head football coach.

His teams at Memphis have been consistent winners since he took over the program in 2019. The knowledge of our state and region he brings along with the ability to build and maintain a program will provide a great foundation for our program moving forward.

Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek

Silverfield hasn't truly been a program builder across the Mississippi River, but he did maintain it well. Justin Fuentes managed to scratch out a double-digit win season once and Norvell became a highly sought commodity when he did it twice.

However, both of his predecessors accomplished that under the old way of college football. Tasked with basically starting from scratch as the sport evolved into the world of the transfer portal and NIL shortly after Silverfield was hired in December of 2019, same as Sam Pittman at Arkansas, Memphis still maintained a high level of success, knocking off Power Four programs four times while posting two more double-digit win seasons.

While Silverfield has shown he can be productive with Group of Five resources, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek must cash checks with promises he made last September or his latest hire will more than likely flame out regardless of how well he can coach.

"I received a charge from our board to come back to Chancellor [Charles] Robinson and then with a plan of how we can increase the head coaches’ pool, the assistant coaches’ pool, the support staff pool, the operational pool moving forward, and how we would support the increases in that," Yurachek said.

First words from your Head Hog 🎤 pic.twitter.com/keGjID7w1c

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) November 30, 2025

"I have an opportunity to do that in the next couple of weeks, and I truly believe that we will be able to have everything that we have needed in place to attract the best head coach for our program and give that coach the resources they need to be competitive in the SEC."

When Yurachek speaks of resources, he must certainly offer Silverfield a chance to be successful in recruiting. Arkansas has remained in the bottom four or five teams in the SEC in recruiting resources for many years.

At one point, the Razorbacks' recruiting budget rivaled that of Alabama and Georgia while Chad Morris was around, but seemingly dissolved over the course of Pittman's tenure. It's nearly impossible to build a roster off high school recruiting anymore and Yurachek is quite aware of that.

"[The next hire] has got to be able to embrace and adapt to what is a changing environment in college athletics, and to be able to have some advanced scouting that's really in-depth, and you can go head-first into the transfer portal," Yurachek said. "That's the way you're going to build a program quickly.

Arkansas Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek on the sidelines during the game with the Ole Miss Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

"The days of bringing in 25 or 30 freshmen and thinking that you can turn a program with freshmen, they're going to go by the wayside, especially in football, and you've got to be able to really use that transfer portal, and that takes some in-depth, advanced scouting across Division II, FCS, G6 and even Power Four so that when that transfer portal opens up, you're ready to hit the ground running and we're going to provide that staff with the resources they need to do so."

Arkansas must start catching up with other schools across the country by hiring more off-field staff members. Additionally, an expansion to its recruiting staff would pay dividends as the NCAA doesn't put a cap on the size of coaching staffs.

Obviously, Silverfield wouldn't have taken the job if he suspects his new boss can't provide the necessary resources to compete against the SEC.

Pretty nice view from 🆙🔝 pic.twitter.com/2PJposTqB7

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) November 30, 2025

"We saw with the hiring of coach [John] Calipari and what we were able to do there with him and his staff and what that’s meant to our basketball program," Yurachek said. "We can build a similar model within reason for our football program. There'll be people across this state that will step up for us.

"There’s an opportunity for the university to potentially help us, and we’re continuing to look at new ways to generate revenue within our athletics program. Our football program is far too important to the health of our athletics program for us to take it for granted."