Why Silverfield Remains Calm On The Sidelines Even As Mistakes Pile Up For Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield has caught plenty of flack over his first season in Fayetteville for a variety of reasons.

One of them his demeanor on the sidelines, which can best be described as stoic. When the camera cuts to Silverfield during games, he is often silent and still.

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Ryan Silverfield. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

Given how poorly Arkansas has played in four of its first five games of the season, many fans are wondering why Silverfield hasn't lit into players more often, especially in moments such as when Arkansas incurred a penalty for having 12 men on the field against Texas A&M on Saturday.

"The only way I heard about that was my brother had mentioned it to me, and he's obviously known me my whole life," Silverfield said. "But for 28 years, as I've gotten older and more mature in this game and I grow every year, I've realized I have to be the calm one. Now, there's been times where, Utah, when we had a penalty, where I probably lost my cool on a player and got in his face. Maybe that made a difference for that player right then.

"The [12 men on the field] penalty, I wasn't going to throw my headset. We still had to play defense. We still had to go out there. OK, we made a terrible mistake. We still had to go out there and play defense and line up and try to get a stop and still hold them to a field goal."

Still, it would be nice for Silverfield to show a little bit more emotion, especially when a player makes a massive mistake. His calm demeanor comes off, especially to fans frustrated with losing, as lackadaisical moreso than mature.

That can be remedied if the Hogs start winning. Silverfield's sideline demeanor and his wardrobe choices, as well as what he says in his weekly Monday news conference, wouldn't be picked apart so much if Arkansas was winning. But it's not.

Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield during a game against North Alabama. | Nilsen Roman, Hogs On SI Images

People give Curt Cignetti a hard time about not showing any emotion," Silverfield said. "I was under a guy named Jim Caldwell. Jim Caldwell was a really good coach for the Lions, and a really good coach for the Colts. And people always gave him hard time. He doesn't show any emotion.

"For him to be the best head coach in the moment, was to stay within and have an understanding of what's going on. That doesn't mean that there's not things being said. The camera's not following me every second of the day."

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