Silverfield Already Addressed Much Prior to Today's Hogs Press Conference

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield and his staff will sit down with local media Tuesday afternoon in what should be the first real look into how the program is going to be run over the next couple of months and what the initial goals are going to be.

However, one thing there shouldn't be is a repeat of the questions that Silverfield covered at the high school coaches' meetings in Hot Springs and in other interviews he gave shortly after.

Now, some of the interviews at the coaches' meetings were difficult to understand because of microphone placement, so if something from those get repeated, it's understandable.

However, the sit down with "The Chuck & Bo Show" came through crystal clear and had plenty of revealing moments.

The first that stood out is that Silverfield has been running so hard trying to catch up and make sure he has a full roster and coaching staff that he admits he needs a moment to make sure he knows who everyone is, a notion to which Hogs fans fully relate.

"I think it's better to just, you know, bite the bullet and go hard for, you know, 60 days, 30 days, whatever that looks like, and then, at least you know your roster," Silverfield said. "Hopefully, I don't have to worry until the NCAA changes the rules on us tonight and the portal opens back up tomorrow."

For the Arkansas staff, the best way they could describe the whole process they faced once they hit the ground in Fayetteville was an intense round of speed dating where they had to be extremely careful to take note of the details because failing to do so could result in making a major mistake.

"Some of these guys are here for 18 hours," Silverfield said, stressing that short period often includes having several other potential signees around at the same time as well. "Some were here for 48, but just getting a feel for them. We had guys on our campus that I met with, and I said, 'You know what? This guy just does not fit us, right? I don't care how good a football player, character wise, he's not what we want our locker.' And we also had some guys that had some astronomical asking prices financially. We also felt that it wasn't the best fit for us moving forward."

In fact, those who were about the money right out the gate were usually written off for consideration regardless of skills.

"If it's all about the financials and all those things, it's not going to work," Silverfield said. "And I want to get people who are willing to work hard. We've been using the mantra 'All In' and they're bought in and all into the way we're going to do things and understand they're gonna be held accountable. I'd say half the people you talk to probably don't want that.

"Probably aren't about the accountability piece. Probably aren't about the true grind and the hard work that's going to take to get this thing back to where we want it. And so, yeah, you watch it. Oh, this guy's got unique skill sets, but, man, I don't, I don't think he's about what we want, but not just, you know, good football players, but ultimately, true guys that are about what we're going to be about here at Arkansas."

Silverfield says he has had to be careful to be more about character and work ethic while not letting himself get glamorized by star ratings and certain stats.

"So much of it is first and foremost [is] finding the right fit," Silverfield said. "You can watch film, and there may have been four SEC guys after one player, and you're hoping he makes it to your visit. Some never even made it to the visit. Some we got first, and they said, 'Hey, this is where I'm going to call home.'

"There's other guys that were not highly recruited, but we felt were the right fit for us. It's not you're going out there and saying, 'Hey, I'm just gonna go purchase, you know, [22 players for $1 million each] and I'm done with my roster.' It's finding the right pieces."

While the players he landed the last few months can't go anywhere, that's not been the case for the coaches. Defensive line coach Marion Hobby bolted after a couple of months at Arkansas to take a job with the Indianapolis Colts.

However, Silverfield's reaction was one that should have raised a lot of eyebrows among players as to how they will be viewed if they spend their time looking around elsewhere during the season.

"We wish coach [Marion} Hobby, nothing but the best," Silverfield said. "But the biggest thing is that we want people that really want to be here, so maybe sometimes things are best, right? Guys that want to be our coaches who are loving this place and understand what the how special this can be."

One thing he quickly asserted is how replaceable people who want to be elsewhere actually are when they try to leave.

"Let's not forget, we also hired Kynjee Cotton who's our defensive run game coordinator, defensive line. He's a defensive line coach," Silverfield said. "The guy left the NFL himself this past year to come to Arkansas. And I mean, that's huge. So we got, we've got guys coaching in there. We have quality control coaches as well. But you know, Coach Cotton himself could easily just run the whole room. So there's not a panic. There's not anything like this."

As for the players he has, Silverfield is still trying to get the last few names down. He also knows he isn't going to know a whole lot about these players for quite a while.

All he can do is point everyone toward the same goal of opening day and see who progresses the most between now and then.

"We are preparing for Game 1 today," Silverfield said. "We're preparing for Game 1 three days from now, right? Everything we do is preparing for the season. Let's not get that twisted, but we're not going to be in the same physical shape now, as we are going to be on Aug. 24 and that's okay."

One thing he's not going to do is get caught on the emotional roller coaster of viewing things from way too close. Instead, he will try to be patient and take a much wider view as often as he can.

"Nobody truly knows what we have," Silverfield said. "And I always say this. You will have a better idea come the end of September, but even through spring ball, right? If the offense has a good day, does that mean we're not very good on defense? If the defense has a good day, does that mean we're not good on offense? It's you want to see guys just going out there and competing, and they're doing so far so good in the offseason conditioning drills, but man, we'll have a better feel every every single day as this thing progresses."

Instead of looking to mentally construct a depth chart early on, he's instead looking to weed out those who don't appear to have the work ethic or necessary tools to carry this team forward.

"We just truly need to see growth potential," Silverfield said. "We need to see the guys progress every single day. And if we're not, that's where the issue in lies, right? Like if we're not getting better, if the guys aren't understanding, if we're not be able to communicate better, play faster, then we have issues. That's the biggest thing as we go into spring."

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