College Football HQ

SEC fanbase already organizing protest of their school’s head coaching hire

Alex Weber|
Arkansas Razorback fans
Arkansas Razorback fans | Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader / USA TODAY NETWORK

College football's game of musical chairs in the SEC coaching carousel reached several resolutions on Sunday following Saturday's final regular season slate of the year. Lane Kiffin is apparently headed to LSU, with USF's Alex Golesh heading to Auburn, Tulane's Jon Sumrall heading to Florida, and Memphis' Ryan Silverfield heading to Arkansas.

Except, the ink may not be dry on one of those, or so fans hope. Obviously, Kiffin is the big fish, the huge headliner, but right now, it's Arkansas and the Ryan Silverfield hire that's boiling to an impasse down in Ozark country. Silverfield wasn't quite as hot a name as Sumrall or Golesh this season and led his Tigers to a weaker year than either the Bulls or Green Wave wound up with, which has Hogs fans upset that they couldn't nab a better candidate.

Remember the Greg Schiano hire at Tennessee back in 2017? His deal was announced to the world and Tennessee fans all but insurrected against the school's athletic department, digging up the dirt they could find (or make up) on Schiano to help convince Volunteer brass to renege on the choice, which they famously did. Now, Arkansas fans are apparently picketing on the streets and campaigning for a rally against their new football hire.

Alas, here the protestors were, with one young man calling for the job of athletic director Hunter Yurachek.

Report on Ryan Silverfield to Arkansas

Well, folks, it sounds like the Arkansas fans will be organizing a (peaceful) protest of the school's new head football coach, Ryan Silverfield. The good news for angry Razorback fans is that the Silverfield hire doesn't appear to be officially official. We merely received this report from trusted ESPN college football insider Adam Rittenberg on Sunday morning:

"Arkansas is set to hire Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield as its new football coach, sources confirmed to ESPN on Sunday," he wrote. "Silverfield, 46, is 50-25 at Memphis, including a win over Arkansas in September and four consecutive wins against Power 4 opponents, including West Virginia and Iowa State in bowl games the past two seasons."

It sure sounds like Arkansas leadership was impressed by Silverfield's win over the program plus his run of contention in a very strong edition of the American Conference. The Tigers did leap into the AP Top-25 at one point this season shortly after besting Arkansas on the road, but staggered toward a few more losses than they would have hoped to finish just 8-4 this season. Silverfield did win 11 games last season and 10 games the year before that at Memphis.

More on College Football HQ

Published | Modified
Alex Weber
ALEX WEBER

Born and raised in the state of Kentucky, Alex Weber has published articles for many of the largest college sports media brands in the country, including On3, Athlon Sports, FanSided, SB Nation, and others. Since 2022, he has also contributed for Kentucky Sports Radio, one of the largest team-specific college sports websites in the nation. In addition to his work in sports journalism, Alex manages content for a local magazine named ‘Goshen Living’ and coaches cross country and track.

Share on XFollow alexhweber