Ryan Silverfield did a lot of winning at Memphis, but not enough to win conference championships. How will that translate to Arkansas?
Ryan Silverfield was a winner at Memphis, but not a runaway rock-star. He won, but he also stumbled. He had a lot more success than failure, but he didn't improve upon what Mike Norvell left to him with the Tigers.
College football analyst Josh Robinson wrote that "Silverfield was with Memphis during one of the greatest periods in program history. In fact, you could easily make a strong argument that the period from Justin Fuente through Mike Norvell and on to Ryan Silverfield has been the golden era of Memphis Tigers football. Silverfield joined the Tigers in 2016. The Tigers won more than 10 games four different times with Silverfield on the coaching staff; he is personally responsible for two of them, and was a huge part of Norvell’s last year there, which saw them reach the Cotton Bowl. Before Silverfield, Memphis had two ten-win seasons in program history.
"If Silverfield can bring with him whatever it was he instilled into his Memphis Tiger teams, Arkansas will be in a better place from the season’s jump. Having a coach on staff who emphasizes winning and finishing strong can be the difference between an 8-4 team going to a bowl and a 2-10 team cleaning house. It seems like such a simple concept, but it can lead to a remarkably different season just by addressing something most people write off as mundane and armchair analysis. Finishing is real, and it changes a lot of different lives."
It really is a fascinating conversation and comparison. On one hand, Ryan Silverfield can come to Arkansas -- a 2-10 team in 2025 -- and say he knows how to win a lot more than the Hogs have recently done. This includes the Memphis win over Arkansas last season, in which this larger point about finishing was something Silverfield achieved and which Sam Pittman's Arkansas team failed to do.
Yet, Ryan Silverfield did not win the biggest games on Memphis' schedules. He didn't win conference championships. This could be seen as an indictment of Silverfield's ability to finish, but it could also be the humbling part of Silverfield's Memphis experience which teaches him how to grow and evolve in Fayetteville.
All of this underscores the basic point that Silverfield's body of work at Memphis doesn't offer clear clues of what his Arkansas tenure will be like. Skeptics will say Silverfield didn't max out at Memphis and is therefore not ready for the SEC. Supporters will say Silverfield won modestly and can now win at an even higher level because he has more resources at an SEC program.
We'll just have to wait to find out which way this thing will go.