Candidates to replace Ryan Silverfield at Memphis

With Ryan Silverfield leaving to become the next head coach at Arkansas, AD Ed Scott will be tasked with making a new hire for the football program. Scott took over in 2024 and made a coaching hire for the softball team, but this will be the first hire he makes for a major sport at Memphis. 

Silverfield was promoted to the head coaching position after spending four seasons as an assistant under Mike Norvell. His first head coaching duties came as an interim in the 2019 Cotton Bowl against Penn State.

Silverfield coached the Tigers for six seasons and finished with a 50-25 record, but he failed to reach a conference championship game in his time at Memphis.

Memphis will be one of the best group of five jobs available, and there will be a lot of interest in the head coaching position.

Here are some early candidates that could be involved in the coaching search:

Offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey:

Tim Cramsey was hired ahead of the 2022 season after spending four years at Marshall, and he has been the offensive coordinator at Memphis for the last four seasons. Under Cramsey, the offense has found a lot of success, and the group just snapped a 51-game streak of scoring 20 points or more. 

Cramsey also served as the quarterbacks coach and worked closely with the quarterbacks, which was already a massive question going into the offseason.

This hire would be an attempt to keep most of the roster together and try to keep the recruiting class somewhat intact going into the early signing period on Wednesday. Cramsey doesn’t have any head coaching experience, but he’s been an offensive coordinator at the FBS level since 2012.

Power 5 Coordinator:

This is the path that the Tigers went down for the two hires before Silverfield. Memphis hired Justin Fuente after he spent three years as the offensive coordinator at TCU, and they hired Mike Norvell after he spent four seasons as the offensive coordinator at Arizona State. 

Both were hires that brought experience from the power five level, but they were also young coaches who were hungry for their shot as a head coach. Both hit the ground running and showed an elite ability to recruit. 

The challenge is finding that young coordinator who would be the right fit. A lot of coordinators would listen to an offer, but some of them would view the job as a stepping stone to ultimately getting back into the power five as a head coach.

Jerry Mack (Kennesaw State Head Coach)

Jerry Mack would be an interesting hire and would likely be a fan favorite for Tiger fans. Mack was born in Memphis and served as the Tigers’ receivers coach in 2011.

A few years after his lone season in Memphis, Mack became the head coach at FCS North Carolina Central and finished with a 31-15 record in four seasons. Following the four-year stint, Mack spent three seasons at Rice and two years as the running backs coach at Tennessee.

Mack is currently in his first season as a the head coach of Kennesaw State, but he shocked the Conference USA but putting together a 9-3 record, 7-1 in conference play, and finishing tied for first in the conference standings.

Mack has shown that he is a good coach, but there isn’t a lot of tape of him being a head coach, especially at the FBS level, but he would be able to recruit Memphis extremely well with his deep ties to the city.

Charles Huff (Southern Miss head coach)

Charles Huff is a rising star in the head coaching scene, and he could be a name to watch in this coaching search. Huff has spent time on staffs at Vanderbilt, Penn State, Mississippi State, Alabama and with the Buffalo Bills, and he has spent the last five seasons as a head coach at Marshall and Southern Miss.

At Marshall, Huff went 32-20 overall and finished first in the Sun Belt in 2024, his final season. This year, Huff went 7-5 as the head coach of Southern Miss, and the team finished second in the west division of the Sun Belt.

Huff brought a ton of excitement into the Southern Miss program after he was named the head coach, and he coaches with a ton of passion.

Mike Jacobs (Mercer head coach)

This is the wildcard for this list, but it could be an interesting choice to look at. Mike Jacobs has spent time as a head coach for 10 seasons at the Division two and FCS level, and win that time, he posted a 94-22 record. 

He has finished first in his conference seven out of 10 seasons, and his Mercer team is currently 9-2 and in the FCS playoffs.

This season, Mercer ranked inside the top 10 in scoring offense, passing offense and rushing defense. His quarterback, Braden Atkinson, has thrown for 3,448 yards, 34 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a freshman.

It would be a big jump from FCS to FBS, but over the last few years, a lot of coaches have been successful in making the move. Jacobs could be the next coach to successfully make that move.

Arthur Smith (Pittsburg Steelers OC)

Arthur Smith could be an interesting candidate for a number of reasons, but the biggest is his Memphis ties and relationship to FedEx founder Fred Smith. Arthur, the son of Fred, has coached in the NFL for 16 seasons, and he's currently in his second season with the Steelers.

Smith spent three seasons as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, but he was fired following three straight 7-10 seasons. Before taking over with the Falcons, Smith was credited with a lot of success in Nashville with the Titans offense when he served as their offensive coordinator.

Smith has spent some time in the college ranks, but most of his coaching tenure has been in the NFL. It's unclear if Smith would even want to make the change to college, but with his connections to the city and FedEx, it wouldn't be a surprise if he was a name to watch.