The Ryan Silverfield era at Arkansas is more than a week old at this point and, after an initial uproar, most fans appear to be giving him a chance to win them over.
Securing four in-state commitments on his first full day in the Natural State went a long way and a heralded portal haul would certainly help, but some will hold off on judgement until the former Memphis coach leads the Razorbacks through the ‘A’ for the first time.
Still, the topic has largely shifted from the two-month hiring process and what athletics director Hunter Yurachek did or didn’t do during the search to how Silverfield plans to turn around the football program.
For a brief moment Tuesday morning, though, those tuned into 103.7 The Buzz might have had flashbacks to the previous two weeks.
What at first seemed to be an innocent joke by David Bazzel at the tail end of Morning Mayhem prompted the callback. While the former Arkansas linebacker-turned-radio host shared a story about getting a new suitcase, fellow Buzz personality Trey Schaap texted in and said he now had two because he had ordered Bazzel one.
Bazzel said he needed to send it back and get a refund before referencing the drama that unfolded with Schaap’s reporting about South Florida’s Alex Golesh and the Arkansas job.
“Schaap needs to keep his money,” Bazzel cracked. “He’s dealing with a lot of lawsuits right now and those kinds of things.”
Had it ended right there, it would have simply been written off as a fun little burn at the end of a four-hour radio show. However, co-host Roger Scott appeared to be taken aback and asked follow-up questions: “Schaap is? … So that was real? Those lawsuits?”
It prompted a quick “Yeah, how about that?” response from Bazzel before they quickly moved on by plugging This Little Piggy & SOCO, the Benton business from which they were airing the show.
The exchange lasted less than 15 seconds, but was enough to at least quicken listeners’ heartbeats – including one who tipped off Best of Arkansas Sports about it.
After all, the school did support its former NIL collective’s pursuit of legal action against a pair of players just last offseason, so why wouldn’t it do the same here?
In an effort to clear things up before “Arkansas sues reporter” becomes message board fodder, we reached out to Bazzel and Schaap for clarification. They both confirmed there were no lawsuits being levied, with Bazzel adding that they were just being “silly” – which is understandable after four straight hours of talking on air.
