After a two-month search, Arkansas has hired Ryan Silverfield as its next football coach, Best of Arkansas Sports has confirmed.
Reports first surfaced Sunday morning that the 45-year-old was leaving to lead the Razorbacks, who capped a 2-10 campaign with an ugly loss to Missouri a day earlier. The UA announced the hire a little after noon Sunday. The news means last week’s reports of Alex Golesh were, in fact, premature.
Silverfield agreed to a five-year, $33.5 million deal, per a UA spokesperson. His $6.7 million average annual salary is comparable to what former head coach Sam Pittman was earning between his base salary and retention bonuses, but it is still near the bottom of the SEC.
Silverfield went 50-25 overall with a 27-21 mark in the American Conference during six seasons at the helm in Memphis. He had posted back-to-back seasons with double-digit wins before going 8-4 this year.
One of those wins was a 32-31 defeat of the Razorbacks at Liberty Stadium, a game in which the Tigers rallied from an 18-point deficit. That proved to be the penultimate nail in the coffin for Pittman, who was fired following a blowout loss to Notre Dame the following week.
That was part of a 6-0 start to the season that had Memphis in the driver’s seat to earn the Group of Five’s automatic bid to the College Football Playoff. However, the Tigers were upset by UAB — which was led by interim coach and former Arkansas quarterback Alex Mortensen — before losing their final three games of the season.
One-score losses to Tulane and East Carolina knocked Memphis out of the American Conference title race before a 28-17 home loss to Navy on Thanksgiving to end the regular season.
Based on numerous reports, Silverfield was relatively low on Arkansas’ pecking order of coaches.
The Razorbacks were originally linked to SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee, a former Arkansas quarterback, but he inked an extension with the Mustangs. They also targeted James Franklin and Eric Morris before they were hired by Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State, respectively.
Last week, Trey Schaap of 103.7 The Buzz reported Alex Golesh was set to be the next coach. He was announced as the next coach at Auburn on Sunday.
Former Arkansas OL on Silverfield
Ryan Silverfield doesn’t have any ties to the Natural State other than coaching just across the Mississippi River and in the building Arkansas has seemingly made its postseason home, but he has worked with and coached several former Razorbacks.
Wide receiver Shamar Nash, offensive lineman Marcus Henderson, safety Simeon Blair and punter Reid Bauer each joined the Tigers via the transfer portal after beginning their careers at Arkansas. The latter of those took to Twitter to show his excitement about the hire:
