FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas was hoping to emulate Tennessee football’s success by hiring South Florida head coach Alex Golesh.
Instead, athletic director Hunter Yurachek set off a level of fan outrage not seen in college football since the Volunteers tried to hire Greg Schiano back in 2017.
In 2022, Tennessee had the best offense in the country while Golesh was serving as Josh Heupel’s right-hand man, and he went on to produce three straight winning seasons at USF, culminating in a 9-3 record this season. The Razorbacks reportedly had a handshake deal in place with Golesh until Auburn swooped in during the 11th hour to nab him away.
Arkansas turned to Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield as a fallback option. The reaction was predictably and nearly unanimously negative. Yurachek’s tweet of red smoke emerging from Razorback Stadium has nearly twice as many replies as likes, with the vast majority of commenters disapproving of the hire.
In Schiano’s case, Tennessee fans’ widespread disdain, as well as multiple Tennessee public officials and politicians speaking out, ended up killing the deal. Schiano’s connection to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State played a major role. A similar situation unfolded with Mark Stoops and Texas A&M in 2023. The Aggies ended up hiring Mike Elko, who has them on the brink of the College Football Playoff in his second season, while the Volunteers’ hire of Jeremy Pruitt ended with a pile of losses and NCAA sanctions.
With Arkansas, however, it’s far too late for such outrage to matter much. Schiano and Stoops’ candidacies were killed while they were still at the rumor stage. The Razorbacks officially announced Silverfield at 12:21 p.m., less than three hours after On3’s Brett McMurphy originally reported the news.
Still, a small crowd of disgruntled fans assembled outside the Arkansas football facility to voice their displeasure. Best of Arkansas Sports had boots on the ground to check the temperature with these loyalists on a freezing cold day.
Freedom of Speech and Assembly
On just a couple hours’ notice, fans arrived with signs bearing messages such as “Fire Yurachek,” “God Save Arkansas” or “Keep Bobby,” referring to interim coach Bobby Petrino. Even with most students yet to return to campus after the holiday, a couple dozen fans braved the cold to exercise their First Amendment rights at a noon protest. The official announcement came 21 minutes later, with the protest dissipating shortly after.
“I don’t think Yurachek is any good at convincing the big-money people and the people of the state to give to the program,” said Ryan Rush, a Crossett native who was a student during the Bret Bielema era. “And why would we? The program sucks, the in-game atmosphere sucks, and obviously with the hire of Silverfield they have no interest in changing.”
Rush said he much preferred Golesh, and thought Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack would have been a better hire, too.
“Everyone agrees this is a bad hire. He does less with more at Memphis,” Rush added. “It’s not anything against him personally. He seems like a nice guy but I don’t think that he’s going to do well here.”
One student arrived with a paper bag over his head with “poverty program” scrawled on it in Sharpie. He preferred to remain anonymous, simply introducing himself as “Mr. Bag Man.” He was displeased that Arkansas couldn’t throw a bigger bag of its own at a more enticing hire.
