When it comes to college football coaching searches, there’s usually a veil between what coaches and administrators say and what’s actually going on behind the scenes.
Everybody is perfectly happy where they are (until they’re not) and everyone who takes a new job was only ever interested in that school. You know how it goes.
For new Arkansas football coach Ryan Silverfield, however, there’s a good deal of truth within that coach-speak.
It’s no secret that Silverfield wasn’t the first choice for athletic director Hunter Yurachek. The Razorbacks pursued “splash” candidates like Rhett Lashlee and James Franklin and came up empty-handed. When Alex Golesh ended up at Auburn after his reported handshake deal with Arkansas fell apart, many viewed Silverfield as a panic hire.
The more stops Silverfield makes on his pre-”introductory” press conference publicity tour, however, the more it looks like the opposite was true.
Ryan Silverfield: A Calculated Move?
In early November, a wave of misinformation in the form of troll accounts and AI-generated videos suggested Silverfield was taking the Arkansas job. These “reputable” social media reports were nothing more than Tulane fans trying to cause a distraction right before the Tigers took on the Green Wave.
It worked.
Not only did Silverfield have to call a team meeting the morning of the game to clear the air, he also had coaches blowing up his phone congratulating him and expressing interest in working with him in Fayetteville.
“The number of people who said, ‘I want to join you,’ man, I could already tell. When this thing does get offered, we’re going to be able to put together one of the best staffs in the country,” Silverfield said on Monday’s Chuck & Bo Show.
Did you catch that?
When, not if.
This is how the Head Hog was apparently thinking about his prospects in mid-November, at a time when many fans perceived the likes of Golesh and Eric Morris as hotter candidates. It tracks with the admirable moxie Silverfield has so far flashed in Fayetteville, consistently telling reporters that Arkansas’ turnaround needs to be immediate rather than a slow-burn rebuild. It appears he had similar confidence in his chances at getting the job in the first place.
