MARLER: Silverfield hire underwhelming at Arkansas

By Chris Marler

Not every program wins the hiring process.

Some find themselves right back in the same situation just a few short years later, and nobody knows that better than Arkansas. 

Arkansas didn’t go out and make the splashiest hire to replace Sam Pittman. That was part of the problem. 

Arkansas fans are protesting the Ryan Silverfield hire

(via @KWhippencock) pic.twitter.com/7BRYQ3bm66

— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 30, 2025

Six programs in the SEC hired a new coach this coaching carousel, but only one got booed mercilessly by their fans at a staged protest from students and fans on campus. That’s partially because Arkansas made the most predictable hire imaginable when they hired Ryan Silverfield from Memphis. 

Silverfield was initially considered one of the most sought after group of six coaches in the country early on in this year’s carousel. He’d been at Memphis six years without a losing season. And he’d won eight games every year at a school that had been a sort of feeder system for Power Four coaches. Silverfield had put together a top 25 scoring offense in each of his last four years including the No. 6 ranking in 2023. 

Memphis was fun on offense, but abysmal on defense putting up national rankings in scoring defense of 48th, 53rd, 95th, and 60th in the last four years. They were great in bowl games winning all four under Silverfield. The problem rested between those numbers. They never won an AAC title. In fact, they never even played for one. Even worse, they were an astonishing 12-20 against teams above .500 under Silverfield. 

Yet, somehow that was good enough to hire at the University of Arkansas? 

Arkansas is Exhibit A on what not to do in a coaching search and what not to be in terms of self-awareness. The Hogs have been largely putrid for decades. They have as many two-win seasons in the last eight years as they have 10-win seasons in the last 35 years. Did you hit a ceiling under Sam Pittman? Maybe. But what part of your own track record suggested that you were going to make the right hire? 

Was it when you hired Chad Morris? Was it when you lured away Bret Bielema from Wisconsin? Or how about that nightmare 2012 season when John L. Smith coached to get you out of a jam and help him pay alimony? 

Prior to this past season, Sam Pittman finished with a winning record in three of the previous four years including three bowl wins in each of those seasons. He did that when nearly 47 percent of his overall games as head coach were against ranked opponents, and 71 percent of his losses were. 

Sam Pittman’s record at Arkansas.

Overall: 32-34
SEC: 14-29
Vs Top 25: 7-24

That means…
– 71% of his losses were vs Top 25 teams (24/34)
– 47% of his games were vs Top 25 (31/66)
– 56% were by one score (19/34)

What an uphill battle he had in front him from the jump. #WPS pic.twitter.com/PW9gQWh4bF

— Chris Marler (@Vern_Funquist) September 28, 2025

His replacement was someone who was 12-20 against .500 teams in the Group of Six. 

I pull for Arkansas because I feel like their fans deserve better. They’ve had heartbreak in almost every sport imaginable. Maybe it was time to move on from Pittman. But, if it was time to move on from the guy who dug you out of Chad Morris’s mess, you better pray you didn’t just hire someone that’s going to lead you right back to it. 

It looks like they did.