One of the more under-the-radar coaching searches going on around the country recently has been the one in Fayetteville at Arkansas, but the Razorbacks have now settled on their next coach. Arkansas is set to hire Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield as its next head coach going into 2026, according to Brett McMurphy of On3 Sports.
There had been a lot of buzz surrounding South Florida head coach Alex Golesh potentially going to Arkansas, but instead it is his conference rival that lands the job.
Silverfield has been an assistant at Memphis since 2016 and the head coach there since 2020. He has a career record of 50-25, including a 10-win season in 2023 and an 11-win campaign in 2024, and will look to bring the same kind of success to Arkansas.
Silverfield's Memphis squad has its sights set on a potential American Conference Championship this season and a possible College Football Playoff berth after beating none other than Arkansas earlier in the season, but those dreams never materialized. A shocking loss to UAB, fresh off of its firing of Trent Dilfer, and a loss to Tulane took the Tigers out of the conference title race.
Memphis closed its regular season with a home loss to Navy on Thanksgiving night and will now head into the bowl season with an interim coach as it looks for its next head coach after an 8-4 campaign.
Silverfield established himself in coaching circles as an offensive line coach, both in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions and at the college level, primarily at Memphis. Now, he will get to prove whether he can cut his teeth in the SEC with an Arkansas program that is still trying to navigate the new NIL era and how to keep up with the big spenders in the best conference in the sport.
