FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' Ryan Silverfield and his three coordinators met with the media on Tuesday to discuss recruiting and other football topics.
The coordinators are Tim Cramsey, offense; Ron Roberts, defense; and Chad Lunsford, special teams. Silverfield admitted on Tuesday it has been a whirlwind of events since being hired to replace Sam Pittman.
"It’s been great," Silverfield said. "The last two-plus months have been a whirlwind, a lot of fun, a lot of excitement, a lot of hard work by so many. I want to give credit to the staff and administration, everybody who has put in a lot of man hours to continue to get this thing to where it is today. A lot more work to be done. The people of Northwest Arkansas have been amazing. The fans throughout the state have been supportive.
"It’s been a lot of fun. But we know every single day there’s work to be done. The players have been great. It’s been a lot of fun to be able to spend some time with them and continue to work and I’m excited as we get closer and closer to spring ball to see what kind of football program and team we’re building every single day. But it’s been exciting and we know there are exciting days ahead."
Silverfield and the Razorbacks will go into the spring and then season without a quarterback who is a proven winner at the Power 4 level. The Razorbacks have KJ Jackson returning and then signed AJ Hill from Memphis and Braeden Fuller from Angelo State. Arkansas also signed Fayetteville's Hank Hendrix, who reclassified from 2027 to 2026. He will report in late May or early June.
"It’s a great question," Silverfield said. "You know listen, I think everybody always wants that proven guy that’s played a lot of football. We’ve got some guys that have played some football and some guys have had success. But I think it’s a wide-open competition, and that started the minute they said they were Razorbacks, right? From the film study to the work they’re doing. They do a lot of things on their own, throwing to the wide receivers. Obviously we can’t be a part of that stuff. So that competition is a day-in, day-out thing.
"But working together, and ultimately it’s one of those things, I don’t sit here and say, ‘Hey, by the spring game we’re going to announce a starter.’ I think truly and wholeheartedly if someone had separated themselves so much so, maybe that’s a different story. I believe this thing is going to go all the way through August. And that’s not a bad thing. I’ve dealt with that before, and at every level, right? Whether in the NFL, college, trying to get a feel for what it looks like. The good news is even though none of them are, like you said, experienced Power 4 quarterbacks we’ve got great faith in what they’re capable of doing. We believe they can be legit Power 4 starters and have the ability to win a lot of SEC football games. So excited about who they are, what they’re about and how they’re learning the scheme, the way they’re going about their work. So quite excited about the room."
Silverfield was asked how Jackson, 6-4, 220, and Hill, 6-4, 215, are different?
"The AJ’s and the KJ’s, they, like all the quarterbacks, they love football," Silverfield said. "And that was one of the things I think, at that position, right? Ultimately, we want guys that love football in general. But the quarterback position, they have to be obsessed with it. They have to wake up thinking about being the quarterback of the Arkansas Razorbacks, they have to go to bed thinking about being the quarterback of the Razorbacks, and every decision they make throughout the day, hopefully it's for the betterment of our entire program. Both those young men, especially, and Braeden Fuller, all of our quarterbacks, have that mindset of, okay, how do I make this place better? And what can I do, right? Is it another two hours of film study before I go to bed? Is it sending the coaches questions? Hey, on this play call, what are we thinking here? Is it maybe getting with the wide receivers and doing walkthroughs on their own on Saturdays?
'But they both love ball. They're both adamant about trying to improve themselves, learning and finding different ways, whether it's with an offensive line coach to discuss protections. And then how are they different? I think we're finding some of the physical skill sets, like getting to see him move around a little bit. Was able to obviously spend time with AJ last year and watch him in high school, and then KJ watching all his game film and practice film from last year. And now we get to put them in a little bit of physical movement to see how they move, what they may be better at, how they move for different things. So as we implement the offense, if it's one of those two as our quarterbacks, you know, maybe there's different schemes that fit each one, but been quite pleased with the way they've both been working."
Cramsey also chimed in on the quarterbacks and his expectations for them.
"You know, a quarterback, competition, quarterback controversy, whatever you wanna call it, is an all day, every day, evaluation of who those guys are, what they do in the meeting room, what they do in the classroom, you know, eventually what they do on the on the spring football field summertime, you know, what they're doing in their morning workouts," Cramsey said, "So that competition is gonna be going on for a long time. You know, we won't have an answer till the middle of fall camp or really maybe, you know, as we approach the first game. Because we're gonna let those guys have good days. We won't let them have bad days. We're gonna see how they react. We're gonna see how they react to certain situations and scrimmages. We'll see if the coach wants to take a jersey off and let him play real football.”
"We'll see how coach feels about that because that's when you really find out who your guy is. And then we gotta know who our guy is prior to going into week 1. But, don't quote me on that, that's coach's decision. To me that's the way you kinda get a feel for who is really gonna be able to do it. You know? You get that false sense of security sometimes in a jersey, a different color jersey. You know? When that defensive end come around the edge, you can actually put a shot on you, man. Then you know if you can be cool in the pocket, you can handle that type of pressure. So that competition is nonstop all day every day. What they do in the morning, what they do in the meetings that we meet with them, how that goes. It's been great so far.
"They know it's a friendly but competitive situation in that room. You know, they're talking to each other, helping each other out. They're communicating with each other. They push each other. So that's kinda what it is. You know, in the end, we gotta win, you know, bottom line. So the best guy in that room to go and play, the guy who gives us the best opportunity is the guy who's gonna play, and that decision's all be made over a lot of spring, summer, and fall camp practices."
Jackson completed 33 of 54 passes for 441 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for two more touchdowns. Hill completed 19 of 32 passes for 223 yards, a touchdown and one interception. In eight games, Fuller, 6-3, 180, completed 85 of 156 passes for 15 touchdowns and four interceptions.
