FAYETTEVILLE -- Last basketball season. ORU's Kelsi Musick's team defeated Arkansas and eventually replaced Mike Neighbors at as the head coach of the Razorbacks. It appears that Hunter Yurachek took a similar approach to the football coach hiring going with Memphis' Ryan Silverfield who helped lead his team to a 32-31 victory over the Razorbacks on Sept. 20.
Silverfield will replace Sam Pittman who was fired eight days after losing to Memphis and the day after getting blown out at home by Notre Dame. Memphis finished 8-4 this season after losing its final three games. That was good enough for sixth place in the American Conference. Memphis at 4-4 in the conference tied with Army and UTSA for the sixth-place finish.
The two biggest wins for Memphis this season were the Arkansas game and beating USF and Alex Golesh 34-31 on Oct. 25. The losses were to Alex Mortensen and UAB 31-24, Tulane 38-32, East Carolina 31-27 and Navy 28-17. The UAB loss came one week before the win over USF. The other three came in his three final games at Memphis.
Silverfield, who has experience in the NFL and various colleges, came to Memphis in 2017 as the run game coordinator and offensive line coach. He served in that capacity until 2019 when he added assistant head coach to his title. When Mike Norvell left for Florida State at the end of the regular season then Silverfield coached the Tigers against Penn State in the 2019 Cotton Bowl. Memphis lost that game, but won the next four games they played in under Silverfield. His record at Memphis was 50-25.
Among the big wins for Silverfield were Florida State 20-12, USF 21-3 and Tulane 34-24 in 2024. In 2023, Memphis once again beat USF 59-50 and lost a close one to Missouri 34-27. In 2021 Memphis beat SEC foe Mississippi State 31-29. Memphis finished 10-3 in 2023 and then 11-2 in 2024 for his two best seasons. His first team in 2020 was 8-3.
At Arkansas, Silverfield will take over a program that was 2-10 this season and winless in the SEC. They had 33 players introduced at Senior Day on Saturday before losing to Missouri 31-17. Wednesday is the first day of the early signing period that lasts through Friday. The one transfer portal window in January will be extremely important to Silverfield and his staff.
Silverfield's NFL experience included 2008-13 with the Minnesota Vikings and then 2015 he spent with the Detroit Lions. Other than his head coaching duties with Memphis Silverfield has spent the majority of his career coaching the offensive line. The exceptions are Hampden-Sydney in 2003 (tight ends), University of Jacksonville in 2005 (quarterbacks) and then 2009-10 with the Vikings working on the defensive line. He also worked with the defensive line at Hampden-Sydney in 2001-02.
Silverfield informed his Memphis football team in an 11 a.m. meeting today he was leaving for the Razorbacks.
