FAYETTEVILLE -- Ryan Silverfield has been very busy during the early days of his time as head coach of the football program at Arkansas.
Among his priorities at this time is hiring a staff. At this time, it appears that Silverfield has hired his three coordinators and some position coaches. Silverfield at this time has seven assistants that is known to this reporter with three more to go.
"The staff is coming together nicely," Silverfield said. "Obviously a lot can’t be shared publicly until they’re sitting here in their offices, but I can tell you this: Fans and media alike, you’re going to be blown away by the staff. It’s going to be a bunch of high-character coaches, coaches are going to love the players, they’re going to pour into them, they’re going to love this community, they’re excited to be here, that want to rebuild this thing the right way and know how special Arkansas can be. We’re going to bring in a bunch of guys and a bunch of people that are going to make everyone really, really proud."
As far as coordinators, Silverfield is bringing Tim Cramsey with him from Memphis to run the offense. Florida defensive coordinator Ron Roberts is coming to Arkansas as is the special team's coordinator Chad Lunsford from Auburn.
Florida State's David Johnson will coach the running backs. He coached the running backs for the Seminoles and also served as recruiting coordinator. Memphis' Larry Smith is coming to coach the wide receivers. Ohio State's Marcus Johnson and Memphis' Jeff Myers will coach the offensive line.
The Tigers averaged 34.6 points and 420.7 yards per game under Cramsey this season. They passed for 234.6 yards per game and rushed for 186.1 each outing.
Roberts has been at both Baylor and Auburn in addition to Florida. It didn't take him long to make an impact at Florida when he arrived in 2024.
As a unit, the Florida defense finished the season ranked ninth in the nation in red zone defense (.725), 11th in sacks per game (3.0), 11th in fumbles recovered (11) and 13th in turnovers gained (25). The Gators finished the year with at least one takeaway in 10-straight games and 12 times in 13 games.
The Gator defense improved in nearly every statistical category from 2023 to 2024, including sacks (+17), tackles for loss (+28), forced fumbles (+11), pass breakups (+12), interceptions (+11) and turnovers gained (+18).
Lunsford is regarded as one of the elite special team's coordinator. His punter averaged 40.7 yards per kick this season. Auburn was successful on 20 of 25 field goals. The kickoffs were touchbacks 72% of the time.
Silverfield talked about what he values most in hiring assistants.
"Listen, I always valued experience, and I think that's important, but most importantly, great coaches and great-leadered men," Silverfield said. "And you can say, well, that sounds like coach speak. That's not, because I believe that how you do anything is how you do everything. And we're going to find coaches that are going to truly pour into these guys. And they may think it's corny, but I'm going to tell them like, these guys are going to love them. They're going to hold them accountable, okay, to everything these guys say they want to do, and they're going to make sure they achieve exactly what we say we're putting out there. And we talked about standards and all those things, but coaches are going to set the standard and push the players to meet that standard.
"And look, there's coaches that are coming aboard that have SEC experience. All right, they're we here before you know it and we'll be able to talk about and write about them by the next time we all get together. There's some coaches that have some NFL experience. There's some coaches, various backgrounds, coaches I've worked for before, coaches that are going to make sure the lights stay on in this building, whatever the hell it takes. So all sorts. But yeah, can't wait for you guys to meet those people that are going to be with us, and it's going to be very, very exciting times."