ARLINGTON, Texas – Ryan Silverfield has been coaching football for 20 years, getting his start with a Florida high school team as a teenager the season after being part of his second state championship there as a player.
He then coached instead of played during four seasons while at Hampden-Sydney College, a Division III program in Virginia. There were stops at four other colleges in various roles, plus six seasons as an assistant for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings before going to the University of Memphis as part of coach Mike Norvell’s staff in 2016.
Now Silverfield is head coach of the Tigers, and his first game in that role comes in their first New Year’s Six bowl game. He is the first coach to make his debut in one of those games in the six seasons since the College Football Playoff selection committee started setting the matchups.
Memphis (12-1), which won the American Athletic Conference title and wound up No. 15 in the final CFP rankings, faces No. 13 Penn State (10-2) of the Big Ten in Saturday’s Cotton Bowl Classic. ESPN will televise the noon EST matchup in Arlington, Texas, which could benefit as the lead-in game to the CFP semifinals, with the Peach Bowl kicking off at 4 and the Fiesta Bowl set for 8.
“This is heck of a way to start my head coaching career at the college level,” Silverfield said. “I couldn’t have asked for it to happen any other way. Obviously, I give a lot of credit to Mike Norvell for the opportunity for me to come to Memphis and introduce me to such a wonderful city, a wonderful university and such a great football program.”
Ryan Silverfield speaks at a news conference on Dec. 13 to introduce him as head coach of the University of Memphis football program. / AP photo by Ariel CobbertWhen Norvell became Florida State’s coach this month – after the Tigers beat visiting Cincinnati in the AAC title game and before getting their official bid to represent the Group of Five teams in the New Year’s Six – Silverfield was named interim coach.
It took less than a week, after a national search, before Memphis took away the interim tag and made the 39-year-old Silverfield its 25th head coach on Dec. 13.
“It’s huge for a lot of the guys,” junior linebacker Thomas Pickens said, “because we really feel like we’re a family, and we just wanted to keep it close knit.”
Junior quarterback Brady White came to Memphis before last season as a graduate transfer from Arizona State, where Silverfield was an offensive analyst for part of 2015 before finishing that season with the NFL’s Detroit Lions and then going to Memphis.
White described Silverfield as a “critical piece” to the team’s success under Norvell, including a school-record 12 wins this season, 38 wins in its best four-year stretch and the program’s first outright conference title since 1969.
“He’s just a genuine dude that cares and wants the best for all of us and wants to win at the end of the day. And he is a winner,” White said. “We’re excited to have him at the helm. I know he’s going to do great things, not just this bowl game and in the near future, but in the years to come for Memphis.”
Silverfield’s only previous head coaching job was in 2004 at Memorial Day School in Savannah, Georgia. He was 24 at the time, and the Georgia Independent School Association Class AA team went 1-9, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association website.
When Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch first met with players after Norvell’s departure, they were asked to write on cards what they wanted in a coach. Many of them listed different qualities; some simply wrote down Silverfield’s name.
After working as deputy head coach and offensive line coach under Norvell, now he will try to continue to build on the success the Tigers have had.
“Our culture, the things we do, the standards we’ve set are not going to change. In fact we’re going continue to get better and grow stronger,” Silverfield said. “This is heck of a testament to what we built in the past, but we’re moving forward in the right direction.”