FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas hired Ryan Silverfield away from the University of Memphis as the next head coach for the Razorbacks on Sunday after a miserable 2-10 football season filled with near misses.
Silverfield is 50-25 in six seasons at Memphis, and he was at his best going 10-3 in 2023 and 11-2 in 2024. The American Conference’s Tigers were ranked as high as No. 22 this year before finishing the regular season 8-4. That included a 32-31 home win against Arkansas on Sept. 20.
He also went 4-0 in bowl games with the Tigers, not counting the Cotton Bowl in December 2019 that Silverfield coached after former head coach Mike Norvell left for Florida State. In making the jump to the mighty Southeastern Conference, the 45-year-old Silvervield becomes the 35th head coach in Arkansas football history.
“Coach Silverfield’s proven ability to win games over a sustained period separated him from the pack and make him the right choice to be our next head football coach,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a release.
Silverfield’s worst season at Memphis was 6-6 in 2021. Silverfield has won 29 games over the past three seasons, putting Memphis among the top 15 programs nationally, and he helped the Tigers continue a streak of bowl eligibility that this year has reached 12 seasons in a row, the longest active run among programs from outside the power conferences.