Will comments made by sixth-year Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield come back to haunt first-year Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield?
On Sept. 15 of last year, Silverfield was on his weekly radio show when he took a dig at Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs.
“Generally, on a Sunday afternoon when we meet with the team, we do two things,” Silverfield said. “We always start off with what’s not our standard. We always start with a negative, and the not our standard is, ‘Georgia wide receiver arrested for driving 900 miles per hour over the speed limit.’
“That’s a weekly occurrence, so that’s one we’ll show.”
Silverfield amassed an impressive 50-25 record with the Tigers that was highlighted by a 21-5 run during the 2023-24 seasons. He was hired at Arkansas on Nov. 30, which followed a 2-10 collapse by the Razorbacks that included an 0-8 record in Southeastern Conference play, the third 2-10 Arkansas season with a winless league run in eight years.
At the Tampa-hosted SEC media days in July, Silverfield said he reached out to Smart about those comments, but the Razorbacks and Bulldogs are now headed for a Saturday collision in Fayetteville.
“That’s much ado about nothing,” Smart said Monday during his weekly news conference. “He made a choice to talk about what he wanted to talk about. He did apologize about it. I think that he was talking about generalities. All coaches will show things other schools do as far as making mistakes to try to educate our team.
“He was trying to educate his team. He said what he said, but that is over and done with for me.”
Silverfield wasn’t asked about that topic during his weekly news conference and repeatedly praised Smart’s Bulldogs, saying, “They look like the No. 2 team in the country, if not better.”
Georgia and Arkansas will enter their noon Eastern showdown on ABC from opposite ends of the league spectrum. The 2-0 Bulldogs are the two-time reigning SEC champions, while the Razorbacks are an unimpressive 1-1, having opened with a 31-14 topping of North Alabama before getting clobbered by Utah 43-10 last Saturday night.
The Bulldogs have won their two previous meetings against Arkansas under Smart by the combined score of 74-10.
“When you’re playing on the road in the SEC, humility is always a week away,” Smart said. “It’s a tough environment regardless of where you play in the SEC. There are no bad environments. There are only raucous environments.
“This is a challenging time to go on the road, especially with a group that you really haven’t been on the road with yet.”
Arkansas led 3-0 after the first 10 minutes against the Utes, who then reeled off 43 straight points. Utah outgained the Razorbacks 442-305 and held them to 61 yards on 28 carries for a measly 2.2/yard clip.
Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jackson was 14-of-34 passing for 139 yards and an interception before being replaced by AJ Hill, but Jackson is expected to start against Georgia.
“We’re two games in, and one game is not going to define us, even though it was a terrible loss,” Silverfield said. “In my 28 years, and certainly as a head coach, this is probably the worst loss I’ve faced.”
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The Arkansas-Utah game had a 10:30 p.m. Eastern kick, so preparation time the Razorbacks have for Georgia will be reduced this week, providing yet another potential edge for the Bulldogs.
“It’s to each his own in terms of the way you maneuver the week and how you manage the week,” Smart said. “From a standpoint of recovery, everybody’s going to play pretty much the same number of away games and everybody’s going to play the same number of home games, for the most part within one or two.
“You have to navigate that. It’s certainly challenging, and I wouldn’t like it either. It’s just a tough situation to be in.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.