Arkansas has spent so long trying to claw back into relevance that even a modest preseason forecast feels like a reminder of how far the program has fallen. Phil Steele’s annual college football projections made that point bluntly last week, slotting the Razorbacks last in the SEC after a 2-10 season and a coaching change.
That kind of placement would have felt unthinkable in the days when Arkansas regularly showed up in preseason top-25 talk. Back then, the Razorbacks had the kind of stars that stuck in the memory: Darren McFadden slicing through LSU, Ryan Mallett firing a ball to Jarius Wright for an 89-yard touchdown, Joe Adams leaving Auburn defenders behind on a 92-yard play. Those moments are almost two decades old now, and the program has been living off them for far too long.
Steele’s list put Arkansas at No. 16 in the league, behind every other SEC team. Georgia and Texas were tied at No. 1, followed by Alabama and Oklahoma at No.
3, Ole Miss and Texas A&M at No. 5, Tennessee and LSU at No.
7, South Carolina and Auburn at No. 9, Florida, Vanderbilt and Missouri at No.
11, Mississippi State at No. 14 and Kentucky at No. 15.
The ranking is a clear snapshot of where the Razorbacks stand after years of slipping behind the league. The source of that gap wasn’t just results on the field. Arkansas was nearly the last SEC program to fully embrace NIL in the way other schools did, and teams it once viewed as peers - Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Kentucky - moved past it.
That’s the backdrop Ryan Silverfield inherited when he arrived to rebuild the program. The roster talent deficit against Arkansas’ 2026 schedule shows just how much ground still has to be covered. Silverfield now has to overhaul the roster while also trying to clean up the perception, fueled in part by athletics director Hunter Yurachek, that the football program lacked support.
Yurachek tried to address those concerns after the coaching change by promising the resources needed to compete. The size of Silverfield’s coaching staff, recruiting class and transfer additions suggests Arkansas is finally putting real investment behind the program.
Even so, the quickest way out of this mess is the hardest one: win as an underdog. That’s the role the staff appears ready to accept. The coaches know the work won’t always show up immediately in the win column, but they believe it will show up in the way Arkansas plays - with effort, energy and a competitive edge on every down.
If the Razorbacks are going to change Steele’s view, or even Paul Finebaum’s, they’re going to have to knock off somebody nobody expects them to beat. There should be chances to do that, too, because Arkansas is projected to face the hardest schedule in the country, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index ratings.
Until the results start changing, Arkansas will keep living in the SEC basement.
In Other News...
Pro Hogs Are Making Arkansas Fans Notice Something Bigger In Vegas
The NBA Summer League in Las Vegas has turned into an early showcase for Arkansas basketball, with 11 former Razorbacks taking the floor and giving fans a reason to keep one eye on the box scores. Meleek Thomas set the pace with a big outing for Cleveland, while Adou Thiero and Darius Acuff also turned in performances that helped make the weekend feel less like a collection of individual appearances and more like a reminder of how much Arkansas talent is spread across the league.
Acuffs debut in particular added to the buzz, and Thiero brought the kind of energy that tends to travel well in this setting. For Arkansas fans, the bigger takeaway is not just that the pro Hogs are showing up in Vegas, but that several of them are doing it in ways that suggest this summer could become a steady drumbeat of good news for the program. [Read more 🡒]
CJ Brown Is Becoming A Huge Part Of Arkansas' 2026 Answer
C.J. Brown has spent the spring making it harder for Arkansas to picture the offense without him in a central role next season. After a productive year that included 28 catches for 319 yards and three touchdowns, the receiver has shown why the Razorbacks view him as one of their most dependable options heading into 2026, and his ability to work both outside and in the slot only adds to the appeal.
Browns value has also grown because of the way he has connected with both KJ Jackson and AJ Hill as the quarterback competition continues. Ryan Silverfield has pointed to Browns work ethic and leadership as part of what separates him, and the next step is seeing how much of that spring momentum carries into a bigger offensive workload when the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]