Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield isn’t ruling out staff changes during the season, and he made clear Monday that he’s willing to evaluate every part of the operation if it helps the Razorbacks.
That came as college football has seen a wave of midseason shakeups, including in the SEC. Oklahoma fired offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle on Monday amid the Sooners’ offensive issues, and Silverfield said moves like that are part of the larger job of keeping a program pointed in the right direction.
“I think it's my job to always put our program in the best position to have success, and no matter what that looks like, right?,” Silverfield said. “Whether it's an in-season staff shakeup, a post-season staff shakeup, a change in nutrition plan, a change of travel plans, it's always my job is to make sure that whatever we're doing, it's putting our guys in the best position to have success between the white lines on Saturday.”
“And that that comes from every single thing that's involved in our program, and I'm looking at and evaluating every single thing every single day, and wins and losses and all those things, and whatever it takes for us to be successful, we'll do.”
The comments come with Arkansas’ offense drawing heavy criticism for most of the season. The Razorbacks are 125th nationally in scoring offense at 19.6 points per game, which also puts them last among SEC and Power Four teams.
Offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey has been under that spotlight for much of the year. He has been Silverfield’s OC since 2022, when Silverfield became the offensive coordinator at Memphis.
Arkansas managed only 10 points against Missouri on Saturday, one week after turning in its best offensive showing against a Power Four team in a 31-21 win over Vanderbilt.
Silverfield also addressed how much control Cramsey has when it comes to play-calling, especially after Arkansas’ failed fourth-and-1 attempt on a botched snap to Cam Settles helped lead to a Missouri touchdown. Silverfield said after the game that he loved the play call and would call it again.
“We're all part of the practice plan, putting it together and all that stuff,” Silverfield said. “But in game, for the most part, Tim is calling.
Now we'll talk through some certain things. We'll sit there and say, 'okay, hey, this run may work versus this.
We're getting this. We got to go to that.
This check needs to occur.' Having that conversation.
“So I think it's everybody involved. But if there's 80 plays in a game, you know, Crams does a great job in the past and will continue to do a good job of putting us in the right position throughout those.
Now, sometimes there are suggestions: 'Hey, this is the call we need to make, right? Whether it's even the first short yardage call, what do we what do we like versus this?
What are they going to show?' But great faith in what he's going to do and what he is doing.
Ultimately, he's got the ability to call the play and put us in the right situation.”
Arkansas will be back on the field Saturday at Auburn’s Jordan Hare Stadium, with kickoff set for 11:45 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
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