FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - While most of the attention around Arkansas has been locked on the quarterback battle, Larry Smith has been working in the background on something that could end up mattering just as much.
The Razorbacks’ wide receivers coach has spent the offseason piecing together a room that already looks far more complete than the one Arkansas started with, and he did it without much noise at all.
Smith doesn’t come in as the flashy name on the staff. He’s a Prattville, Alabama native and former Vanderbilt quarterback who spent seven seasons developing receivers at UAB before moving to Memphis for two years under Ryan Silverfield. When Arkansas needed someone to lead the receiver room during year one of a full rebuild, Silverfield didn’t have to look far.
That familiarity has shown up in how quickly Smith has moved. He already knew the system before arriving in Fayetteville, because he helped build it.
His track record gave Arkansas a clear reason to trust him. At Memphis, Smith worked with Cortez Braham Jr., who became a first-team All-American Conference receiver after catching 63 passes for 889 yards and eight touchdowns. Before that, he was part of the staff that helped bring UAB back and guided the Blazers to three bowl games and two Conference USA titles.
By spring, Smith was already talking like a coach who had found the pieces he wanted.
"One thing that I've been most pleased with is just how they kind of hold each other accountable, kind of feed off each other's energy, coaching each other up," Smith said this spring. "You've got some guys that's played some ball.
You've got some unproven guys we're excited about. But it's fun".
He was just as direct about what he wanted to add through the portal.
"We needed some size on the outside, we needed some speed, and we needed some guys who were productive".
That wasn’t a vague wish list. It was a clear assessment of the roster, followed by a fix. Boise State transfer Chris Marshall has already stepped into the lead for WR1 heading into fall camp, giving Arkansas the kind of proven option Smith said the group needed.
Smith’s impact on Arkansas actually started before his official arrival in Fayetteville. During the coaching search, while he and Silverfield were still at Memphis, the two of them texted Razorback receiver commit Dequane Prevo in an effort to get him to switch to Memphis. Silverfield later took the Arkansas job anyway, and Smith ended up coaching the player they had tried to pull away.
It’s a small but revealing detail about how connected this staff already was before it ever got to campus.
That connection showed up again when Arkansas opened fall camp Wednesday in the heat outside Walker Pavilion. The first-team receivers lined up as CJ Brown, Chris Marshall and a healthy Jamari Hawkins, which pushed Donovan Faupel and Ismael Cisse onto the second unit. Even on day one, there was a real pecking order taking shape.
Of course, things can still change during camp. But the early picture says a lot about the work Smith put in all offseason: identify the need, bring in the right bodies, and turn every rep into a competition.
Quarterback races will always grab the headlines. New coordinators get their splashy introductory press conferences. But building a receiver room with size, speed and production doesn’t happen by accident.
Smith has spent nearly a decade learning how to do exactly that. And while he may not be the loudest storyline in Arkansas’ fall camp, he’s making a strong case to be one of the most important coaches on Silverfield’s first staff. There’s even a chance he ends up guiding a wideout group that helps carry whichever quarterback wins the job.
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