New University of Arkansas Head Football Coach Ryan Silverfield wants to create a culture where players are “ALL IN.” While he can’t predict how many games the Razorbacks will win, he said they will be prepared.
Silverfield spoke to the Rotary Club of Little Rock Tuesday (March 3) in what a club press release said was his first appearance in central Arkansas since he was announced as Arkansas’ 35th head football coach Nov. 30.
His record at his previous school, the University of Memphis, was 50-25 in his six years, one of those wins being a 32-31 victory over Arkansas on Sept. 20. Silverfield noted he is taking over a Razorbacks program that has won one home game over a “Power Four” major conference opponent in three years.
He also comes to the Southeastern Conference at a time of great flux in college football. Players are making millions of dollars through their name-image-likeness (NIL) opportunities, and they can transfer to a different school each year. The environment is constantly changing.
“Really, the best way I could say it is, I say it’s like this: Looking both ways to cross a street and getting hit by an airplane,” he joked.
Silverfield said the program’s philosophy is the acronym “ALL IN.” The “A” stands for “attitude” while the first “L” stands for “little things.” He said wide receiver routes that are supposed to be 15 yards must be 15 yards.
“Now, everything in this program matters, from how we talk to women, to where we park, to knowing the plays,” he said. “So if we can trust you to handle little things, we can trust you when it’s fourth and one and the game’s on the line.”
From there, the next “L” stands for “love,” while the letter “I” stands for intelligence.
Silverfield said Arkansas will have the smartest team in college football – the highest graduation rate in the SEC and the highest grade point average in Arkansas football history.
The “N” stands for “now.” He emphasized that players must have a sense of urgency.
Silverfield said the program has three pillars: service, sacrifice and respect. He said his number one job is to serve the players through standards, structure and accountability.
“What kind of structure can we provide our guys in order for them to be successful?” he said. “See, I can already tell you exactly what we’re going to be doing on October 14th at 9:17 in the morning. We have to provide a structure for these 18-23-year-olds. They yearn for it. They love it. They want to know exactly what they’re doing at all times.”
He said he has players write four goals. Wide receiver CJ Brown set a 3.5 grade point average as his academic goal, while his weight room goal is to squat 500 pounds and his personal goal is to read 10 pages of the Bible each night. His football goal is to have a quicker release, work on linear footwork, and catch 100 balls off the machine each day.
“It doesn’t say he wants to be an all-American wide receiver,” he said. “I can’t hold him accountable to being an all-American wide receiver on this Tuesday. But I can hold him accountable to make sure he’s working on his foot speed, catching those balls.”
Silverfield said that if Ole Miss offers a player $200,000 and Arkansas only offers him $100,000, the player will choose Ole Miss. The team must have the necessary financial resources in order to compete. Meanwhile, he also will focus on recruiting players with the right mentality, recruiting the right in-state talent, and developing players. He noted that Memphis beat SEC teams with smaller-program “Group of 5” talent.
He said the team must have better ball security than it’s had, be disciplined, avoid penalties, and out-scheme its opponents. Everyone, including the 105 players plus the staff including the janitors, will have to excel.
“I don’t know what that’s going to point to in the win-loss column, and ultimately, I understand that’s how I’m measured,” he said. “But I can promise you this, there’s a process to this, and we’re going to be as prepared as we can be. And I can look back at the end of the season and say, ‘OK, did we get the absolute most out of all 200 people in our program?’”
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