Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield officially left Memphis to become the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday in a move that was a win for both parties.
Silverfield leaves Memphis with a 50-25 overall record in six seasons as the Head Coach of the program. Silverfield had big wins over power conference schools such as Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Florida State, to name a few, but never made the American Conference Championship game despite having one of the biggest budgets in the league.
“We thank Coach Silverfield for his leadership over the past six seasons and wish him and his family the best in their next chapter,” Memphis Athletic Director Ed Scott said in a statement on Sunday. “We are excited about the future of Memphis football and the momentum of our program. A national search for our next head coach is underway, and we are committed to finding a leader who reflects our values, prioritizes student-athlete development, and shares our vision for elevating the program nationally.”
For Memphis, and for Silverfield, the split was the best-case scenario.
Silverfield climbed the ranks to an SEC job and became the third consecutive Memphis coach to leave to take a power conference job, following in the footsteps of Justin Fuente and Mike Norvell, who took Virginia Tech and Florida State, respectively.
Meanwhile Memphis, who finished this once promising season on a three-game skid, gets paid $1.5 million from Arkansas to take a coach that much of the fanbase had, at the very least, serious doubts about.
Memphis and Silverfield were stuck in a seemingly constant cycle of good but not good enough seasons, where they would win 9 to 10 regular season games, win their bowl game, but not have anything of substance, like a conference title game appearance, to show for the season.
And due to a 2024 contract extension, every time Silverfield won nine regular season games, he would get an automatic one-year extension and a pay raise.
“Ultimately, the goal was 100% to win the conference championship,” Silverfield said in a press conference on Nov. 22.
Yet Silverfield, despite getting pay raises and extensions, was never able to even reach the game that gave him the opportunity to fulfill this goal.
Now is as important of a time as ever for Memphis to succeed in football, the main driver of conference realignment, as more realignment is on the horizon in 2030 when the ACC’s media rights deal expires.
“Basketball pays our bills," Ed Scott said on Grind City Media's The Gary Parrish Show before this season. "But football’s got to be our future.”
With the growing chasm between the Power Four and the Group of Five, Memphis needs to show its potential by winning the American Conference and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff to finish on the right side of this next bout of realignment. In six years, Silverfield had proven he could not accomplish that.
The possibility still lurks that the grass may not be greener for Silverfield or Memphis, but a clean slate was needed for all involved.
