![\"\u201cI\u2019ll](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/img_2167-768x461.jpg\" "\\"\u201cI\u2019ll")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
FAYETTEVILLE \u2014 If anyone has a pretty clear idea about the situation new Arkansas football coach Ryan Silverfield has walked into, it\u2019s former Razorback boss Houston Dale Nutt.<\/p>\n Nutt, a Little Rock native and former Razorback player, took over in 1998 for Danny Ford, who was let go after consecutive 4-7 campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n A similar challenge awaits Silverfield, who left a successful six-year run in Memphis (50-25) on Nov. 30 to take over an Arkansas program that lost its final 10 games last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Silverfield beat both No. 18 South Florida and Arkansas in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never had a chance to meet (Silverfield) and my impression has been from the outside looking in,\u201d Nutt told Best of Arkansas Sports. \u201cThe job that he did at Memphis has just been outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n More important than Xs and Os, Silverfield is tasked with erasing what he described as a \u201closer mentality\u201d that has plagued Arkansas football for the better part of 14 years.<\/p>\n Of course, bringing in talented players helps as well. On that front, he\u2019s successfully landed four of the state\u2019s top six prospects who were originally headed out of state<\/a> on his first full day in Fayetteville.<\/p>\n Nutt is impressed that the new Head Hog didn\u2019t just provide lip service to that part of the job.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we always tried to build that wall in the state of Arkansas,\u201d Nutt said. \u201cI know it\u2019s much different now with NIL and this craziness. I don\u2019t know how you do it, man.\u201d<\/p>\n Nutt shuddered at the thought<\/a> of fending off suitors trying to poach his three-headed backfield monster of Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis, all who went on to play in the NFL.<\/p>\n Silverfield made retention a priority by securing key pieces like Quincy Rhodes Jr., Braylen Russell and KJ Jackson. He\u2019s also brought in 41 players from the portal, the nation\u2019s ninth-best transfer haul, per On3. The 45-year-old wants to win, and win quickly<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nutt, whose 75 wins are second in school history behind Frank Broyles (144), returned to Fayetteville in 1998 similarly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But his excitement was quickly doused with some cold-water realism from longtime head athletic trainer Dean Weber.<\/p>\n Houston, We Have a Problem<\/p>\n \u201cI was so excited. My dream job, coming back home,\u201d Nutt said. \u201cI will never forget after my first team meeting going into Weber\u2019s office and (former assistant) Louis Campbell was in there and I said, \u2018Hey guys, I know I\u2019m just a small-time head coach, been at Murray State and Boise State, but what am I missing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Nutt saw talented players all around the locker room like Brandon Burlsworth, Grant Garrett, Bobby Williams, Russ Brown, Madre Hill, Clint Stoerner and Anthony Lucas.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at all these guys, what am I missing?\u201d Nutt wondered. \u201cThey look great.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDean Weber says, without flinching, \u2018You got to realize you\u2019re in the SEC,\u2019\u201d Nutt recalled. \u201c\u2018You played in the Southwest Conference. This is the SEC, and these guys haven\u2019t won.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n These Hogs had won a combined eight games over the last two seasons. Yet they roared to an improbable 8-0 start in Nutt\u2019s inaugural campaign. A generational motivator and a players\u2019 coach to the bone, Nutt had to do some extensive surgical work on the Arkansas locker room.<\/p>\n \u201cI started to figure out that these guys were good, tough guys, but they didn\u2019t truly believe and they really weren\u2019t together when I came in that first team meeting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related Articles<\/p>\n Nutt noticed that the white and black players mostly sat in different parts of the locker room. After practice was over, almost everybody went straight to their cars and went home \u2013 no socializing or locker room banter after a hard day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n So he hatched a plan.<\/p>\n \u201cI told all my coaches, let\u2019s get \u2019em all, everybody get \u2019em to your house and get \u2019em to my house and we\u2019d eat and start doing a few more things together,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know how to take me. At first they thought, well, he\u2019s just kind of a \u2018rah-rah\u2019 guy, and they didn\u2019t think it was going to be for real.\u201d<\/p>\n As he put it on 103.7 The Buzz\u2019s Morning Mayhem this week, \u201cplayers don\u2019t care how much you know until they know how much you care.\u201d<\/p>\n A Tough Nutt to Crack<\/p>\n Nutt had a breakthrough late in the summer on Dedication Night, an event where coaches and players reveal who they\u2019re playing for in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n Nutt and all of his assistants put their hands on a helmet to symbolize they were all in, which later became a motto used by both Dabo Swinney and Ryan Silverfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we got to the players, something happened that I didn\u2019t expect,\u201d Nutt added. \u201cSome of the players got up there \u2013 I won\u2019t mention their names \u2013 and said, \u2018Hey, listen, I don\u2019t have a family. Dad\u2019s in prison, didn\u2019t know him. Mom\u2019s been on drugs. And listen, I ain\u2019t got one family, this family, and I\u2019ll die for y\u2019all, man.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden these tears start coming down and the next guy starts saying, Guys, I\u2019ll do anything for y\u2019all. I just want to win.\u2019 Man after man gets up there.\u201d<\/p>\n Razorback walk-on turned All-American offensive lineman Brandon Burlworth, later the subject of the movie Greater, capped off the night.<\/p>\n \u201cBurlsworth got up,\u201d Nutt recalled, \u201cand he said, \u2018Guys, I don\u2019t have but three months with you all and that\u2019s it. And I want to do all I can. I\u2019m going to be committed to this Razorback program. I want to win.\u2019 Just something that was pretty concise, and he went and sat down.\u201d<\/p>\n The meeting was more effective than Nutt could have even imagined, as his conversation with Marvin Caston afterward revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are together,\u201d Caston declared. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been together. We\u2019re together. We can beat Green Bay tonight. We can beat the Packers.\u201d<\/p>\n The fullback went on to become a prominent member of the Razorback Foundation<\/a>. Nutt appreciated the sentiment, but wasn\u2019t worried about taking down the Super Bowl runner-ups at that time. Instead, the focus was on Southwestern Louisiana in the season opener.<\/p>\n Rallying the State of Arkansas<\/p>\n Still, he knew something special was happening at that point.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe just became one,\u201d Nutt said, \u201cand I felt like the entire state was with us in a foxhole.\u201d<\/p>\n The newly-connected Razorbacks fired off eight straight wins to start the season, with six of those coming by two scores or more.<\/p>\n Silverfield has a similar challenge ahead, and Nutt certainly thinks he has his priorities straight.<\/p>\n That 1998 team soared into the top 10 of the AP Poll at one point. Silverfield hasn\u2019t yet been able to show his work on the field, but he has brought the Razorbacks into a different top 10 \u2013 the transfer portal rankings.<\/p>\n Now, the new Head Hog will have to spend the rest of this year getting his team and the state as a whole into the foxhole alongside him.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n More coverage of Arkansas football from BoAS\u2026<\/p>\n![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google-preferred-source-button-light.png\")
<\/a> Smash That \u201cFollow\u201d Button<\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769384089_815_hqdefault.jpg\"\/)
![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769384089_815_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Dudley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_5137-2.jpg\")