Arkansas Razorback Preview: New Pig Sooie!
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Arkansas football enters 2026 looking almost nothing like the team that stumbled through a disastrous 2025 season that saw them go 2-10 overall and 0-for-the-SEC. After Sam Pittman was fired in late September and Bobby Petrino finished out the year as interim coach, the Razorbacks turned to Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield to lead yet another full scale rebuild of the program. With a new staff, a roster overhauled through the transfer portal, but one of the toughest schedules in the country waiting, expectations in Northwest Arkansas are cautious but hopeful.
Silverfield arrives after six seasons at Memphis, where he went a solid 50-25 and built a reputation for explosive offenses. Memphis has always been a place at which it was tough to succeed. Despite a ton of local talent, the university’s commitment level (or lack thereof) and competition on the recruiting trail from SEC schools frequently combined to keep the Tigers from reaching their potential.
Silverfield won more than ten games twice, but 2025 saw the Tigers drop to 8-4, and Silverfield leave prior to them taking a 31-7 beating from NC State in the Gasparilla Bowl. In short, he was not the most highly sought after coach on the carousel, and probably had a hit of a sell by date in Memphis. But Arkansas isn’t exactly a plum assignment in the SEC. So in some ways it felt like program and coach found each other at the right time.
Silverfield wasted little time assembling his first Arkansas staff. Tim Cramsey, his offensive coordinator at Memphis for four seasons, follows him to Fayetteville after helping the Tigers average 36 points per game and rank among the top 25 offenses nationally. On defense, Silverfield hired Ron Roberts, who spent the last two years running Florida’s defense and previously called plays at Auburn, Baylor and Louisiana, including on Baylor’s Sugar Bowl winning 2022 staff. Chad Lunsford, a former Georgia Southern head coach, takes over special teams duties after a strong 2025 at Auburn. The staff also brought in several assistants from Memphis and around the country, including veteran offensive line coaches Jeff Myers and Marcus Johnson, signaling a clear intent to rebuild a line that struggled last season.
Those new coaches are going to need name tags to keep up with all their new players. Few programs churned their roster harder than Arkansas this offseason. With dozens of scholarship spots to fill, the Razorbacks needed a portal class that ranked among the largest in the country, and they landed roughly 29 commitments that placed them near the top of the SEC and top 15 nationally in industry transfer rankings.
The quarterback room was essentially rebuilt from scratch. Longtime starter Taylen Green departed for the NFL Draft, and both Trever Jackson and Grayson Wilson left for Coastal Carolina and Boston College. In their place, Arkansas brought in Memphis transfer (and cousin of former Georgia offensive lineman Trey Hill) AJ Hill, a former top 100 recruit out of Houston County who nearly won the Memphis job before Silverfield left. He’ll be joined by Clemson’s Cade Trotter and Division II standout Braeden Fuller from Angelo State. Returning sophomore KJ Jackson remains in the mix as well.
Hill and Jackson appear to be the top options at the position, but the battle for the starting spot may extend well into fall camp.
Whoever takes the snaps will likely be handing off to bruising junior tailback Braylen Russell or shiftier senior Sutton Smith. Russell tallied 286 rushing yards on 55 carries in 2025, earning one start. Smith comes with the new staff from Memphis, where he put up 778 yards of offense (662 on the ground) and 7 touchdowns. Smith will likely be the every down versatility back in Silverfield’s system, while Russell at 227 pounds is likely going to be the short yardage go-to.
At receiver junior CJ Brown returns off a solid 2025 season in which he hauled in 28 catches for 319 yards and 3 touchdowns. Redshirt junior Ismael Cisse is looking to contribute after catching 26 passes for 241 yards at Stanford in 2024 but missing last year with an injury. Boise State transfer Chris Marshall gives the Razorbacks another big, experienced outside receiver.
Arkansas always seems to have a weapon at tight end, and this season should be no different. Big (6’5, 255 pound) Jaden Platt is back as the leading tight end, coming off a 2025 season in which he had 21 catches for 296 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Cramsey’s offense should look familiar to anyone who watched Memphis in recent years: up-tempo, balanced, and built to create explosive plays. The quarterback battle between AJ Hill and KJ Jackson will be one of the more closely watched position competitions in the SEC this preseason. While it didn’t show up in the win column, Arkansas actually finished last season ranked among the nation’s top 15 offenses in total yards and averaged nearly 33 points per game under Bobby Petrino, so there is a foundation to build on even with the staff and personnel turnover.
The receiving corps returns several contributors and adds portal pieces like Marshall, who should stretch the field after averaging significant yards per catch production in his career. The offensive line is the biggest question mark, given the wholesale coaching and personnel changes up front. But but the addition of experienced linemen through the portal gives the staff options as they piece together protection for a new quarterback.
Defense on the other hand was the story of Arkansas’ collapse in 2025, when the Razorbacks allowed 33.8 points per game, among the worst marks in the country. Ron Roberts inherits a unit that returns limited production and had to be almost entirely restocked through the portal, with new defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs arriving from programs across the country.
Up front, senior defensive end Quincy Rhodes Jr. could be the unit’s key player and is a legitimate all-conference candidate. At linebacker, Bradley Shaw has shown flashes as one of the SEC’s more underrated linebackers, recording 62 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and a forced fumble over his career, and he’s expected to anchor the position as a full-time starter.
Roberts’ track record suggests improved structure and discipline, but expecting an immediate turnaround against SEC competition may be unrealistic. If Arkansas can simply avoid being the conference’s worst defense, that alone would represent progress.
The Bottom Line
The schedule does the new staff no favors, and it’s possible the Hawgs could be better on the field but not much better in the win column. Arkansas opens with North Alabama and a tough road trip to Utah before diving into a nine game SEC slate that includes the Red and Black, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Auburn, Texas and LSU.
With that lineup five wins feels like a stretch goal, though better coaching and depth on defense could make games more competitive even without a leap in the standings. Arkansas has not had a winning SEC season since 2015, and this year is less about a bowl game and more about establishing a culture and picking up the program’s first conference win in nearly two seasons. Silverfield will get patience early if he can demonstrate proof of concept, but Razorback fans will be watching closely for signs that the rebuild is heading in the right direction.
When the Razorbacks come to Athens on September 19th the Athenians will be fresh off hosting Tennessee State and Western Kentucky in Athens. Arkansas on the other hand plays at Utah on September 12th (in a game set to start at 10:15 eastern/9:15 central). It will likely be a tired and physically beaten up Razorback squad taking the field in Sanford Stadium, but they will have had some time to build cohesion, and I think will be surprisingly tough. But in the end I expect this one to be a microcosm of a tough rebuilding year. A better Arkansas team is still not good enough to hang with the SEC’s big boys. Arkansas scores a late touchdown to make this one look respectable in the box score, if not on the field.
Score prediction: Georgia 34, Arkansas 20
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
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