Checking in on how Arkansas football coaching candidates are performing in 2025

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FAYETTEVILLE — With the calendar turning to November, Arkansas football fans are roughly a month away from learning who will become the school’s 34th head coach.

The Razorbacks are in the midst of a brutal 2-7 campaign. They haven’t won a game since mid-September and have three rivalry bouts against LSU, Texas and Missouri to close the 2025 season.

Interim coach Bobby Petrino hasn’t been able to manufacture a turnaround, diminishing his hopes of becoming the full-time leader. It figures to be a wild coaching carousel over the next month, with three SEC rivals joining Arkansas with vacancies atop their respective programs.

Below is a look at how eight potential candidates are performing in 2025. We are not including SMU’s Rhett Lashlee or UNLV’s Dan Mullen. Lashlee just signed an extension, and Mullen shared on social media earlier this year that he had “0.0 interest in Arkansas”.

Also, for the purpose of this exercise, we are not including any current coordinators. That means there’s no Petrino.

However, we will start with a head coach who was fired from his post earlier this fall.

James Franklin, former Penn State coach

Record: 3-3, 0-3 Big Ten
Recruiting Class: N/A
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: N/A
The scoop: Penn State fired Franklin on Oct. 12 after a loss to Northwestern. Three straight conference losses ended Franklin’s tenure in rapid fashion. Earlier in 2025, he was coaching Penn State during the College Football Playoff semifinals. Franklin’s early exit allows schools with openings to start their pursuit, and he should be pretty high on the Razorbacks’ list considering his proven track record of building programs with consistent winning seasons.

Jon Sumrall, Tulane head coach

Record: 6-2, 3-1 American
Recruiting Class: 64th
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 57th/103rd
The scoop: Sumrall seems destined for a leap into the Power 4 this carousel, but there are no shortage of options. He could be a popular pick to stay inside Louisiana and take over at LSU. With Tulane this fall, Sumrall is leaning on a veteran quarterback to grind out wins. The Green Wave still have an outside shot of reaching the College Football Playoff if it wins out.

Alex Golesh, USF head coach

Record: 6-2, 3-1 American
Recruiting Class: 52nd
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 7th/90th
The scoop: The Bulls have one of the best offense’s in the country thanks to Byrum Brown under center and Golesh’s creative scheme in a spread attack. They have a road win over Florida and a home win over Boise State, and their only two losses are to ranked opponents. Another key piece to his résumé is his recruiting. The only school outside the Power 4 with a higher-ranked class this cycle is Notre Dame.

Ryan Silverfield, Memphis head coach

Record: 8-1, 4-1 American
Recruiting Class: 70th
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 36th/49th
The scoop: Silverfield boosted his candidacy for any job with a home win over Arkansas earlier this season. Aside from a blip against UAB, the Tigers are in the midst of one of their best seasons in recent memory and have the inside track at a spot in the College Football Playoff. They feature an explosive offense that relies on the run game and play strong defense for a school outside the Power 4. He already has a win over Golesh, and he will face Sumrall Friday night in a monstrous game in the American Conference race.

Tony Elliott, Virginia head coach

Record: 8-1, 5-0 ACC
Recruiting Class: 87th
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 27th/45th
The scoop: Virginia is not an easy place to win, as shown in Elliott’s previous three seasons, but those were building blocks to 2025. The Cavaliers control their destiny to reach the ACC Championship with one of the better offenses in the country. Clemson hasn’t been the same program since he walked out the door, and Elliott might be the exact type of gamble Hunter Yurachek needs to make in a coaching carousel where Arkansas is lower than many of its rivals in the food chain.

Manny Diaz, Duke head coach

Record: 5-3, 4-1 ACC
Recruiting Class: 51st
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 18th/101st
The scoop: Diaz is once again outperforming Mario Cristobal, who replaced the former at Miami in 2022. The job in Durham, N.C. is even more of an uphill battle, and Diaz has an outside shot of leading the Blue Devils to the ACC Championship. The offense is electric and Diaz is a proven winner of the transfer portal. However, for a coach that rose through the ranks on defense, that unit leaves a lot to be desired this fall.

PJ Fleck, Minnesota head coach

Record: 6-3, 4-2 Big Ten
Recruiting Class: 29th
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 123rd/23rd
The scoop: Fleck and the Gophers have shown a knack for one-score wins this fall, and they have one of the best defenses in the entire country. The offense is another story, and that might derail him from getting a program upgrade this offseason. However, he’s developed Minnesota into a team that consistently plays in bowl games. At the bare minimum, the potential of Fleck bringing former Fayetteville High School quarterback Drake Lindsey back home to Arkansas is an exciting proposition.

Eric Morris, North Texas head coach

Record: 8-1, 4-1 American
Recruiting Class: 108th
Total Offense/Total Defense Ranking: 6th/62nd
The scoop: The Mean Green have an imposing offense, and Morris has scored plenty of points wherever he’s been as an assistant. In only his third year as a head coach, North Texas is another American Conference team eyeing the league title and a potential CFP spot. His only loss this year is to South Florida, but the schedule has been benign, to say the least. Arguably Morris’ biggest résumé boost is an eye for quarterbacks. He recruited the likes of Cam Ward and John Mateer before they were stars and now has another gem in Drew Mestemaker.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: How Arkansas football coaching candidates are performing in 2025

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