Ryan Silverfield the man is comfortable, but what about the coach?

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Arkansas football coach Ryan Silverfield is at ease in his new surroundings as a human individual and as a family man. Peter Burns of SEC Network underscored this point, as noted by Sports Illustrated:

"Being a charismatic and successful head coach is key in this era of NIL contracts and transfer portal bedlam is paramount. Burns continued to heap praise on Silverfield's character. Confidence is a special power for these guys to stay calm enough to make the best moves, call the right plays and run practice the right way.

"Even with Silverfield, like these guys are comfortable in their own skin right now," Burns said. "I felt like all of them are kind of settled and fit exactly where they were supposed to fit in these new openings. The one thing that was important for us is that I didn't want to do any of these interviews at the football facility, because everybody is kind of in their work mode. It made all the difference in the world, especially for Coach Silverfield. 'Cause, man, we show up, and he's got a baby bottle in hand; he's got twin daughters that are just rolling around. I'm like, this is what I want Razorback fans and even SEC football fans to understand. There's emotions, and there's a world of family."

"College sports is so transactional now that we lose the fabric of and the emotions of who these people are," Burns said. "And we need that personality to understand what makes these guys tick a little bit more."

So, Ryan Silverfield does indeed come across as a man who is comfortable in his own skin. That much seemed true at SEC media days a few weeks ago. It's also worth noting, before we dive into the firestorm of an SEC football season at a struggling program with a rightly restless and skeptical fan base, that these coaches are human beings. It's important that when criticism is leveled, it is not for the sake of tearing down, but to get at solutions and answers for a football program which, last year, fell off a cliff.

We can be happy for Ryan Silverfield's comfort as a person and as a husband and father. Now we need to see that comfort translate into excellent job performance and a body of work which enables him to gain comfort as a head football coach in the SEC, not just as a person.

"He's a good family man" has often been used as the answer to the question, "What good thing can you say about Coach X?" The inference below the surface: He's not a good football coach. Ryan Silverfield has to earn coaching respect, so that warm and accurate comments about his character don't form the end or summit of the conversation surrounding him.

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