After months of hiding behind generic coach speak and a series of catch phrases that send Arkansas fans into PTSD fits from the full tilt boogie left lane, hammer down Chad Morris years, Hogs head coach Ryan Silverfield finally slipped up and let Razorbacks fans see a little of his true self.
During a podcast interview this past week with former Auburn Tigers center turned SEC Network reporter Cole Cubelic, Silverfield let it shine through rather brightly that he is a hard core nerd.
Not the 1980s movie stereotype that was always incredibly awkward, constantly had a runny nose and was into obscure sci-fi not because he thought lasers blowing up various alien species seemed cool, but, instead because he enjoys breaking down whether what is happening on screen is scientifically possible.
No. This is more along the lines of the perfectly normal high school kid who happens to also know the answer to every Harry Potter trivia question and lights up if some other person in the room can match his knowledge of the subject.
The interview was easing it’s way along, trying desperately to not bog down as the two worked their way through Silverfield’s various career stops like a formal reading of his Wikipedia page when Cubelic nearly crashed the proverbial interview plane by diving from roughly 20,000 feet soaking in the Hogs’ coach’s entire career to about three inches off the ground with a passing mention of a very specific offensive line scheme concept.
Silverfield kept a straight face throughout the entire nosedive until Cubelic tightly wound his question around his guest’s thoughts on utilizing pin and pull concepts to create defensive confusion. Once the focus became building the offense around getting athletic offensive linemen out into space, his face could no longer lie for him.
He was immediately betrayed. There was no doubt his perfect December day includes an early morning sipping coffee with a buddy while examining the freshly acquired signature of a powerful offensive lineman and breaking down how much potential his light feet bring on a counter.
Before long, they have sketched out this guy’s next four years on a stack of napkins. Only Silverfield’s wife calling to find out where he is because they were supposed to take their daughters for Santa Claus pictures can stop down the discussion.
“First off, I think both of our computer batteries may die if we start talking pin and pull schemes,” Silverfield said. “I mean, you got 14 hours for this podcast?”
Acknowledging the excitement of a fellow offensive line schematics enthusiast, Cubelic tried to steer the discussion with the idea of setting limits as to how deep this was going to go without killing the Arkansas coach’s sudden burst in spirit.
“Well, or people are going to turn us off,” Cubelic said. “One or the other.”
Like a kid who just opened the one present he truly wanted for Christmas, Silverfield blew right past Cubelic’s words of warning.
“Exactly,” Silverfield said, barely able to contain himself. “Let’s nerd out! Let me go get the whiteboard and let’s call it a day.”
Seeing the Arkansas coach let his freak flag fly isn’t just surprising because of how guarded he tends to be. It’s also a bit of a shock because despite his background in pretty much every position on the field, including three years of offensive line split between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions and another three years at Memphis, nothing on video as of late seems to suggest any form of creative thought in regard to linemen, much less a deep passion dedicated to getting athletic monsters in space with a simple directive — destroy.
When Silverfield took the job, it called for dives into two of his biggest wins with two very different quarterbacks. The first scoring drive film set came from an upset of South Florida in Memphis to remain undefeated against his fellow SEC head coaching immigrants from the AAC, and the other was at Florida State, a win that almost got his former Memphis boss Mike Norvell canned, leading to the desperate move of hiring UCF head coach Gus Malzahn to be his offensive coordinator.
Against South Florida, Tim Cramsey’s offense centered around a quarterback expected to run a lot and make short, quick throws. Against the Seminoles, with star quarterback Seth Henigan, the offense was built with the idea the Tigers were going to throw the ball around with more of a traditional drop back quarterback.
In both instances, despite different philosophies, the one constant was how vanilla the offensive line scheme was. Take a big step together to the right or take a big step together to the left.
That’s it. The only misdirection visible was sometimes the tight end would work his way down the line from left to right, often adding an extra blocker on runs off the edge.
Then, when Silverfield and Cramsey wanted to get extra fancy, they would have the tight end catch a pass while still hidden behind the line. Last year this duty fell to Matt Adcock, who happens to be on the Razorbacks roster now.
All the evidence points to another season of vanilla along the front. Either step left or right. None of this pulling or shifting directions to mow over undersized SEC linebackers and safeties.
That’s the kind of creative, exciting running game that might result in guys like Madre Hill, Darren McFadden or Cedric Cobbs rising to dominance as they cut off monster backside blocks. That sort of thing is for nerds.
The kind that stay up all night dreaming of ways to get a tight end pulling one way, a tackle pulling the other way, only to meet at the on-ramp to a 50+ yard run up the gut. That’s the type of nerd stuff Silverfield doesn’t want Arkansas fans to actually see.
Meanwhile, it’s exactly what a fan base raised on Running Back U wants to see.
It’s time for Silverfield to let his freak flag fly by accepting the nerd the Razorbacks community now knows him to be. Accept the unique personality rather than settling for the generic.
