Arkansas coach raises more eyebrows ahead of UGA game with ‘obituary’ remarks

“In my 28 years, there’s a lot of people who have tried to write my obituary,” Silverfield told reporters on Monday. “And guess what? They haven’t done so yet. And we’ll keep coming out swinging and I plan on doing this thing for a long time and find ways to improve every week.”

Arkansas is coming off a 43-10 loss to No. 17 Utah last week. The Razorbacks trailed by 40 at one point in the contest, Silverfield’s first against a ranked foe.

The Arkansas coach had already made himself a target to Georgia fans when he was the Memphis coach last season. In speaking during a radio interview, Silverfield brought up Georgia’s driving record.

“Generally, on a Sunday afternoon when we meet with the team, we do two things,” Silverfield said last September. “We always start off with ‘not our standard,’ always start out with a negative. And the ‘not our standard’ is ‘Georgia wide receiver arrested for driving 900 miles per hour over the speed limit.’ That’s a weekly occurrence. So, that’s one we’ll show.”

Kirby Smart responded to those comments this week, noting that the now-Arkansas coach reached out to apologize.

“He made a choice to talk about what he wanted to talk about. He apologized about it,” Smart said. “He wasn’t really — I think he was talking about generalities. All coaches, we show things other schools do to make mistakes, to try to educate our team.

“He’s trying to educate his team, and it’s everything he said, but that’s over and done with for me.”

Smart elected to take the high road when discussing Silverfield, instead of offering up how he felt when he heard Silverfield’s initial remarks.

Georgia players don’t seem to be extra-motivated by the remarks, as Georgia cornerback Demello Jones claimed he hadn’t heard the comments made by Silverfield.

For the Bulldogs, they’re hoping to show what they can do when finally faced with some adversity. The Bulldogs have won their first two games by a combined 110 points. Following Georgia’s 70-20 win over Western Kentucky, Smart repeatedly pointed out how overmatched the Hilltoppers were.

It seems though that the Razorbacks may be similarly ill-equipped to handle, or at least challenge a team like Georgia.

The Razorbacks went 0-8 in SEC games last season, with former Georgia assistant Sam Pittman losing his job after the Razorbacks were blasted by Notre Dame 56-13.

While Arkansas will be at home on Saturday, it is working at a rest disadvantage. The Razorbacks didn’t get back from Utah until early Sunday morning, as the game had a 10:15 p.m. ET start.

Saturday’s game kicks off at 11 a.m. locally. That tighter turnaround is why Arkansas Hunter Yurachek voiced his displeasure with the game time when it was announced back in May.

Smart actually understood and agreed with Arkansas’ stance on that matter.

“Everybody’s going to play the same number of away games, everybody’s going to play the same number of home games, for the most part, within one or two,” Smart said. “You have to navigate that. It’s certainly challenging. I wouldn’t like it either. It’s a tough situation to be in.”

Whether Smart extends his sympathies to Arkansas and Silverfield on the field remains to be seen. Smart is plenty capable of playing nice in front of the podium before unleashing his competitive side on the field.

For an Arkansas program that is struggling under Silverfield’s direction and a Georgia team looking to prove a point, Saturday has all the makings of a game that could again get out of hand.

“You learn a lot about them if they have adversity, and I’ve learned a lot about our teams in the past from going and playing in SEC environments when maybe we haven’t played our best, or maybe you get in one of those hornets nest games, and you’ve gotta fight your way out of it,” Smart said.