Ryan Silverfield might want to take back something he said last year.
Because Kirby Smart definitely hasn’t forgotten about it.
Before Silverfield became the head coach at Arkansas, he was coaching Memphis and explained how his program would show players examples of behavior that was “not our standard.”
And the example he decided to use?
Georgia.
Silverfield joked about a “Georgia wide receiver arrested for driving 900 miles per hour over the speed limit” and called it a “weekly occurrence.” The comments came amid Georgia’s very real and well-documented problems involving speeding and reckless-driving incidents.
Obviously, that’s a pretty massive shot at another program.
Now here’s where this gets interesting.
Silverfield left Memphis after last season and became the new head coach at Arkansas.
And guess who Arkansas plays in Silverfield’s first SEC game?
Georgia.
Saturday. Fayetteville. Noon ET.
You couldn’t script this any better.
Silverfield has since tried to make it clear that he wasn’t attempting to disrespect Kirby Smart personally. At SEC Media Days, he revealed that he reached out to Smart after the comments and said he has tremendous respect for him and the Georgia program.
That’s great.
But we’re talking about Kirby Smart.
This is a coach who seems capable of turning absolutely anything into motivation.
And now he has actual comments from the opposing head coach criticizing his program?
Good luck.
Especially considering the current state of these two teams.
Georgia just destroyed Western Kentucky 70-20 and enters SEC play ranked No. 2 in the country.
Arkansas just got embarrassed by Utah 43-10, falling behind 29-3 at halftime and eventually 43-3. The Razorbacks rushed for only 61 yards and are now preparing for a Georgia team that looks significantly more talented.
Georgia is already favored by around 24.5 points.
And now the Bulldogs have a little extra motivation?
This could get ugly.
Silverfield’s original point wasn’t completely unfair. Georgia’s off-field driving issues have been a legitimate problem, and Smart himself has repeatedly discussed the program’s attempts to address them.
But there’s a difference between being right and giving one of college football’s best teams bulletin-board material.
Silverfield probably never imagined when he made those comments as the Memphis coach that one year later he’d be standing on the opposite sideline from Georgia as an SEC head coach.
Well, here we are.
Arkansas desperately needs a bounce-back performance after getting destroyed by Utah.
Instead, the Razorbacks get Kirby Smart, the No. 2 team in America and potentially an entire Georgia locker room that remembers exactly what their new head coach said about them.
Ryan Silverfield better hope those comments really are forgotten.
Because if they’re not?
Saturday afternoon could get really, really ugly.
