The latest kickoff of the year for Arkansas is also one of the toughest tests on the schedule.
Ryan Silverfield’s team plays at 9:15 p.m. this week and it’s more than two hours later than any other start time the Hogs will see all season.
That alone would be enough to plan around.
Add in a ranked opponent and a stadium known for one of the loudest crowds in the country and it’s easy to see why Silverfield has been talking about this week since fall camp.
Getting ready for a night game
Silverfield’s staff didn’t wait until game week to think about the late start. Back in fall camp they held a scrimmage at the same 9:15 p.m. time just to get a feel for it.
He said the biggest thing they took from that was keeping the day as normal as possible for players even with the schedule flipped.
“You want to stay within a routine, but also have to understand it’s got to be a little bit different,” Silverfield said. “… We’re going to get out there and really do our normal night routines and just tell the guys to get some sleep. We’re going to let them sleep in as late as they can. We’re still going to wake them up. We’ve got to feed them.”
The long afternoon before kickoff is its own challenge. Silverfield doesn’t want players sitting around a hotel room for hours with nothing to do.
“There’s going to be that lull in the afternoon,” he said. “It’s that fine line of how much do you want them laying around? … Get them some downtime, get them a nap in the afternoon.”
The Razorbacks make the trip out west for a matchup they’ve never played before against No. 21 Utah.
With that comes a road environment Silverfield has already started preparing for. He expects a sellout at Rice-Eccles Stadium and knows crowd noise will factor into game plan work all week.
“Yeah we know it’s going to be a sellout crowd,” Silverfield said. “We know how tremendous a job their fans do showing up. … We will obviously be using crowd noise and preparing to the best of our ability for it.”
A program that’s proven itself
Silverfield didn’t hold back when asked about Utah and its program under new coach Morgan Scalley. He’s spent his entire career at Utah learning from longtime coach Kyle Whittingham before taking over this season.
“They’re a Top 25 team for a reason,” Silverfield said. “You look at them and their head coach has been there for 19 years now, and they’re really, really good in all three phases. They play sound.”
He singled out quarterback Devon Dampier as a player capable of hurting a defense with his arm and his legs and pointed to Utah’s running backs as a key piece too.
“Not only is he a tremendous thrower, but obviously does a great job with his legs,” Silverfield said. “They rely on their running backs quite heavily, so we’ve got to prepare.”
None of this preparation matters much if Arkansas repeats the mistakes from Week 1.
The Razorbacks won their opener 31-14 over North Alabama but Silverfield spent his Monday press conference focused on what went wrong instead of the final score.
“Offensively, a lot of self-inflicted wounds that ultimately led us to not be as productive as we want,” Silverfield said. “You can’t turn the ball over three times and have that many penalties and expect to be efficient on offense.”
The defense drew some praise despite a rocky second half.
“But things we can get cleaned up for sure,” he said. “We watch the tape. We learn from it. Every single person this program can grow.”
Once the Utah trip is over there’s no chance to exhale. Arkansas comes home to open SEC play against Georgia, a program that’s been near the top of the sport just as long as Utah has.
Silverfield sounds like a coach who knows exactly what’s coming and is trying to build the right habits now instead of waiting until conference play to figure it out.
