Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield punted while trailing late in the Razorbacks' loss to No. 15 Tennessee because he felt his offense had an 'under 5%' chance of getting a first down

Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield thought his team’s chances of a late fourth-down conversion against Tennessee were really, really low.

The Razorbacks lost 24-17 to the No. 15 Volunteers on Saturday afternoon after punting the ball back to Tennessee with less than two minutes remaining and trailing by a touchdown. The decision, according to Silverfield, was fairly easy.

Arkansas faced a fourth-and-10 at its own 25-yard line after K.J. Jackson threw three consecutive incomplete passes. Since the Razorbacks had all three timeouts remaining, Silverfield felt that punting was the right call.

“At the time I think we were 2-of-11 on third down situations, it was a fourth-and-10,” Silverfield said after the game. “If you don’t get it, say you try to throw it, 1:40 left, we use all three timeouts, put it at, say, 1:25, they kick a field goal, OK? You’re down 10 now with no timeouts, roughly 1:20 left in the game so we need to score a touchdown in that situation and get the onside kick and kick a field goal just to tie it. That’s a pretty low percentage.

“I think a fourth-and-10 percentage for us, especially the way we were protecting at the end, probably was, whatever, under 5% chance to get it. And if you can punt and play defense and stop the run on three downs — which we knew we had three downs to stop the run we’d get the ball back and at least give ourselves a chance to tie it and, if it was under 20 seconds, we would have gone for two and the win.”

In case you were wondering, it took Tennessee two plays to get a first down to ice the game.

Even though the strategy didn’t work, Silverfield’s strategical decision does make some sense. However, it also doesn’t instill any confidence in an Arkansas fanbase that’s desperately in need of some.

Arkansas is now 2-4 and 0-3 in the SEC after the loss. The Razorbacks are at the bottom of the conference with Vanderbilt and the only SEC team under .500 overall through six weeks. Before losing by seven at home to Tennessee, Arkansas had lost by 27 to Texas A&M, by 28 against Georgia and by 33 at Utah.

It’s been a rough first six games for Silverfield after his arrival for Memphis. Many Arkansas fans are incredibly unhappy with athletic director Hunter Yurachek and would love more investment in the football program. Just recently, prominent Arkansas booster John Tyson compared his poultry industry to the oil industry that’s powering Texas Tech’s recent football spending.

But Arkansas’ place at the bottom of the SEC may be even more reason for Silverfield to take a low-percentage chance in that fourth down spot. Does it really matter if you lose by seven or 10 points to a top-15 opponent? Why not take the risk and go down swinging instead of having a defense that hadn’t yet given up fewer than 34 points to an FBS team attempt to make a stop?

Maybe Silverfield will now do that in the future.