Arkansas interim OC Kolby Smith will not be retained per report

According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, the new Arkansas regime will not retain Kolby Smith. He served as the program’s interim offensive coordinator when Bobby Petrino took over Sam Pittman‘s head coaching duties. Newly hired Ryan Silverfield appears to be shaking up the offensive staff moving forward.

‘Arkansas assistant Kolby Smith, who was the team’s interim offensive coordinator after the head-coaching change, will not be retained, according to a source,” Rittenberg said via X. “The Hogs finished 19th nationally in total offense. Smith also has worked at Louisville, Rutgers and Western Kentucky.”

Smith originally came to Fayetteville ahead of the 2024 season. Pittman hired Smith to be the running backs coach, a role he held at the previous three stops mentioned by Rittenberg.

Funny enough, Arkansas is where Smith got his coaching career started. He wrapped up his NFL career and joined the Razorbacks as a graduate assistant back in 2013. That got parlayed into becoming the running backs coach at Western Kentucky.

Opposing programs now have the opportunity to hire Smith if they desire. Plenty of experience is out there on the resume, especially since Arkansas was so productive in 2025. Silverfield may just want to get one of his own guys in there.

More on Arkansas offense throughout 2025 season

Given Smith’s role as the running backs coach, first instinct is to look at the rushing numbers. Arkansas was among the best in the SEC, finishing third in the conference. Only Missouri and Texas A&M put up better numbers throughout the 2025 season.

Mike Washington finished as the team’s leading rusher, going for 1,070 yards and eight touchdowns on 167 carries. Smith certainly helped quarterback Taylen Green get the ball rolling, once taking over as the interim OC, watching the quarterback rush for 777 yards and eight touchdowns of his own.

While not much went right for Arkansas in 12 games, the offense was far from the issue. In fact, they were one of the best units in all of college football. Smith, alongside Petrino, did a great job with the group from the beginning.

“Kolby’s a guy that played for me many many moons ago and played professionally for the Chiefs,” Petrino said of Smith during the season. “[He] did an unbelievable job. He’s been handling a lot of things anyway. When I decided to make the decision to go up in the box and he’s handling the pregame information with the players and some of the things at halftime after I have to leave.”