Listing Arkansas football coaching candidates in standings by wins this year

The Razorbacks are about to hit full gear on their coaching search with November finally rolling around on the calendar. It's just four weekends before the Hogs have a new leader.

So, with that being the case, it's time to rank the potential coaching candidates based on official standings determined by total wins. With that in mind, here is how the coaches rank themselves through their own success.

No. 1
Ryan Silverfield, Memphis, 8-1, AAC

With all due respect to Arkansas, and let's get real, there isn't much, the Memphis Tigers are about to hit the tough stretch of their schedule. Silverfield's Tigers have already slayed the Razorbacks and early season darling South Florida, but Memphis has Tulane, where Jeff Sumrall just got his head handed to him by Jeff Traylor this week, and undefeated Navy in the final three games remaining.

Right now he is the most likely coach on this list to make the playoffs, meaning he can't be hired until after national signing day, but that can change quickly. There are several projections of him going elsewhere for his next position, but he's still the candidate with the most wins on the Hogs' list.

No. 2
Eric Morris, North Texas, 7-1

Morris, no relation to former Hogs' coach Chad Morris, has a huge game against undefeated Navy this weekend. A win over the Midshipmen would put the Eagles back on the path to the AAC championship game and a rematch with South Florida or a first of the season showdown with Memphis with the College Football Playoffs on the line.

If Morris somehow gets UNT into the playoffs, it will be much harder to find an administration patient enough to wait for him to finish with the first round just before Christmas. Perhaps the change in transfer portal dates would help, but that gets dramatically harder if the Eagles pull an upset.

No. 3
Jerry Mack, 6-2, Kennesaw St., Conference USA

Mack keeps piling up wins and just made the Owls bowl eligible for the first time in school history, is undefeated in Conference USA and barely lost, 10-9, on the road to a Wake Forest team that is still in the running for the ACC championship.

He just put down the first stone on the path to a program at a school of 50,000 students in Georgia that is looking to climb its way to a major conference with a program that will soon be a decade old.

Mack's wide open offense and stingier than expected bend but don't break defense gives them a legitimate chance to finish the season ranked, something no one in their right mind would have thought possible perhaps ever, much less at the beginning of the season.

His Owls currently have an outside chance to finish the season as the highest ranked Group of Five team, but a lot of dominoes would have to fall to make it happen.

No. 4
Alex Golesh, South Florida, 6-2, AAC

Golesh was head of the nation's media darling after knocking off Florida and Boise State to start the season. However, the Miami Hurricanes and Memphis Tigers put an end to the Bulls' dreams of making the College Football Playoff.

South Florida can still make noise by giving Navy a loss that would give the Bulls a head-to-head win over the Midshipmen in regard to consideration for the AAC championship game, but it's unlikely there is enough runway to become the highest ranking Group of Five team even if Golesh can get them on a run through to the conference title.

That means Golesh, whose wife is from Northwest Arkansas, becomes a viable candidate for the job.

Jeff Sumrall, Tulane, 6-2, AAC

One coach who won't have playoffs as a concern thanks to another coach on this list is Sumrall. He ran his mouth this week, accusing UTSA of cheating to go undefeated in conference games for the past six years at home and allowing his quarterback pop off, and got put in his place by UTSA in blowout fashion Thursday night.

The media scrum fallout afterward not a good look, one which a lot of LSU fans noticed and indicated took him off their potential list, despite the Tigers now taking a back seat to the Arkansas job with coaches and agents after the Louisiana governor's misinformation filled seige of Tigers' athletics.

Rhett Lashlee, SMU, 5-3, ACC

Technically, Lashlee isn't on this list. He has made it clear Arkansas is a down the road destination.

He wants his own version of Sam Pittman's sunset on his career before heading off to a nice house by an Arkansas lake scenario. However, if he doesn't start winning games again at a high level down in Dallas, he's going to find himself involuntarily on the Hogs' board and that may come sooner than later with No. 10 Miami arriving in Dallas this weekend.

The men and women who pooled together over $100 million in a blink of an eye for Lashlee to succeed in the ACC last season don't stomach anything less than championships. He may get a pink slip at the end of this season if the losses continue to pile up.

If all goes as expected today, Lashlee will have a highly unacceptable four losses against a relatively weak schedule. He's going to want to be in the conference championship game next season if he survives.

Jeff Traylor, UTSA, 4-4, AAC

The Roadrunners are undefeated in the Alamodome in conference games for the past six years, and it was comments from fellow Arkansas candidate Jeff Sumrall about possibly illegally piping in sound that ticked Traylor off.

His team summarily issued a 48-26 beatdown of then playoff contender Tulane and the former Razorbacks assistant wasted few words in voicing his displeasure about what both Sumrall and his quarterback had to say throughout the week leading up to the game.

"A team that felt extremely disrespected, a coach that said we've basically been cheating the last six years. Which disrespects everything we've done in this place the last six years, in my opinion," said Traylor. "A quarterback that disrespected us, it's unbelievable, mic'd up before the game. Some spoiled rotten media, some fair-weather fans, shut 'em up for a week.

"Some chirping birds we don't give a crap about, we did enough to shut 'em up for a week." 

Traylor has a strong overall record as head coach despite the current .500 record. The prospect of him reunitiing with his former offensive coordinator Barry Lunney, Jr. at Arkansas could be a selling point to fans.

GJ Kinne, Texas St., 3-5, Sun Belt

If Arkansas finds itself seriously digging into Kinne's resume, things haven't gone well. He was a hot prospect coming into the season after leading a hapless Bobcats program to multiple 8-5 seasons, but right now he is dead last in the Sun Belt's West Division.

That's not the kind of momentum anyone in the Razorbacks' administration wants to try to sell fans on in a few weeks.