Arkansas interested in former SEC defensive coordinator for DC post, per report
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Arkansas is targeting Ron Roberts to be its defensive coordinator under new head coach Ryan Silverfield, according to a report on Friday morning by Matt Zenitz and Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports.
Roberts has extensive experience in the SEC as the defensive coordinator at both Florida and Auburn, and he was also the DC at Baylor. He nearly had the job at Arkansas 3 years ago, but Roberts went to Auburn instead. Now, it appears Roberts is close to taking his 3rd defensive coordinator job within the SEC.
A veteran college coach with nearly 3 decades of experience, Roberts has been a defensive coordinator for 17 of his 28 years in college. But he also has head coaching experience at the lower levels of college football spanning 11 years, going 89-45 combined at Delta State and Southeastern Louisiana.
Roberts spent 3 years as the defensive coordinator at Baylor from 2020-2022 before spending 1 season as the DC at Auburn in 2023. He stayed in the SEC the past 2 seasons as the defensive coordinator at Florida, where his results weren’t as strong as they were at Auburn. In Gainesville, Roberts’s defenses ranked in the double-digits among the league’s 16 teams in all major categories.
Now, it appears Roberts has a shot to take that Arkansas DC job that he almost had a few years ago.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
