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Smash That “Follow” Button
To sue or not to sue.
No first-year head coach wants that question on his plate in the first months of his tenure.
Yet that’s where it looks like the Arkansas football program will be as it deals with the first blow to its staff in the Silverfield era.
After less than two months on the job, defensive line coach Marion Hobby is expected to take the same job with the Indianapolis Colts.
No question, Silverfield knew such skedaddling was possible. Hobby had spent 16 years of his 30-year-long career in the pros, including a Super Bowl run with the Bengals. During his time in Cincinnati, he worked in 2021-24 with Lou Anarumo, who will again become his boss as the current Colts defensive coordinator.
So, knowing a return to the NFL would be a likely lure, Arkansas included unusually strong non-compete language in Hobby’s contract.
While most boiler-plate contracts include non-compete clauses for conference opponents or even other colleges in general, Hobby’s goes a step further and prohibits him from accepting any employment or engagement with the NFL.
The bedtime reading in full: “Coach further agrees that, during the Term, he will not seek, solicit, entertain, negotiate for, or accept any employment or engagement-whether as an employee, contractor, volunteer, or otherwise—in any coaching, consulting, advisory, scouting, administrative, front-office, or football-operations role with any team, league, club, affiliate. or entity that is part of, operated by. or associated with the National Football League (“NFL”).”
Breach of Contract for Marion Hobby?
What we’ve got here, friends, seems to be a breach of contract.
Usually, the Colts would simply pay Arkansas a buyout – in this case around Hobby’s annual pay with Arkansas of $700,000 – and both sides would simply walk in their separate directions.
Arkansas, however, could try to get far more. Hobby’s contract states: “The UA may seek injunctive and other legal or equitable relief for any breach or threatened breach. Coach agrees that without such protection, UA’s interests would be irreparably harmed, and that monetary damages alone would not adequately protect UA’s interests.”
Here’s where things get tricky for Silverfield, athletics director Hunter Yurachek and other Arkansas football brass.
On one hand, losing Hobby does leave them in a lurch. Hobby’s background as a defensive coordinator at Duke, coaching the defensive line for national champion Clemson Tigers, as well as all the NFL years, made him perhaps the most accomplished defensive line coach Arkansas has ever had.
That’s an awful lot of bonafides to throw the way of recruits and transfer prospects alike. No doubt, that helped in the transfer portal, where Arkansas got one former blue-chip lineman after another.
When the smoke cleared, the position unit looks like it may be the most talented Arkansas has had in the modern recruiting era:
By my count, with Sims committing, this will be the first time since 2016 that Arkansas will have five or more former blue-chip (rated 4-star or higher out of high school according to 247Sports) interior defensive lineman in the same room.
2026 DT blue-chips:
Danny Beale
Anthony… https://t.co/WQxxqKzA1u
— Austin Farmer (@FarmersaurusRex) January 17, 2026
These guys, not to mention Arkansas’ best defensive player, would have expected to keep benefitting from Hobby’s knowledge as winter conditioning rolled into spring football. That’s a loss, as are all the connections Hobby had developed on the recruiting trail.
On the other hand, Silverfield has built-in insurance across his position coaches that didn’t exist in previous regimes. Hobby’s departure still leaves Kynjee’ Cotton to lead the position room.
“If you’ve got 21 offensive linemen on your roster and 18 defensive linemen, having one true (position) coach plus a GA, that’s not enough,” Silverfield recently said. “I think you get two that can go out on the road recruiting on both sides of the ball, it really allows you to maximize that.”
Arkansas could use the extra cash a lawsuit could bring about.
But a college team pursuing litigation against a pro team and an assistant who, for whatever reason, needed to get away could also open up headaches that aren’t worth the payout.
Consider how awkward things could get multiple times a year when Silverfield and other Arkansas coaches run into Colts personnel around the NFL Draft Combine, NFL Draft and any Razorback games to which the Colts may want to send scouts.
The big-time football world’s a small place, and Arkansas suing a Colts assistant may not be the kind of headache that Yurachek and Silverfield want to deal with. In the end, it may be easier to just settle for something a bit more than the $700,000 – perhaps an extra $200,000 or $300,000 – and just let Hobby pursue his vocation.
Indianapolis Colts Have a Way with Poaching Hog Coaches
This isn’t the first time Arkansas has had to deal with the NFL sticking its hand in the Razorback cookie jar. In 2016, Indianapolis hired Jemal Singleton, then the running backs and special teams coordinator, away from Bret Bielema before his contract was up. His buy out was $100,000. The year before, the New Orleans Saints poached running backs coach Joel Thomas, who owed Arkansas $50,000 for the trouble.
Thomas’ time in Arkansas began in 2013, alongside a few of imports Bielema had brought to Fayetteville with him from Wisconsin. One of them, Charlie Partridge, was a lead recruiter with the guy who later emerged as Arkansas’ second-leading rusher of all time.
After Arkansas, Patridge spent time in Florida and Pittsburgh before deciding to give the NFL a shot. The team? The Indianapolis Colts.
It’s only natural Patridge’s departure from his defensive line position there opened the door for Hobby.
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What Marion Hobby’s Contract Actually Says about The NFL
Click to legalese your heart out:
The Sweeteners In Marion Hobby’s Arkansas Contract
Four benefits listed under “Other Annual Compensation”:
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More coverage of Arkansas football from BoAS:
I am a U of A graduate, former Democrat-Gazette reporter, and author of “African-American Athletes in Arkansas: Muhammad Ali’s Tour, Black Razorbacks & Other Forgotten Stories.”
Preview the book here: https://amzn.to/2SEpQdf
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