FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield exited Razorback Stadium confident his program is moving in the right direction after 45-17 loss to No. 2-ranked Georgia.

“No one wants to hear this, (but) maybe took a little bit of a step today,” said Silverfield, whose Razorbacks scored two of the final three touchdowns in the game amid the 100-degree field heat to make the score more respectable.

“We got to see some things, and we’re going to continue to fight, I got to see that fighting mentality. When I got here I said we’re going to fight like Arkansas, and we got to see a little bit of that today.”

Silverfield said the loss in the first SEC game he’s coached as the Razorbacks head coach is merely a modest beginning in his tenure at Arkansas.

“It’s going to be a greater part and start of this story that’s going to end very, very well,” Silverfield said, “and we’re going to keep working and battling.”

Georgia held the Razorbacks to 17 rushing yards, but Kirby Smart put an asterisk next to that number and complimented alternating Arkansas quarterbacks KJ Jackson (20-27, 212 yards, TD) and AJ Hill (8-14, 76 yards).

“They threw for (288 yards, combined), so that’s what you do, you know?” Smart said. “But teams are going to struggle to run the ball against us. They’re going to have to throw it, and they threw it well.”

Hill is a former Houston County quarterback from Warner Robins who Smart said he’s known for a long time.

“We recruited him …,” Smart said before referencing relatives of the Arkansas sophomore quarterback. “Trey Hill, (and) his uncle Derek Hill, I coached him at Valdosta State, so I’ve known AJ since he came to my camp when he was 8, 9, 10 years old. Great kid, great family.”

Silverfield said his quarterback situation is not settled, but he doesn’t think the Razorbacks’ pass game is too far off regardless of who is under center if the team can eliminate mistakes.

“I think I mentioned the six drops which we can’t have, there’s never a good time for them, some of them showed up on third down,” Silverfield said. “Some were misreads; it’s a third-and-6 and we have a tight end sitting over the ball at 8 yards, throw him the football. Some of our things are inexcusable.”

Silverfield credited UGA’s Gunner Stockton for making big plays for the Bulldogs.

“Absolutely crushed us, there were some times when you did get some quarterback pressure in the drop back pass game …. (and) it was like a true load option where he was just running,” Silverfield said of Stockton, who was 10-of-13 passing for 147 yards and a TD and led Georgia rushers with seven carries for a career-high 97 yards.

“We know what a tremendous athlete he is, we’ve got to be able to set the edge on that and then we have to show up and fill from the safety position … clearly we didn’t do a good enough job doing that and he hurt us with his legs,” he said.

“Everybody knows what a great run game Georgia has had, and has, but we knew the quarterback’s effectiveness to run it with his legs and it showed up today.”

The Arkansas pass rush showed up, too, matching Georgia with three quarterback sacks.

“One (sack) was generated pressure, a called fire zone (blitz), and then the other two were the ability to win the one-on-one in a pass rush situation, which we are going to need to continue to do,” Silverfield said, “so I was pleased with that. But you have to be able to tie those in with being able to stop the run.”

Georgia had eight different players carry the ball for 254 yards.

Silverfield acknowledged his embattled place in headlines this week, as he was raked over the coals for off-handed remarks he made last season about UGA’s off-field driving-related issues while he was still coaching at Memphis.

“In 28 years of this deal (coaching) you fight fights, I’ve been kicked in teeth, I’ve been knocked down before,” Silverfield said. “If you’re in this thing long enough, you’ve dealt with adversity, and so this is not my first case of adversity. We’ve had some success in the past and that’s one of the reasons I’m here.

“(But) if you see me tomorrow, you’ll say, ‘man, he doesn’t look like a guy that’s getting beat up in the media, he doesn’t look like a guy that the house is burning down around him.’ Hell no, I’m going to get off the mat like I do every day win, lose or draw and keep swinging, and adversity is part to it.”