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Meet the Memphis donut shop owner who connected Arkansas coaches John Calipari, Ryan Silverfield

One of the first people Ryan Silverfield met on his first day as Arkansas football’s new coach was John Calipari.

The two former Memphis coaches — Silverfield led the Tigers from 2020-25 while Calipari coached the men’s basketball team from 2000-2009 — connected instantly over one particular Memphis establishment: Gibson’s Donuts.

“All my boys I talked to back in Memphis love you,” Calipari told Silverfield in a video on Hogs+. “My guys at the donut shop….They all say, ‘Great guy. Can coach his butt off.’”

Gibson’s opened in 1967, and Don DeWeese has owned it since 1996.