• Lots of elbow room. The first day of October was a perfect day for football in Memphis, Tennessee. Not a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the mid-60s at kickoff as the Tigers hosted Temple at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. The game started early (11 a.m.), but that somehow made the sunshine seem brighter, the air even more crisp. And 23,239 fans showed up to see the home team win its fourth straight game. That’s less than half the capacity of the stadium and left room for kids to play tag in the upper levels while much larger boys played a form of tag down on the gridiron. This was an important game for Memphis against a conference rival that beat the Tigers a year ago. Yet kids played tag in empty sections of bleachers.
With plans in place for more than $200 million in renovations to the stadium, this has to be a concern for the Memphis program. We seem to have returned to a place where the “core fans” show up for every Tiger home game, but those who packed the place for that epic clash with SMU in 2019 — 58,325 fans — need more of a hook before spending a fall Saturday watching live college football. The Tigers are winning (now 4-1 on the season). They have a talented player at quarterback (Seth Henigan), the only position that matters to a casual fan. They have an opportunistic defense that forces turnovers and creates excitement. But does the Mid-South care that much about Tiger football?
• Is Seth Henigan a winner? Forget their record-breaking stats. Henigan’s three predecessors at quarterback for the Tiger program — Paxton Lynch, Riley Ferguson, and Brady White — each put up a 10-win season. (The Memphis program has a total of four such campaigns.) Can Henigan extend this streak to four? Can he go “1-0” enough weeks to create a season as memorable as 2014, or 2017, or 2019?
Saturday’s win over Temple suggests Henigan is capable of leading the Tigers to such heights. Because it was a rough game for the sophomore. Memphis didn’t score a point in the first half. Henigan barely completed more than half of his passes (24 for 45), and the Owls sacked him five times. But he didn’t throw an interception. He scrambled for yardage, once gaining 19 on a fourth-and-two play that broke down at the snap. It’s fun when a quarterback passes for 300 yards and three or four touchdowns. Those are for highlight reels. But the winners prevail when conditions aren’t pleasant, when they’re getting helped up from the turf every possession, when the punter is compiling more yardage. That was Seth Henigan against Temple last Saturday.
• Nice knowin’ ya. This Friday’s clash with Houston feels significant. The Cougars are departing the American Athletic Conference for the Big 12 next year, so this will be the end of what’s been an almost annual confrontation for a quarter century. (The teams have played 22 times since 1996 and were Conference USA rivals before the AAC was created.) And the games have been fun. Memphis has scored 50 points in beating the Cougars and allowed 50 points in losing to them.
Picked to win the AAC in the preseason media poll, Houston finds itself 2-3, with losses to future league rivals (Texas Tech and Kansas) and current (an overtime loss to Tulane last weekend). The Cougars have surrendered 34.0 points per game, 115th (out of 131 teams) in the country. The Tigers will not be facing the Temple Owls’ defense. Back to that first thought: It will be interesting to see the crowd Houston draws for a Friday-night affair at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Memphis-Houston may not be college football’s best, but it’s the best college football seen regularly in these parts for more than 20 years. Here’s hoping the programs find each other again somewhere down the road.
