ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING…

I hope you’re sitting down. Because you won’t believe what happened while you’ve been gone: the U of M actually had a winning football season. Not just a winning season: 9-4, if you can believe it, ending with a bowl game we actually won.

Remember how you always used to say that Memphis was at heart a football town, and that if the gridiron Tigers ever got their act together, the city would go wild? Well, they did, and it has. Tommy WestÕs is now a household name in these parts. I know that’ll bring a smile to your face, since from the first, you were TommyÕs biggest fan. “This new defensive coordinator, Ken,” I remember you telling me back in 1999, ÒheÕs the real deal. A winner.”

The next year, right after Rip Scherer was fired, you wrote a column entitled “The Case for Tommy West,” in which you pointed out that the University of Memphis had a rare opportunity to hire “a proven commodity” who “wants to stay at Memphis and see if he can see succeed where the past six head coaches have failed.”

The University, of course, paid no heed to your advice, and offered the job to then-Auburn assistant Noel Mazzone. Fortunately, Mazzone turned it down; the rest is history. When it came to Tiger football, you always knew what you were talking about, my friend. Better than most.

I remember an afternoon earlier that fall, when youÕd just come back to the office from practice, and you were hopping mad. The 2000 season, like so many before it, had started to disintegrate, and Rip Scherer’s coaching job was clearly on the line. “All season long I’ve been trying to understand why he won’t play this freshman quarterback from New Orleans,Ó you fumed. ÒDanny WimprineÕs the best theyÕve got, I’m telling you, and not playing him is gonna cost Rip his job. Wait and see.”

We didn’t have to wait long, Dennis; just a few weeks later, Scherer was gone. I only wish you could have seen Danny Wimprine holding up the MVP trophy at the New Orleans Bowl last week. Good things sometimes come to those who wait.

We all wish you could have waited with us, and been around to bring some common sense to this somewhat hysterical new Golden Era we’ve suddenly found ourselves in. You would not have let success go to your or our heads. “Near-perfect season?Ó you would have written when another local columnist used those words last week to describe 2003. ÒHow can you be “near-perfect” when you lose four games?”

I wish you could still go out for coffee with Coach West, and marvel together at the fact that heÕs gotten his mug on page one of the CA half a dozen times this past month. “Not like the bad old days, is it, Coach?” YouÕd both have a good laugh.

I also wish you could have been here to write this damn column for me this season, and brought a little more wit and a lot more savvy to bear upon this space. You would have written a detailed article about irony, about how the 1999 and 2000 teams Ð squads equally as good as this one, I suspect you would have insisted Ð lost eight games by a total of 20 points. ÒItÕs better to be lucky than good,Ó you would have written about these 2003 Tigers, Òand itÕs especially nice if you can be lucky and good.Ó

I know you would have waxed eloquent about the victory at Papa JohnÕs Stadium last month, when we beat the living “daylights” out of a highly- regarded Louisville team, 37-7. You would have called it Ð ahead of the famous 1996 UT game — the greatest victory in Tiger football history, I feel certain. It was that special a day.

And you would have loved to watch DeAngelo Williams weave his magic week in and week out, and, yes, of course, watching Danny Wimprine come of age. ÒThe next Bret Favre, I’m telling youÉÓ