Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He's covered sports for the Flyer for two decades. "From My Seat" debuted on the Flyer site in 2002 and "Tiger Blue" in 2009.
In seven years as basketball coach at his alma mater, Penny Hardaway hasn’t always delivered March Madness for the University of Memphis. But let it be said he has delivered star power. The Tigers have featured a first-team all-conference player in each of Hardaway’s first six seasons and will all but certainly make it seven straight this March when current headliner PJ Haggerty gains the honor from the American Athletic Conference. It would be an unprecedented streak for the proud program.
How good has Haggerty been since transferring from Tulsa? He’s among AAC leaders in scoring (21.6 points per game), steals (2.1), minutes (36.5), and free throws made (145). He could follow Kendric Davis and David Jones and become the third straight Memphis player to win an AAC scoring title (he’s third in the entire country), and if the Tigers play enough postseason games, Haggerty could join six former Tigers — including his current coach — with a 700-point season. The sophomore’s numbers are all up from his 2023-24 campaign, for which he was named the AAC’s Freshman of the Year.
And the mark of true impact is consistency. Haggerty has scored fewer than 12 points in only one game this season and he’s topped 20 points in 15 games. The Texas native achieves this by regularly getting to the foul line (he’s fourth in the country in free throws) and making the shots (81 percent). Haggerty made 11 of 14 freebies in the Tigers’ two-point upset of defending national champion UConn in Maui. He hit 10 of 11 in another two-point win at Virginia in December. A famous coach around here once said his players would “make their free throws when they need to.” They’re all needed, and Haggerty makes them. It’s among the chief reasons Memphis is in the Top 25 with aspirations for more than a single NCAA tournament game.
“[Haggerty] is so good at what he does,” emphasizes Hardaway. “He’s a quiet spirit, but he plays aggressively. Once he gets going, he’s pretty dang good.” Hardaway shared those views of his star after the first game of the season. He also noted that last season, only Zach Edey (the national player of the year and current Memphis Grizzly) took more free throws than Haggerty. PJ Carter has been a valuable reserve for Hardaway. The Tigers would not have beaten Connecticut without Carter’s starring role in overtime and he outscored Haggerty in last week’s win at Tulane. Alas, Carter is decidedly “the other PJ” on this roster.
There’s a somewhat new, though already tiring, exclamation for athletes intent on seizing even more spotlight than the multimedia universe currently provides: “I’m him!” The message being, apparently, that the person shouting is The Man, The Guy, The Player Paramount To Your Team’s Chance At Victory. (I’ve yet to see, by the way, a WNBA star scream, “I’m her!” at a camera.) Haggerty, fortunately, does not lean on this mantra, but the notion is one to consider as March nears and the Tigers’ chances at an NCAA tournament run are tossed around whatever water coolers may still exist.
The Tigers beat UAB on January 26th in a showdown for first place in the AAC, and Haggerty’s 23 points were a large factor. But his nine assists helped make the victory a 100-77 blowout. Consider it a case of “him” making “them” better. “Trying to make the game easier,” said Haggerty after the win. “Just get my teammates involved, get them going early.”
Memphis has suited up precisely three players who earned first-team All-America honors from the Associated Press: Keith Lee (1985), Hardaway (1993), and Chris Douglas-Roberts (2008). Each of those players led a Memphis team to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament and two of them reached the Final Four. That, more than the individual honor, is how the trio tends to be remembered among folks in blue and gray. For all his stardom — for all his “himness” — PJ Haggerty must lift his teammates to new heights in March to gain legend status in these parts. For now, let’s say he’s checking the boxes.
Faulkner and friends (2010) (Photo: Sharon Murtaugh)
For two decades, I have begun the calendar year by reading a William Faulkner novel. My father died in September 2005, and he loved Faulkner. Reading stories by the Nobel Prize-winning author is a method for having a conversation with Dad, even if it’s internal, entirely private. Flem Snopes, after all, demands discussion. Furthermore, the American South’s greatest scribe helps me connect more deeply to the place where I live and the people who occupy the Mid-South, both present and past.
My January visit with Faulkner — and Dad — has me considering 2025 on a larger scale, one with current events in the mix, and beyond the Mid-South. We will inaugurate a new (though quite familiar) president on Martin Luther King Day. And it’s hard to imagine a greater contrast between two American men: the 47th president and the slain civil rights leader for whom the holiday is named. Faulkner would find such a character contrast fodder for a good tale: a latter-day Snopes taking the highest office in the land while the racial and ethical fabric of a country stretches to a ripping point. What is morality when there is profit to be made?
Reading Faulkner is hard. His plotlines are seldom linear. Characters are introduced with flashbacks and sudden trauma. I’m not sure stream of consciousness was even a thing before The Sound and the Fury. And William Faulkner does not do happy endings. The lone thread you’ll find connecting his entire canon: loss. The loss of a loved one. The loss of property or fortune. And, most poignantly, the loss of time. The fact is, we lose as we live, each passing day adding a new layer to the past we must both process and manage in tackling our next venture.
Whichever “side of the aisle” you prefer, the coming months and years will be abrasive for American life. A person driven by the attention he gains is in a position to shake the federal government in ways it’s not been shaken before. Millions adore him for this. Millions fear him for this. We may be one country, these United States, but we are living with a fissure deeper and darker than any Faulkner may have placed in Yoknapatawpha County.
And this is where we each have a role to play, each of us a character Faulkner may have dreamed up for a 21st-century version of The Hamlet, but with an entire nation as backdrop. (Shakespeare called us “players.” Imagine what the Bard would have to say about the current stage.) What kind of impact will you make on the town square? In the workplace? At the dinner table? How will you touch lives for the better? And, Faulkner would want to know, will impacting lives bring pleasure or pain? Life’s simpler for the likes of Flem, every relationship a net profit or loss. Don’t be Flem Snopes.
I visit Oxford, Mississippi, periodically. I find the grounds of Rowan Oak — Faulkner’s home — especially tranquil. I like to imagine the thinking and conversations that occurred on this lone patch of American real estate. I assure you, it wasn’t always linear, and there was plenty of loss. These days, you can even sit on a bench next to Faulkner (a bronze version) in Oxford’s town square. I’ve done so with my daughters. I’ve even worn my dad’s hat. Again, the conversations are internal, but very real. My next visit to Rowan Oak — sometime in 2025 — will include some thinking about how and why? They are challenging questions these days.
Faulkner was a young man during the Great War and an acclaimed author when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. He knew hard times. They steered his writing and shaped his memorable characters. Were he to appear in 2025 America, I’m not convinced Faulkner would be any more afraid now than he was in the times that challenged his own life. This is humanity. It’s who we are. And yes, Snopes now and then.
William Faulkner accepted his Nobel Prize on December 10, 1950, and delivered a speech my father cherished, one I carry inside my own heart. “I believe that man will not merely endure: He will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”
These are times to endure. May the wind be at your back.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis Magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.
If the Bluff City had an Athlete of the Year for 2024, it was University of Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan. The senior piled up records like a greedy 5-year-old under the Christmas tree. Henigan became the first Tiger signal-caller to toss 100 touchdown passes (104) and climbed to 13th on the FBS career passing-yardage chart (14,266). Best of all, he led Memphis to an 11-2 record, a third straight postseason victory (over West Virginia in the Frisco Bowl), and finished his career with 34 wins, a mark no future Tiger quarterback is likely to match. Add the heroics of running back Mario Anderson Jr. — 1,362 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns — and Memphis is all but certain to finish in the AP Top 25 for only the fourth time in program history.
The Tigers’ gridiron success made for some late-year balance to an otherwise disappointing 12 months in Memphis sports. Ravaged by injuries (and a lengthy suspension for star guard Ja Morant), the Memphis Grizzlies missed the NBA playoffs for the first time in three years. The only silver lining: A miserable record (27-55) earned the Grizz the ninth selection in the draft, a pick they used to acquire towering center Zach Edey, the two-time national college player of the year at Purdue. As 2025 approaches, Memphis is near the top of the Western Conference standings. Let’s call 2024 a hibernation year in Grizzlies history.
College basketball was no less disappointing. Coach Penny Hardaway’s Tigers roared to a 15-2 start, climbing to a ranking of 10th in the country … only to bumble their way through their American Athletic Conference schedule, finishing with a mark of 22-10 and missing out on the NCAA tournament. David Jones won the AAC scoring title in his only season in blue and gray, but an 11-7 record in that league doesn’t impress come March.
On the diamond, slugging first baseman Luken Baker starred for the Redbirds, leading the International League in home runs a second straight season despite a late-summer promotion to the St. Louis Cardinals. Baseball America’s Pitcher of the Year, Quinn Mathews, finished his season with Memphis, tossing his 200th strikeout of the season — a minor-league rarity — in a Redbirds uniform. Look for Mathews to anchor the 2025 rotation (until the Cardinals decide he’s needed in St. Louis).
Memphis said goodbye to our USL Championship soccer club, 901 FC. Without a soccer-only stadium in the plans, the franchise is moving to Santa Barbara, California, after six up-and-down seasons at AutoZone Park. For the sports historians, 901 FC put up an overall record of 76 wins, 62 losses, and 45 draws.
Hideki Matsuyama won the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship (FESJC) at TPC Southwind, this being the third year Memphis has hosted the opening tournament of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Along with the Southern Heritage Classic and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the FESJC is an annual reminder that Memphis can put on a show like few other cities in the world of sports. Let the 2025 games begin.
Penny Hardaway’s seventh season as coach of the Memphis Tigers began with a bang(!) Monday in Maui. A roster that’s all but entirely new battled the second-ranked Connecticut Huskies into overtime and, thanks to nine points (six free throws) from someone named P.J. Carter, upset the two-time defending national champions, 99-97. Wait, you say, Memphis entered the game with four wins in four games. Began?
The nature of college basketball in 2024 is, in a word, flux. Players come and go with the frequency of fickle middle-school crushes. Last year’s Tiger star, David Jones, played one season in blue and gray (and won the American Athletic Conference scoring title). The Tigers’ star in 2022-23, Kendric Davis, played one season in blue and gray (and won the American Athletic Conference scoring title). These were veteran players that Hardaway essentially borrowed for a one-winter run. Cutting to the present, the 2024-25 Tigers are measuring the star power of their new roster, knowing full well most of the players we see in uniform in Maui will not be here twelve months from now. And those first four games didn’t tell us much, other than this group plays better after halftime than before.
Then came the opening game of the Maui Invitational. A team that struggled after the tip in its first four contests hit 56 percent of its shots (and five of ten three-point attempts) in going toe to toe with the mighty Huskies, the score knotted, 40 each, at halftime. Those twenty minutes would have been a win for Memphis, coming so early in the season against such a formidable foe. But the Tigers played even better (that developing trend) after the break. They again hit five of ten long-distance shots, matched UConn in rebounding, and led by 13 points with under five minutes to play. But the Huskies played like the champions they are, tying the game on a nothing-but-net three-pointer by Solo Ball with a second left on the clock. Those 40 minutes would have been a win for Memphis.
But the Tigers played even better in overtime, and without their primary scoring threat, P.J. Haggerty, who fouled out late in regulation. Enter P.J. Carter. The Atlanta native is playing his fifth college season. He spent two years at Campbell University (4.3 minutes per game), a year at Georgia Highlands College, and last season at UTSA, where he started 10 games and averaged 9.5 points per game. With six clutch free throws and a three pointer in the overtime period on Monday, Carter is now a Memphis Tiger for life. That’s how big the Tigers’ Hawaiian punch felt at the final buzzer.
Hardaway needs this team to get to the NCAA tournament . . . and win a couple of games in the Big Dance. Year Seven is long enough to wait for the hometown legend to return some glory to a long-proud program. Honestly, Hardaway has produced more national controversies as coach of the Tigers than he has NCAA tournament victories (one). And this is why the upset of UConn felt like a beginning. (For some perspective, the last time Memphis beat the second-ranked team in the country was an upset of Louisville at the Mid-South Coliseum on March 2, 1972, four months before Hardaway’s first birthday.) A team most of us didn’t know two weeks ago now has familiar faces (Tyrese Hunter!) who seem capable of beating, yes, anybody in the country.
It would be nice if Memphis beats Michigan State on Tuesday and goes on to win the Maui Invitational. But even with a loss to the Spartans, the 2024-25 Tigers have created a permanent memory: Remember Maui! That is exceedingly hard in modern college basketball, and next to impossible without a lengthy tournament run in March. A new season, a new roster, and, it appears, a new life for coach Penny Hardaway. Many journey to the islands to make a dream come true. Perhaps these Tigers’ truth is creating new dreams.
The Memphis Tigers desperately need a rivalry game. With no regional SEC foe (Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Tennessee) on this year’s schedule, the closest we’ll see are UAB and Tulane, a pair of teams in green to wrap up the regular season. The Tigers host the Blazers Saturday night, then travel to New Orleans to face the Green Wave on Thanksgiving.
How can you identify a “rivalry game”? There’s buzz in the stadium before kickoff. Something no one saw, heard, or felt at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium with the likes of North Texas, Charlotte, or Rice on the other sideline. Consider that Memphis has the chance to go undefeated (7-0) at home without seeing a crowd as large as 26,000. Can “The Battle for the Bones” fill the stadium? UAB is still a young program, so this will be just the 17th meeting between the teams (Memphis owns an 11-5 advantage). But that massive bronze rack of ribs is one of the coolest rivalry trophies in the sport. It would be memorable to see the likes of Seth Henigan or Chandler Martin try and lift it. Hey, Tennessee beat Alabama this season. It’s a chance for the Volunteer State to seize some bragging rights with emphasis.
• The Tigers’ next win will make Ryan Silverfield only the fifth head coach to win 40 games with the program. That’s a small number of men for a relatively small number of career wins. What does it say about Silverfield’s place in Memphis football history and, more importantly, the current state of the Tiger program? It feels like that proverbial glass is both half-empty and half-full. Memphis is bowl-eligible for an 11th consecutive season. Write that sentence as recently as 2010 and you’d be laughed out of the room. Silverfield is the only coach in Tiger history to win three bowl games. On the other hand, it’s been five years now since Memphis appeared in the American Athletic Conference championship game. All the yearning to be part of a “power conference,” and the Tigers can’t win their own second-tier league. And when you can’t sell out a 33,000-seat stadium in a city the size of Memphis, relevance is an issue.
I’ve been watching the program long enough to remember six consecutive losing seasons under the same coach (Rip Scherer). The Tigers’ current streak of 37 consecutive games with at least 20 points? Not that long ago (1994-96), Memphis went three seasons with only seven such games. There has been some truly bad football played in these parts even if we subtract two seasons of pure misery under coach Larry Porter. So I find it hard to tear down an 8-2 campaign (so far), a team with a chance for another 10-win season, and a coach who seems to care about his program’s place in Memphis (the city) as much as its place in the AAC standings. If you’re not among an elite dozen programs — you know them — it’s hard to win championships in college football. Staying competitive (game-to-game and year-to-year) should matter.
• With merely 30 passing yards this Saturday, Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan will move into 20th in FBS career passing yardage. (He’ll pass longtime San Diego Charger Philip Rivers.) And with 545 yards over his last three games, Henigan would become only the 15th quarterback to top 14,000 yards. For a dose of perspective, Peyton Manning passed for 11,201 yards in his four seasons at UT. Among those 15 signal-callers in the 14,000 club, only eight of them played just four seasons of college football (Hawaii’s Colt Brennan played only three). It’s a reminder of Henigan’s singular career in blue and gray. Oh, and with four more touchdown passes, he’ll be the first Tiger to reach 100.
I wonder if Seth Henigan’s game-winning touchdown pass to Roc Carter last Saturday will be The Moment we remember from his stellar career at Memphis. It was, quite literally, a season-saving six points for the Tigers. A loss to Charlotte would have dropped the Tigers out of contention for the American Athletic Conference championship, to say nothing of that precious “Group of Five” slot in the newly expanded 12-team national playoff. When the 49ers took a 28-24 lead on a 75-yard, two-play drive with just 1:20 left in the game, a small, soggy crowd of Tiger fans had an especially gloomy feeling. But to their rescue came the senior quarterback and his band of veteran teammates, “an even-keeled group” as described by Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield the week before, following another late-comeback victory (over North Texas). The 24-yard game-winner to Taylor just so happened to also break Brady White’s career record for touchdown passes (Henigan has 91 and counting).
Henigan, of course, hopes to be remembered for a Moment yet to come. Ideally one during those playoffs, against a team these Tigers aren’t supposed to beat. As the young man from Denton, Texas, continues to rewrite the Memphis record book, the number to track is his career win total in blue and gray. He’s the first Tiger quarterback to count 30 of them. On the other hand, Henigan’s conference championships remain — for now — zero.
• After rain chased many fans home in the second half, fewer than 20,000 people saw Henigan’s game-winner last weekend. It’s the latest underwhelming crowd in what may become the best Tiger football season seen by the smallest number of human beings. We knew attendance figures would deflate this season, with capacity at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium reduced to 33,691 as the facility undergoes dramatic renovations (minus the west side of the stadium). I was actually concerned how fans would be able to squeeze into their seats for game days, memories of more than 50,000 people (watching that epic win over SMU in 2019) dancing in my head.
Alas, the top attendance figure this season is 25,849, the announced number for the opener against North Alabama on August 31st. The lowest attendance has been 23,246, for the second game against Troy. Perhaps we’ll see 30,000 when UAB comes to town for the Battle for the Bones on November 16th. If Memphis takes care of UTSA this Saturday, we’ll have an 8-1 football team hosting Rice on Friday, November 8th. Does the opponent — or day of the week — matter when the home team is 8-1? We’ll find out soon enough.
• How good has linebacker Chandler Martin been this season? His 11 tackles and two sacks against Charlotte were good enough to earn the junior his third Defensive Player of the Week award from the American Athletic Conference. Martin leads the AAC in both sacks (6) and tackles for loss (12), his most recent clinching the win over the 49ers with a safety. Martin will all but certainly become the first Memphis defensive player to earn first-team all-conference honors in consecutive seasons since Genard Avery (2016-17). The question is whether or not he’ll attract enough national attention for All-America consideration. If the Tigers can climb into the AP Top 25, Martin’s chances will grow. For now, appreciate every snap he’s on the field.
Donald J. Trump (Photo: Gints Ivuskans | Dreamstime.com)
For me, Donald J. Trump died as a public figure in November 2015, the day he mocked a reporter for a physical disability. During a campaign rally. No one that morally bankrupt — clearly with an empathy tank running on empty — belongs in a CEO’s office, much less the White House. Everything that’s happened around Trump over the nine years since has been kicking a dead horse. And there’s not room on this page to review the impeachments (multiple), indictments (multiple), and improprieties (myriad) that make Trump the most dangerous candidate for president in this country’s history.
Yet here we are. A lying, racist felon is the best the Republican Party can do. And if seven “battleground” states shake down in Trump’s electoral-college favor, the 45th president of the United States will become the 47th. Should he win, make note, Donald Trump will be inaugurated on Martin Luther King Day next January. Thinking back to the public mocking of that reporter, such a coincidence is unsettling and appalling to consider.
The question that keeps me in twists: Why? In the age of #MeToo, how has a man like Trump managed not to get canceled? What kind of standard do men see in him? And how can a solitary woman consider him an agent for their interests? The closest I’ve come to an answer: They love to break things.
Millions of Americans today don’t just dislike organized federal government, they resent it. The three branches our founding fathers drew up create a structure that has, in the minds of millions, restricted their freedoms instead of creating those freedoms in the first place. (Challenge a Trump supporter to name the three branches. It’s a cringe-worthy bar trick.) After generations of one Democrat after another, then one Republican after another, simply steering the federal ship forward — fair weather or foul — millions of Americans want that ship at least rocked, if not sunk. Donald Trump is Captain Chaos. (My apologies to the late Dom DeLuise and a very fun character in The Cannonball Run.)
The trouble with chaos in our system, though, is that people get hurt. And people die. Whether it’s outlawing abortion, dividing immigrant families at the border, or slicing FEMA funding, human beings get caught in Trump’s ongoing performance art. (Ask the Republican nominee what FEMA stands for and wait for the head tilt.) And when he takes the lies up a notch — “They’re eating the dogs!” — human beings become targets for hate and violence. Those millions of Americans supporting Trump feel they’ve been targeted long enough. It’s time to target them. Time to target others. And yes, it’s pure racism. If you deny the notion that you’re racist, but you support a racist candidate for public office, guess what?
What would happen in a second Trump presidency? I have a prediction: Within a year of resuming office, Trump would step down or “retire.” (He’d never use the word “resign.” That suggests quitting, and he’s no loser.) This is a man who was incompetent on his best day as president and now shows decline in his faculties and whatever might have passed for mental acuity. Sharks, batteries, and Pennsylvania windmills. Those behind Project 2025 will find a way to make President Vance America’s new problem. Stormy seas be damned.
I remain a believer in decency, and I feel like our better instincts as a people will prevail. But over the last nine years I’ve learned how long, in fact, it will take to achieve that form of normalcy, how challenging it is to go from “us” and “them” to “we.” A con man managed to convert a political party into a cult, here in 21st century America. Until a liar’s again called a liar, tension will be part of this country’s political oxygen. And yes, so will chaos.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis Magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.
Memphis Tiger football would not be where it is today — and Ryan Silverfield would not be in charge of the program — were it not for Mike Norvell. The Tigers travel to Tallahassee this week for a Saturday confrontation with Norvell’s current team, the Florida State Seminoles. It’s hard to imagine a more poignant game against a former coach in the history of the Memphis program.
Should your memory be unusually short, Norvell arrived in Memphis as a rookie head coach before the 2016 season (with Ryan Silverfield a member of his staff). If you were familiar with the 35-year-old Arizona State assistant then, you frankly spent too much time on college football. But in just four years, Norvell won 38 games, led the Tigers to three appearances in the American Athletic Conference championship game (winning in 2019), and earned the most prestigious bowl berth (the 2019 Cotton Bowl) in Tigers history. That’s how you get the Florida State gig before your 40th birthday. Last season, Norvell’s fourth at FSU, the Seminoles went 13-0 but were somehow left out of the four-team College Football Playoff. (After several players opted out of the Orange Bowl, Florida State was crushed by Georgia.)
Florida State will not go 13-0 this season, having lost its first two games, to Georgia Tech and Boston College. Memphis will not be facing a Top-10 team this weekend, a disappointment for a program favored to win a “Group of 5” league but thirsty for an early-season attention grabber. Blowout wins over North Alabama and Troy go only so far.
Last July, I asked Silverfield about facing his former boss early in the 2024 schedule. “I’m gonna treat it like any other game,” he said. “I’ll see some of my closest friends down there. I’m from Jacksonville. If I didn’t get this job, I might still be sitting next to Mike, coaching his offensive line. But once training camp starts, I won’t give that game a single thought until the Sunday [before].”
To translate, it will be an emotional game for those with fond memories of Mike Norvell in Memphis (read: anyone who saw a game from 2016 to 2019). But for Ryan Silverfield and the current Memphis Tigers, the contest has to be treated like a step — among 12 games on the schedule — toward a higher goal. And the only way to stack wins toward a conference championship (and playoff contention) is going 1-0, week after week. Thus Florida State is “any other game.”
The Seminoles will play better than the 0-2 team they are. The Tigers will likely fall short of the standard they’ve set by outscoring two teams 78-17. But quarterback Seth Henigan is climbing the Tiger and AAC record charts with every contest and the Memphis ground game seems to be in the capable hands of Mario Anderson (125 yards on 17 carries against Troy). This Saturday’s showdown in Tallahassee will be a fun and, yes, sentimental showcase for a Memphis team still rising.
• As for the U of M basketball program, coach Penny Hardaway is once again surrounded by smoke. (Didn’t he ask for this upon taking the job six years ago?) An anonymous letter to the NCAA alleges both financial and academic misdeeds on Hardaway’s watch. You can safely ignore the padding of recruits’ wallets. (See the $20 million it has reportedly cost Ohio State to build its current football roster.) But if academic fraud involving Malcolm Dandridge can be traced to Hardaway, it will be a sad and awkward exit for a local legend. That’s a big “if,” of course. Here’s to a day we can again discuss Tiger basketball without a cloud of scrutiny growing thicker and darker.
I’ve interviewed professional baseball players for more than two decades. There are talented players who, honestly, aren’t that interesting away from the diamond. They’re good ballplayers, and baseball is what they know. There are also very interesting baseball players who aren’t all that talented. Now and then, though, you find yourself in the home team’s dugout at AutoZone Park with a very good baseball player who has a very interesting story to share. Like the Memphis Redbirds’ top hitter this season, outfielder Matt Koperniak.
That story? It began on February 8, 1998, when Koperniak was born in London. (Koperniak played for Great Britain in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.) “My dad was in the military,” explains Koperniak. “He was in Italy for a bit, then England. But I have no memories of that time.” Matt and his family moved back to the States — to Adams, Massachusetts — before his third birthday.
Koperniak played collegiately at Division III Trinity College in Connecticut, part of the New England Small College Athletic Conference. He hit .394 as a junior in 2019, but beating up on the likes of Tufts and Wesleyan doesn’t typically catch the eye of major-league scouts. When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his senior season, Koperniak received an extra year of eligibility but, having graduated with a degree in biology, he chose to sign as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’ve always loved baseball,” says Koperniak, “and it’s helped me get places, including a good school. My advisor — agent now — was able to get me into pro ball, so here we are.” He played in a few showcases as well as the New England Collegiate Baseball League, enough to convince a Cardinal scout he was worth that free agent offer.
The Redbirds hosted Memphis Red Sox Night on August 10th, the home team taking the field in commemorative uniforms honoring the Bluff City’s Negro Leagues team of the 1930s and ’40s. Luken Baker (the franchise’s all-time home run leader) and Jordan Walker (the team’s top-ranked prospect) each slammed home runs in a Memphis win over Gwinnett, but by the final out it had become Matt Koperniak Night at AutoZone Park. He drilled a home run, a triple, and a single, falling merely a double shy of hitting for the cycle. It was perfectly Koperniak: Outstanding baseball blended into others’ eye-catching heroics.
“It’s trying to do the little things right,” he emphasizes, “and being a competitor. The Cardinals do a great job of getting us to play well-rounded baseball. Everybody has the same mindset: How can I help win the next game? You gotta stay in attack mode to be productive.”
Koperniak is batting .309 with 17 home runs and leads the International League with 125 hits. He plays both corner outfields with equal grace, always hitting the cutoff man and hardly ever fooled on a ball hit shallow or deep. It’s sound, fundamental baseball, the kind older fans like to describe as “the Cardinal Way.” Koperniak credits current Cardinals Paul Goldschmidt and Brendan Donovan with setting the standard for daily attention to all those “little things” that get a player to the big leagues and, importantly, keep him there.
There has been flux in the Cardinals’ outfield for several years, no player sticking for longer than three or four years. Will Matt Koperniak get a chance to roam that precious green at Busch Stadium? For now, he prepares by staying in what he calls “attack mode” every trip to the plate. And if he does get to St. Louis, Koperniak will become only the 64th NESCAC grad to don a big-league uniform (much fewer with biology degrees). He’s living a distinctive life, writing a unique story, one fundamental act at a time.
There’s no such thing as a perfect football game. Or is there?
In their 36-26 victory over Iowa State in the 2023 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the Memphis Tigers put three zeroes on the stat sheet that have never been seen together in these parts, and may never be seen again. Memphis committed zero turnovers and zero penalties and (sit down for this one) allowed the Cyclones zero rushing yards. In baseball terms, it was a form of no runs, no hits, no errors … perfection.
“All season, you want to play a complete game,” says Ryan Silverfield, entering his fifth season as head coach of the Tigers and ninth with the program. “It’s getting harder and harder. We had games where the defense carried us, then the offense or special teams. We finally saw a cumulation of a lot of things going well, and at the right time. Beating Ole Miss [in 2019] was great, College Gameday, the Cotton Bowl, beating Mississippi State [in 2021]. But I had more people tell me that winning the AutoZone Liberty Bowl meant the most to them, 60-year-old fans or teenagers. It capped off the season, and it was a relatively clean beating. It set up a great deal of momentum going forward, sort of a snowball effect of positivity.”
With six wins, Seth Henigan would break the record for career victories (28) by a Memphis quarterback. (Photo: Wes Hale)
Perfection may not be a fair standard for the 2024 Memphis Tigers, but let’s say the bar is high for this team. For the first time since joining the American Athletic Conference in 2013, Memphis has been picked to win the league championship in the preseason media poll. Last season, Memphis finished sixth in the country in scoring, averaging 39.4 points per game. And the Tigers have the luxury of the most experienced quarterback in the country returning to lead their offense. Senior Seth Henigan is the only FBS quarterback returning for a fourth year as a starter at the same program. The MVP of that Liberty Bowl victory, Henigan has already broken the Memphis record for career passing yards (10,764) and needs just 12 touchdown passes to top Brady White’s record of 90. Most significantly, with six wins, Henigan would move past White’s 28 for the most victories by a Tiger signal-caller.
“Seth started [his college career] as a 17-year-old,” notes Silverfield. “It was like starting a rookie in the NFL. Two years later, he wins 10 games. We all get better. Seth learned how to win games last year. Now he can carry the team, be a leader. It’s his team. Push the standards for everybody on a day-to-day basis. Not just throwing the ball nicely and putting up good stats. When adversity hits, be the one saying, ‘No, this is the way we do things.’ He embraces it fully.”
Ryan Silverfield has won more bowl games (three) than any other coach in Memphis history. (Photo: Wes Hale)
“Watch lists” — those compendiums of candidates for myriad college football individual awards — tend to be more hype than substance, but a single player being on five lists grabs your attention. Henigan is included among contenders for the Maxwell Award (most outstanding player), the Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Davey O’Brien Award (best quarterback), the Manning Award, and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. If he tops his 2023 season (3,883 yards and 32 touchdown passes), Henigan could well be a finalist for one of these trophies.
Considering his lengthy track record, how does Henigan improve this fall? “He’s got to play the next play of his life perfectly,” says offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey. “Every single day, however many reps he has. That’s hard to do for an entire game. But not for the next play.”
Henigan will have his share of targets, starting with senior wide receiver Roc Taylor, a second-team all-conference pick (like Henigan) in 2023 who caught 69 passes for 1,083 yards to lead Memphis in both categories. Also back are Demeer Blankumsee (901 yards), Koby Drake (352), and tight end Anthony Landphere (260).
“Since I’ve been here, it’s been a grind,” says Taylor, starting his fourth season alongside Henigan. “Building friendships. The loyalty [the program] has given me, I’m giving back. I want to leave my own legacy here. I watch a lot of film on myself, and there are little things I can work on to get better. Knowing reads, when to run a route at a certain speed, and having a connection with Seth.”
The Tigers’ running game will look different this season with Blake Watson (1,152 yards last season) having exhausted his eligibility. But returning are Sutton Smith and Brandon Thomas, both to be pushed by South Carolina transfer Mario Anderson (707 yards for the Gamecocks in 2023). “We have high expectations,” says Silverfield. “Sutton Smith is a dynamic football player. I’m pleased with our depth.” Thomas rushed for 191 yards in a 2021 win at Arkansas State. The idea that he might be the Tigers’ third option on the ground speaks to that depth.
Linebacker Chandler Martin aims to be the Tigers’ “quarterback on defense.” (Photo: Wes Hale)
The Tiger defense will be led by junior linebacker Chandler Martin. A preseason All-America candidate, Martin led the Tigers with 95 tackles last season including an eye-popping 17 behind the line of scrimmage. “Sometimes it’s that kid from the FCS level [East Tennessee State] who gets here, does a good job, and takes the bull by the horns,” says Silverfield. “He’s a leader for our team and was appreciative of the opportunity we gave him; he could have gone to larger schools. He does it the right way all the time, a complete student-athlete.”
Like Taylor, Martin heard from other programs over the offseason. But he’s back in blue and gray, and there wasn’t much deliberation. “It’s about loyalty,” he says. “They believed in me here, gave me the chance to be the best version of myself. I’m happy to be back, and be a leader for this team.”
Defensive coordinator Jordon Hankins is relying on Martin being the linebacker we all saw a year ago, but with the added duty of role model for the rest of the Tiger defense. “You don’t have the success he had individually,” notes Hankins, “without understanding you can’t do it without the people around you. He bought into that leadership role. People in the locker room want to be around him. He keeps everybody level-headed. We’re as good as our last play. That’s how he is, every day.”
Alongside Martin will be the most significant transfer arrival of 2024: junior Elijah Herring from Tennessee. Herring led the Volunteers last season with 80 tackles but wasn’t guaranteed a starting spot this fall, so he moved west. Among the veterans returning to the Tiger defense are linemen CorMontae Hamilton and Keveion’ta Spears and senior safety Greg Rubin, a three-year starter who played locally at White Station High School.
“We just have to make sure we stay locked in,” emphasizes Martin. “On the same trajectory, with the same standards. Coach Silverfield does a great job, showing us how we do things. Personally, I want to be the quarterback on defense. Last year, I was just trying to figure it out, fit in. My goal is always no missed assignments. Making sure I do my job within the framework. Once I get the assignment down, how can I make secondary plays? Little details.”
Why are stars like Henigan, Taylor, and Martin back for another season in blue and gray when the transfer portal — and likely more NIL (name/image/likeness) riches — beckon at every corner? “They’re great young men,” stresses Silverfield. “I think loyalty is one of those things that’s getting lost in society, and especially in sports. When I sat down with Roc, I told him about all the positives we have here, and also the negatives. What’s the best choice for him? When the dust settles, a lot of guys are finding that this is the best opportunity: the culture and what we’re trying to do. If we have a lot of good things going, don’t go to the unknown. We have good relationships. They appreciate the truth. And they can maximize everything they want in their college football experience right here.”
The Memphis football program has rarely made national headlines during the summer, but it did in June, when Antwann Hill Jr., the third-ranked quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class, announced his intention to play for the Tigers. If he signs in February, Hill will become the highest-ranked signee in the program’s history. It’s one more effect of that “positivity snowball” Silverfield mentions, a snowball made dramatically larger last fall when FedEx founder Fred Smith announced a $50 million donation toward renovations at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. (The university is matching the figure on top of $120 million in funds from the state of Tennessee.)
“We are so grateful to the Smith family,” says Silverfield. “I consider them friends. It truly is a game-changer. We were too far behind with NIL. I worried about our ability to compete, no matter how good our staff was. It’s getting harder and harder to build a roster without NIL. It’s allowed us to compete. Do we want to be relevant or not?”
Renovations to the Tigers’ home stadium — a facility that opened in 1965 — will be done with eyes on relevance in the next round of FBS realignment. What was once a “Power 5” is now four mega-conferences: the SEC (16 programs), the Big 10 (18), the Big 12 (16), and perhaps the most likely landing spot for Memphis, the ACC (14). For now, though, Silverfield’s message is clear and direct: Win the American Athletic Conference championship. Earn that trophy and the bonus may be a berth in the newly expanded 12-team playoff for the national championship.
“Winning helps a lot of things,” says Silverfield, “but it’s not what will decide conference realignment. SMU wanted to move to a larger conference, so SMU put a ton of money into football. Tulane wanted to get better at football, so they put a ton of money into football. Our goals always start with winning the conference. Realignment? We know it’s not done. No one ever woke up thinking Rutgers and UCLA would be playing a Wednesday night volleyball match. I can control what I can control, and I stay up to date. But head football coaches can’t decide that.”
Having “won” the preseason media poll, the Tigers can’t exactly play the no-respect card, a rarity in these parts. But Martin speaks for his teammates in accepting the role as AAC favorites. “It puts a chip on [our opponents’] shoulder,” he says. “Everybody’s going to give us their best shot. It just makes us have to lock in even more, pay more attention to details. You gotta take it week by week.”
Even teams outside those four “power leagues” can aspire to win a national title now, the postseason dance card having expanded from four teams to a dozen. “I use the heck out of that in recruiting,” emphasizes Silverfield. “It makes Memphis that much more special. There are teams in the SEC that have no chance at making the playoff. We do. We need to focus on having our best season, look up in December, and see where the chips fall.”
