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.
Masyn Winn (photo by Billy Hurst/St. Louis Cardinals)
What a strange offseason it was for the St. Louis Cardinals. Following a mediocre 2024 season (83-79), the Memphis Redbirds’ parent club announced a new day had arrived, one in which development will be emphasized over spending for the big-league roster. One superstar was allowed to leave as a free agent (first-baseman Paul Goldschmidt is now a New York Yankee) and the Cardinals tried to trade another (third-baseman Nolan Arenado exercised his contract’s no-trade clause at least once and remains a member of the team). The most significant addition St. Louis made is the signing of relief pitcher Phil Maton in mid-March. Busch Stadium ticket sales did not spike.
Perhaps most strange was the announcement that Chaim Bloom will succeed John Mozeliak as the Cardinals’ president of baseball operations … but not until after the 2025 season. So the man many consider responsible for a two-year postseason drought (Mozeliak) is calling the shots while Bloom is the most interested observer in three counties. Rob Cerfolio (formerly with the Cleveland Guardians) is now in charge of player development for St. Louis and Larry Day (also a former Guardian administrator) is the franchise’s new farm director.
Some change, but lots of the same. The 2025 Cardinals will be at AutoZone Park Monday for an exhibition game against the Redbirds, the first such “Battle of the Birds” since 2019, a year when catcher Yadier Molina was still the Face of the Franchise for St. Louis, one that ended in a trip to the National League Championship Series for the Cardinals. Alas, the Cardinals have won precisely one postseason game since 2020 and Molina retired after the 2022 campaign.
Many of the Cardinals we’ll see play in Downtown Memphis have been here before as Redbirds on their way up. Alec Burleson won an International League batting title in 2022. A pair of IL home run titles seem to have finally earned first-baseman Luken Baker a promotion. Nolan Gorman, Ivan Herrera, Brendan Donovan, and Lars Nootbaar will all see regular at-bats for St. Louis this season, and all cut their teeth at AutoZone Park. Shortstop Masyn Winn set a Redbirds record for runs scored (99) in 2023 before leading the Cardinals in WAR and becoming a finalist for a Gold Glove as a rookie in 2024.
On the Redbirds’ side of things, Ben Johnson is back for his sixth season as manager and will surpass Chris Maloney for most career wins with the franchise when Memphis earns its 20th victory. Quinn Mathews — Baseball America’s 2024 Minor League Pitcher of the Year — should anchor the Redbirds’ pitching rotation and his battery mate is likely to be Jimmy Crooks, the 2024 Texas League MVP. Now a member of the Cardinals’ 40-man roster, outfielder Matt Koperniak is eager for his big-league debut after being named an International League All-Star following a 2024 season that saw him hit .309 for Memphis.
This will be season number 25 for AutoZone Park (remember the 2020 minor-league season was canceled for pandemic reasons). Once the gold standard for ballparks below the majors, the facility is showing some wear and Redbirds president Craig Unger has leaned on the City of Memphis to fund significant improvements. AutoZone Park was left out of the infusion of state funds for renovations to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium and FedExForum. To date, the ballpark is awaiting a financial booster. (Questions about funding plans for the stadium were not answered by the City of Memphis.)
Come Monday night, it will be about baseball on the field. This is the ninth season St. Louis has opened with an exhibition game at AutoZone Park. Among the previous eight, six ended with the Cardinals in the playoffs. Opening Day for the Cardinals comes Thursday when they host the Minnesota Twins. The Redbirds’ regular season begins Friday in Louisville, with the home opener April 1st against the Buffalo Bisons.
AAC Player of the Year
PJ Haggerty (Photos: Wes Hale)
The Memphis Tigers are back in the NCAA tournament. This is progress. Even better would be a pair of wins and the program’s first trip to the Sweet 16 in well over a decade. But let’s think ambitiously. With six wins needed to cut down the nets as national champion, here are six factors that could make this March memorable for Memphis.
Forget history, especially the previous six seasons. With the exception of forward Nicholas Jourdain, Penny Hardaway’s first six years as Tiger coach mean absolutely nothing to the current roster. The Wiseman Affair. The Lost Postseason of 2020. The Missed Timeout against FAU in the 2023 NCAA tournament. And (blech) the Nosedive of 2024. Sure, this is Tiger basketball history, but it cannot so much as enter the brainwaves of the last man on the Memphis bench.
In his seventh season at the helm, Penny Hardaway led the Tigers to a 16-2 league record and earned AAC Coach of the Year honors.
Following the Tigers’ season-opening win over Missouri way back in November, PJ Haggerty (new to the program from Tulsa) emphasized the good chemistry he felt with his new teammates, actually emphasizing “no beef,” no tension between players just establishing their roles. Guard Tyrese Hunter (new to the program from Texas and this season a first-team All-AAC selection) said this Memphis team has “no ego,” that he and his teammates have “blinders on” for a shared mission.
Point guard Tyrese Hunter suffered an injury to his left foot in the AAC semifinals. His status for the NCAA tournament is unclear.
Read between those lines and you recognize the after-effects of a 2023-24 season where egos were indeed a variable, where a beef or two seemed to compromise any mission, let alone that of a deep NCAA tournament run. Three weeks after that opening win, the Tigers beat both Connecticut (the two-time defending national champions) and Michigan State in Maui to more than clean the slate for a new team, a new campaign. The slogan for the 2024-25 Memphis Tigers should be … This is now. What can today bring?
When asked about his current team and a strength that can help it succeed in tournament play, the 2025 AAC Coach of the Year doesn’t hesitate: “Our unity. We all have the same goal. It hasn’t been that way around here in past years. It’s been kind of selfish. Some people have been so good, they felt they could do it on their own. With this group, our biggest attribute is our unity. We’re together as one.”
Stars must star. While the players must keep those blinders on, we can turn to history for some guidance in what to expect when the Madness tips off. And every Final Four run the Memphis Tigers have made has featured a Leading Man: Larry Finch in 1973, Keith Lee in 1985, and Chris Douglas-Roberts or Derrick Rose (take your pick) in 2008. A sophomore sensation by the name of Hardaway took the Tigers to the Elite Eight in 1992. You get the idea.
PJ Haggerty is this team’s alpha, and he will need to seize that role — maybe even inflate it — for the Tigers to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in 16 years. The AAC Player of the Year is already just the seventh Memphis player to score 700 points in a season. (He needs 22 to break Dajuan Wagner’s program record of 762.) Haggerty scored 13 points in six minutes to fuel a second-half comeback at UAB on March 2nd that essentially clinched the AAC title for the Tigers. He poured in 42 in the AAC tournament quarterfinals, a win over Wichita State in which his teammates combined to score 41.
“He’s a dreamer,” says Hardaway. “He sat home and watched the NCAA tournament when he was young, like we all have. To have this situation now — ranked the number-one shooting guard in the country, conference player of the year — he’s still dreaming. He may have hoped for all this to happen, but now that it’s actually here, he’s excited.”
Dainja! Dainja!! FedExForum announcer Geoff Mack found his muse with the arrival of Dain Dainja. The Tigers’ big man with soft hands (a transfer from Illinois) has often raised the arena’s energy level with a gentle hook shot or follow-up slam. And when that energy peaks, Mack will bellow into his microphone, “DAINJA! … DAINJA!!” It’s the happiest reaction to something, yes, dangerous we’ll witness near a basketball court.
Dain Dainja tops the Tigers in rebounding and earned first-team All-AAC recognition.
Hardaway inserted Dainja into the Tigers’ starting lineup for their showdown with UAB on January 26th, a game that would determine first place in the American Athletic Conference. Dainja hit 10 of 12 shots and pulled down eight rebounds in only 25 minutes of what proved to be an easy (100-77) Memphis victory. Memphis has only lost one game since.
How critical is Dainja to a deep run for the Tigers? He and Moussa Cisse are the only “bigs” Hardaway has in his rotation, the closest players — in body and style — to an old-fashioned center. They will be needed to protect the rim on the defensive side and provide interior threats (particularly Dainja) when the Tigers have the ball. Pay attention to fouls for either of these players. And expect Hardaway to leave them on the floor even if they accumulate four. “Going small” might be a strategy, but not when it’s forced.
Dainja vanished in a game at Wichita State on February 16th (four points and a single rebound in 20 minutes of playing time), and the Tigers lost in overtime to a very beatable Shockers team. A week later at FedExForum, Dainja (Dainja!) scored 22 points, pulled down 11 rebounds, and blocked four shots in a 19-point victory over FAU. “It shows me that he cares,” said Hardaway after Dainja’s resurrection against the Owls. “These guys care. They want to come back and do better [after an off game]. He knew he let himself down [against Wichita State]. He has so much pride and he came back hungrier.”
As for the now of it all, Dainja — yet another first-team All-AAC honoree — actually mentioned “getting old” after the Tigers beat Temple last month. (He’s 22.) His basketball life is about winning. The busier Dainja finds himself this postseason, the more danger Memphis opponents will experience.
Clean the glass. There’s one unifying thread when you examine the Tigers’ five losses this season: more rebounds by their opponent. If you consider every rebound an extra chance to score, Temple had 24 more opportunities (49-25) in the Owls’ seven-point win in January. That ugly loss at Wichita State? The Shockers pulled down 54 rebounds to the Tigers’ 45.
Memphis is not a big team. Dainja, Cisse, and Jourdain will be trusted with much of the rebounding responsibility, but smaller players — Haggerty and Colby Rogers, to name two starters — must earn a few extra possessions for the Tigers to win the close games to come. And beware foul trouble for the 6’9” Dainja or the 6’11” Cisse. Losing either for an extended stretch would force Hardaway to play “small ball,” and against the wrong opponent, that can go sideways fast.
“Once Dain gets going,” notes Hardaway, “you have to double-team him. And we can tee up threes; we love that advantage. He’s bought into the role we have for him. He knew Moussa was coming and didn’t know how much time he would get. We need him to score, so we make him comfortable.” If the Tigers are to advance this month, they need Dainja to rebound, too.
Unheralded hero. Or two. The margin between victory and defeat in the NCAA tournament is miniscule. Three years ago, in the second round, the Tigers led the top-ranked team in the country (Gonzaga) at halftime, only to stumble in the second half. Two years ago, had an official granted the Tigers the late-game timeout players requested during a scramble, it may have been Memphis (and not FAU) that advanced to the Final Four.
Remember that win over Connecticut last November? The Tigers found themselves going to overtime against the second-ranked team in the country, but with Haggerty having fouled out. Into the spotlight strides another PJ, last name Carter. The UTSA transfer proceeded to make six consecutive free throws and drain a three-pointer to all but personally deliver a season-changing upset to his new team.
Haggerty and Dainja must have a productive supporting cast for Memphis to advance in the Big Dance. Will Carter be the one to grab some national attention off the bench? Maybe it will be Rogers, at times a long-distance threat (and others virtually invisible). If the current Tigers have a “glue guy,” it’s Jourdain, the lone veteran, now wrapping up his second season under Hardaway. The senior has started every game this season after starting 25 upon his arrival from Temple for the 2023-24 campaign. Jourdain had a pair of late put-backs at UAB that helped seal the Tigers’ biggest win in conference play. His averages of 6.4 points per game and 5.6 rebounds are mere whispers of his value. Depth is an overrated factor for a 40-minute basketball game, but a surprise performance is always welcome. One or two can shift that precious margin for victory in the right direction.
Embrace the unlikely. Hardaway is associated with the number 1, and for obvious reasons. But the retired jersey number below his name that has hung from the rafters above the Tigers’ court for 30 years now is … 25. Could such a celebrated-but-forgotten pair of digits be an omen for a 2025 tournament run under Coach Hardaway’s watch?
Consider that these Tigers won the first AAC regular-season crown in program history. This was not predicted back in November. (UAB was picked to win.) These Tigers climbed to a ranking of 14th in the AP poll, the highest Memphis has been ranked after Valentine’s Day since 2009 (John Calipari’s last season as head coach). This was not predicted back in November, as the Tigers began the season outside the Top 25. These Tigers have nabbed a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. Also not predicted, and how significant, you ask? Memphis has reached the Sweet 16 ten times since seeding began in 1979, but never seeded lower than sixth.
As for the crucible of NCAA tournament play, consider the Tigers’ record this season away from FedExForum: 16-3. Not only have they won an ocean away from home (Maui), but they’ve won at Clemson, at Virginia, at Tulane, and at UAB, smaller arenas packed with crowds loudly rooting against their success. This Memphis team may encounter an opponent with more talent, maybe more luck. But it’s hard to imagine the Tigers being intimidated by what’s to come with all the madness.
“They want to be champions,” emphasizes Hardaway. “They’ve come together and bonded. They’ve set out on a mission, and they’re not letting anything distract them. We’ve had a couple of bad games in conference, but these guys are locked in. They’re together. That’s why we’re so resilient.”
Seeded 5th in the West Region, Memphis (29-5) opens play on Friday in Seattle against Colorado State (25-9).
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.
