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.
The University of Memphis football program needs to be in a bigger, better conference than the American Athletic. This is a topic much discussed, and one that won’t go away until the dream is realized. The program is just as desperate, though, for a rival. A true, villainous, pure-evil, dressed-in-black-even-when-they’re-not rival. Which made Saturday’s game at UAB fun, and somewhat special as the Tigers work their way through a watered-down AAC schedule. The first “Battle for the Bones” in 11 years meant the heaviest rack of ribs — if not heaviest trophy — in college football would see daylight again. (The trophy weighs more than 90 pounds.) After a slow start, Memphis walloped the Blazers, 45-21, to improve to 5-2 on the season and retain ownership of those bronze bones. It felt like the Tigers turned back a rival.
Is UAB the Tigers’ answer for that role of gridiron gremlin? Not long-term, I don’t believe. They’ve actually only played 16 times (Memphis has won six). Compare that with Arkansas State, a Memphis foe no fewer than 62 times. But can the Red Wolves be considered THE rival for Memphis? Not until they’re in the same conference. Ole Miss and Mississippi State aren’t the answer, both part of the privileged SEC, and both dominant historically against Memphis. Tulane feels like a rival, particularly as the Green Wave has risen to the top of the AAC and won three of the last five meetings with the Tigers. I miss the Black-and-Blue Game with Southern Miss (last played in 2012). I’m not sure which program can play this role for Memphis, but with North Texas, South Florida, and Charlotte coming up on the Tigers’ schedule, I know a void when I see it.
• Saturday’s victory at UAB was the 26th win for Ryan Silverfield as head coach of the Memphis Tigers. It’s a significant number, for me, as it matches the total Justin Fuente compiled over his four seasons (2012-2015) atop the program. This isn’t to suggest Silverfield is as good a coach as Fuente, or has had the kind of impact on the program Fuente had (he has not), but it is a connection to the man we must credit most with turning a moribund program into one expected to play in a bowl game at season’s end, one expected to compete for conference championships. Fuente inherited a bottomed-out operation that had won a total of three games the two seasons before he took over. By his third year, Fuente commanded a 10-win AAC co-champion ranked 25th in the country. There have been few turnarounds in college football history as quick or as dramatic. Silverfield is a beneficiary of that turnaround, having arrived as an assistant to Mike Norvell in 2016 when Fuente departed for Virginia Tech. Will the Tigers win 10 games this season? Win the AAC? Both seem unlikely right now. But is the Memphis program relevant, competitive, worthy of attention? Absolutely. Here’s to 26 more wins, and then some, for Ryan Silverfield.
• Memphis is the only team in the AAC with a player among the league’s top four in passing (Seth Henigan, 265.1 yards per game), rushing (Blake Watson, 84.7), and receiving (Roc Taylor, 79.4). With 593 yards, Watson has already topped last season’s Tiger rushing leader (Jevyon Ducker, 544 yards). With 556 yards, Taylor will likely top last season’s leader (Eddie Lewis, 603 yards) this Saturday at North Texas. A football team doesn’t necessarily require an offensive “big three,” but one can help win a lot of games.
I have a single wish for newly elected Memphis mayor Paul Young, and it’s a big one. I hope Paul Young becomes the most memorable mayor in Memphis history.
Let’s not call Young’s election a mandate. Not by a long shot. In a city with a population of more than 630,000 people, a paltry 24,408 voters decided this town’s new CEO. That’s 4 percent of the citizenry firmly behind you, Mr. Young. Now get to it, and make 100 percent of us happy.
I’ve yet to meet Paul Young, but from what I hear and read, he’s been a capable leader at the Downtown Memphis Commission. Most importantly, he wants to lead on a larger scale and is young enough (44) to map out a long-term, big-picture agenda that can lift this city and region at a time when we need lifting.
Where to begin? I’ve got three recommendations, Mr. Mayor-elect. Start with the first of what will be an annual summit of Memphis clergy. Make it a two-day gathering of leaders from every church, synagogue, mosque, and temple in the city. And make it mandatory. (If a faith organization chooses not to attend, it will be made conspicuously absent with a publicly shared list of attendees. If you have nothing to say at this summit, it’s important that you hear what is said.) Why is such a gathering so important? There may be no time of the week taken more seriously by more Memphians than Sunday morning. And there’s certainly no more segregated time of the week in Memphis than Sunday morning. For at least two days, let’s ask leaders to share their thoughts, priorities, concerns, and, yes, wishes with their peers from different worship groups. And this is where the magic will happen: We’ll discover, I’m convinced, that most thoughts, priorities, concerns, and wishes are parallel to one another, guided by the same proverbial North Star.
We also need a summit of educators. (Maybe three days for this one.) If Sunday morning is uncomfortably segregated in this town, so are our children, public schools being predominantly Black and private schools predominantly white, and for more than two generations now. We simply have to make smarter efforts at blending Memphis youth, particularly across economic gaps that often feel too vast to bridge. If crime (read: guns) is a weight on the shoulders of this community, educators must be part of the solution. What kind of programs — involving both public- and private-school communities — can reduce the pull of street life and the desperation of poverty? We have too many bright people of impact in too many institutions of learning for there not be some worthy ideas we’ve yet to consider. Again, attendance is mandatory. We need every Memphis school rowing the same direction.
Follow these summits, Mr. Mayor-elect, with a sit-down in which you share what was learned with the Memphis Police Department. This won’t take two or three days, as it will be a time to tell (as opposed to ask) law enforcement how they can serve the community better. Because I promise you, the MPD will be among those thoughts and priorities for both clergy and educators.
Why do only 85,000 Memphis voters take the time to choose the city’s new mayor? Because apathy seeps. The feeling that a single vote won’t make a difference as crime numbers rise is a form of communal cancer. And a memorable Memphis mayor will battle that apathy every day he serves in office.
I interviewed Kerry Kennedy a few weeks ago. The daughter of Robert F. Kennedy is a 2023 Freedom Award honoree, a personification of the National Civil Rights Museum’s global mission. To gain ground in the fight for human rights requires the collaboration of myriad agencies (public and private) and human beings. It’s a reasonable starting point — collaboration — for a city like Memphis, and would be the kind of priority that makes a city leader unforgettable. In all the right ways.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.
Seth Henigan passed for 269 yards and ran for 64 in the Tigers' win over Boise State. (Wes Hale)
Last Saturday’s game at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium felt like a battle of college football’s misfit toys. On the visitors sideline was Boise State, famous for the blue turf of its home stadium and a recent streak of 16 consecutive seasons with a bowl appearance. Hosting, of course, were our Memphis Tigers, a program with nary a losing season since 2014 and three Top-25 finishes securely in the record books. Yet somehow both the Broncos (Mountain West Conference) and Tigers (American Athletic) remain outside the dance hall as the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and ACC continue to morph into a new quartet (Power 4?) of mega-leagues. Rejects always have each other … right?
On a sweltering final afternoon of September, the Tigers prevailed by a score of 35-32. It was the best game in the country not played by one of those “Power 4” programs. The win improved Memphis to 4-1 for the season with a bye week now before reigning AAC champion Tulane comes to town for a clash (a slash?) on Friday the 13th. It was an important victory for coach Ryan Silverfield’s team and confirmed three important truths we’ve learned about the 2023 squad.
• Resilient. For real. Every coach of every team in every sport likes to claim his group is “resilient,” that his players have the backbone to bounce back when necessary. While this can’t possibly be true for every team in America, it appears to be a quality these Tigers possess as a collective. When Memphis fell behind Boise State, 17-0, it appeared some shine had faded from the team in blue and gray. Wins over Bethune-Cookman and Arkansas State go only so far, and how much does a narrow win over Navy mean? But the Tigers bounced back in powerful fashion, scoring the game’s next 28 points. Better still, when the Broncos closed the Tiger lead to three points (28-25) midway through the fourth quarter, Memphis took possession and drove 75 yards, chewing up more than six minutes of playing time and scoring the touchdown (a one-yard scramble by Blake Watson) that proved to be decisive.
“We had an inexcusable, pedestrian start,” said Silverfield in his postgame comments. “That’s on me. I’ll take the blame. But our guys’ belief in what we’re doing is amazing. They fight, and they find a way to finish. That’s a team win. It took every single person.”
• Blake Watson is The Guy. At halftime of Saturday’s game, the Tigers saluted DeAngelo Williams, the greatest Tiger of all-time and the first Memphis player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Fittingly, Tiger running back Blake Watson carried the ball 19 times for 113 yards for a Williams-like 5.9-yard average and scored two touchdowns, including that game-winner in the fourth quarter. Watson’s emergence separates this team from those of the last three seasons in which no Tiger ball carrier topped even 700 yards. Through only five games, Watson has 455 yards rushing, putting him on track for a 1,000-yard campaign, if not quite a DeAngelo Williams performance. Championship teams, universally, run the ball well. Keep an eye on the Old Dominion transfer as this season rolls along.
• The football gods are smiling. Late in the Tigers’ win over Navy, a Midshipman play that had resulted in a first down deep in Memphis territory was reviewed by the officials and determined to actually be short of first-down yardage. When Watson scored the Tigers’ final touchdown late in Saturday’s game, he dropped the ball before landing in the end zone. But another official review determined that Watson had broken the proverbial plane of the end zone with the football before it was dislodged. Not one, but two critical reviews have favored the Tigers (?!?) in a single month.
Senior linebacker Geoffrey Cantin-Arku made the play of the game against Boise State, blocking a third-quarter field goal attempt, picking up the ball and sprinting 80 yards to seize the lead (21-17) for the home team. The native of Quebec (and former Syracuse Orange) was asked after the game about his play, and what it might represent in a season, so far, going largely the Tigers’ way. “Last year, we didn’t fight like this,” he acknowledged. “The spirit in the locker room is different. We’ve all got each others’ back. We’re gonna come to work.”
Every baseball season is memorable. Even those that don’t end with a championship, as four have since the Memphis Redbirds arrived in town 25 years ago. With a 68-76 record entering their final home stand of the season, the Redbirds will not qualify for the International League playoffs. But we saw three players who starred brightly here in 2023, with hopes for even bigger things next year.
• Luken Baker slammed 33 home runs and drove in 98 runs — the latter figure tops in the IL through Sunday — in only 84 games for Memphis. The hulking first baseman posted a jaw-dropping slash line of .334/.439/.720, figures that should garner Baker some votes for IL Player of the Year, even with the limited service. (Baker spent much of the last two months riding the bench with the St. Louis Cardinals.) In just two seasons with the Redbirds, Baker has climbed to fourth in franchise history with 54 home runs. He’ll all but certainly be occupying a big-league roster spot next April, either with the Cardinals or another franchise (via trade).
• The electrifying Masyn Winn needed only 105 games with Memphis to shatter the franchise record for runs scored in a season with 99. (The previous record of 92 had held for 19 years.) The 21-year-old shortstop batted .288 and clubbed 18 homers while stealing 17 bases. He showed off his much-talked-about cannon of a right arm, one already drawing oohs and aahs at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. His impact on the club? Memphis was 59-59 when Winn was promoted to St. Louis on August 18th. They are 9-17 without him. Expect Winn to contend for the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year award.
• Among the most important, if awkward, decisions the Cardinals must make this winter involves the team’s backup catcher. Former Redbird Andrew Knizner has played the role for three seasons, the first two behind Yadier Molina and this season behind Willson Contreras. But here’s the awkward part: Ivan Herrera is a better player. In his second season with Memphis, the 23-year-old Herrera has put up a slash line of .294/.449/.495 and OPS of .944. Knizner’s numbers with St. Louis: .246/.289/.442 and .731. Like Baker, Herrera will all but surely be on a big-league roster next April. Expect St. Louis to move Herrera or Knizner before Opening Day.
As the Cardinals aim to recover from the club’s first last-place finish in 33 years (barring a two-week run that catches the Pittsburgh Pirates), their biggest need is starting pitching. Michael McGreevy tops the Redbirds with 127 innings pitched and 10 wins, but lacks the swing-and-miss arsenal St. Louis craves desperately. (McGreevy has only 101 strikeouts in those 127 innings.) Gordon Graceffo also carries high expectations, but shoulder inflammation slowed his progress in 2023. You get the sense 21-year-old Tink Hence — a top-50 prospect — may leapfrog McGreevy and Graceffo in a race to the Cardinals’ rotation. Hence split 2023 at Class A Peoria and Double-A Springfield, with mixed results. He’ll be among the star attractions in Memphis next season.
There are two more names to remember as local baseball thoughts shift to 2024. Infielder Thomas Saggese arrived in the Cardinals’ system as part of the trade that sent pitcher Jordan Montgomery to Texas at the trade deadline. After hitting .313 with 15 homers in 93 games for Double-A Frisco, Saggese batted .331 with 10 more long balls in only 33 games for Springfield. He had a four-hit game for Memphis last week and appears to be a rarity in the modern game: a pure hitter.
Finally we have Victor Scott II. The 22-year-old outfielder has stolen 95 bases in 2023, splitting the season between Peoria and Springfield. That kind of thievery calls to mind — for Cardinal followers of a certain vintage — Vince Coleman and the runnin’ Redbirds of the 1980s, an era that included three National League pennants and the 1982 world championship. It’s not the brand of baseball we’ve seen much at Busch Stadium in recent years, nor at AutoZone Park. There would be some cross-generational poetry to an “old” way of winning baseball games helping a proud franchise escape an uncomfortable cellar.
Ignore the neigh-sayers: Secretariat might just be one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. (Photo: Frank Murtaugh)
Spectator sports rarely traumatize us. If they did, they wouldn’t last long as spectator sports. But I was indeed traumatized on August 5th when Maple Leaf Mel fell less than two strides from victory in the Test Stakes, a thoroughbred race in Saratoga Springs, New York. Witnessing the beauty, strength, and speed of a racehorse in full flight has been a joy for most of my 54 years, but to see a 3-year-old filly collapse — crash is the better word — rips every ounce of joy from the experience. And the trauma lingers. (Maple Leaf Mel, having shattered her right foreleg, was euthanized shortly after her fall.)
This year being the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown — the greatest season any American thoroughbred has ever had — I made plans last spring to visit the resting place of “Big Red” at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. In the aftermath of Maple Leaf Mel’s tragic demise, my wife and I plotted the course for the heart of thoroughbred country. The trip would become not just a tribute to the greatest champion “the sport of kings” will ever know, but a tribute to the far too many who leave us way too soon. Champions like Maple Leaf Mel.
Photo: Frank Murtaugh
With apologies to Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, and Michael Jordan, I believe Secretariat’s 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes was the single most dominant athletic performance of the 20th century. He was expected to win. A $100 bet would have earned you 10 bucks. Only four other horses raced for second place. Yet when I watch replays of the race, my eyes get damp as Big Red pulls away … five lengths, 10 lengths, 20. There’s something about seeing unequivocal greatness on the largest of stages that makes you feel part of something beyond human (or equine) reach. This is why Claiborne Farm called to me, why Secretariat — gone for more than three decades — inspires me, somehow, in an active sense.
For those who love horses, the 15-mile drive from Lexington to Paris delivers a distinctive form of oxygen. One farm after another, pastures of a green best appreciated in impressionist art. And a safe distance from the road … barns and stables. Claiborne Farm has been breeding thoroughbreds for more than a century and today occupies 3,000 acres. For merely $100,000, your favorite mare can cozy up to Claiborne’s current star, a 21-year-old stallion named War Front, son of Danzig and grandson of 1964 Kentucky Derby champion Northern Dancer.
Secretariat is one of an astounding six Triple Crown winners (there have only been 13) to have been conceived at Claiborne Farm. His former stall is not much more than 100 square feet, one of 10 in a nondescript white stable a short walk from Claiborne’s visitors center. To stand in that space — with precisely two bales of hay awaiting its current occupant — and consider the giant who once slept there is a mind-leap and somewhat of a statement on the way we humans tend to consider only bigger accommodations better.
Secretariat died on October 14, 1989, victimized by a painful hoof condition called laminitis. He was only 19; not young, but not that old for a horse. A necropsy revealed that Secretariat’s heart weighed more than 20 pounds, twice the size of a typical thoroughbred’s ticker. I love this part of Secretariat’s story, not so much for the physical blessing he utilized in becoming a champion, but for the metaphor it provides all of us humans. A big heart matters, more so than Hollywood looks or a Wall Street bank account.
The great horse was buried in full, and embalmed, royal treatment above the standard (and space-saving) head/heart/hooves of a deceased champion. People leave coins on Secretariat’s tombstone, as you might see at the resting place of a fallen soldier, a human soldier. Me, I waited until those in our tour group left the cemetery, took a picture of the posthumous symbol, and touched the engraved name of the greatest racehorse we’ll ever know. And yes, I thought of Maple Leaf Mel. Sport of kings? Maybe. Sport of heart? Absolutely.
People around the world travel to Memphis every August to salute an icon whose legend has only grown across generations since his death. This is precisely what I did last month in paying my semicentennial respects to Secretariat. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Claiborne Farm. But I’ll watch the 1973 Belmont Stakes many more times. And I’ll feel a long stride closer to greatness.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.
Sutton Smith rushed for 115 yards in the Tigers' win over Bethune-Cookman. (photo by Wes Hale)
The case could be made that the greatest day in the history of the Memphis Tiger football program was November 2, 2019. With ESPN’s College GameDay crew on Beale Street that morning, and the Liberty Bowl packed to its rim that night, the Tigers beat SMU, 54-48, on their way to an American Athletic Conference championship and a berth in the prestigious Cotton Bowl.
With memories of that night still alive in these parts, it was painful to learn last week that SMU — and not Memphis — will depart the AAC for the more renowned (and more lucrative) Atlantic Coast Conference. Already with this year’s departures (Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF), the AAC has become a collection of nerds in shoulder pads, without a date to the prom. Memphis is among those nerds, with what appears like less and less hope for a dance partner anytime soon.
Under this atmospheric gloom arrived the Tigers’ 2023 season Saturday night at what’s now called Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. And on the opposite sideline to face the Tigers? Bethune-Cookman, an overmatched FCS opponent that couldn’t stir excitement beyond a tank of gas from the Wildcats’ campus in Daytona Beach. Memphis, as expected, dominated the glorified exhibition game. Final score: 56-14. Somehow, the Wildcats pulled off the play of the game, the first-quarter block/interception of a Seth Henigan pass by Amarie Jones that the lineman returned 69 yards for a touchdown. It was scintillating, even as it closed the Tiger lead to just three points (10-7). From that point, though, it was entirely Memphis. The Tigers racked up 551 yards of offense and held Bethune-Cookman to 91 (only 39 via pass).
Memphis players enjoyed some early season stat-padding. Junior quarterback Henigan completed 27 of 36 passes for 334 yards and a pair of touchdowns. (He also tossed two interceptions, including the Jones pick-six.) Sutton Smith ran for 115 yards on 18 carries and scored two touchdowns, complementing Blake Watson’s three-TD performance (75 yards on 10 carries). Eight different Tigers caught Henigan passes and eight different Tigers made at least two solo tackles on defense. It was the kind of game that accentuates hope for the 11 regular-season contests that remain. The kind of game that suggests these Tigers might be better than the six-loss teams of 2022 and 2021.
As I looked at the half-filled stadium, though, I kept thinking of SMU, and the 58,325 people who made that night in November 2019 unforgettable in the Mid-South. (It remains the largest home crowd to watch the Tigers play an opponent other than Ole Miss or Tennessee.) If anything, the 26,632 fans who purchased tickets for The Bethune-Cookman Game should be saluted for their devotion to the cause of Memphis football. It’s easy to fork over your cash for the kind of clash that attracts College GameDay. To watch the first meeting between Memphis and an FCS bunch from Florida’s east coast? That requires blue and gray in the blood.
The Tigers will hop a bus to Jonesboro later this week and face Arkansas State Saturday. (The Red Wolves aim to recover from a 73-0 undressing at Oklahoma.) Then comes a short week and a Thursday-night home tilt against Navy to open AAC play. Never have those AAC games felt more important to the Memphis program. Still on the outside of that dance hall, the Tigers simply must contend — annually — for a conference title, as long as they remain in a second-tier league like the AAC. There’s too much other football — the SEC is expanding — to distract the casual fan. It’s too easy to make one’s den the “GameDay” venue. Memphis enjoyed a convincing win to open an important season for its program. The hard truth: Every week this season will demand more convincing.
The Memphis Tigers have a rare breed in junior quarterback Seth Henigan. With the transfer portal shuffling college football rosters like an overstuffed deck of cards, an athlete playing the sport’s premium position at the same school for three years is becoming rare. In fact, only 15 FBS quarterbacks (among 133 programs) will appear in the same uniform for a third season this fall having started more games than Henigan’s 24. A recent review of said transfer portal revealed no fewer than 74 quarterbacks (starters and backups, mind you) having departed one program for another since the 2022 season concluded.
Yet Henigan remains in blue and gray, the colors he’s worn since, literally, the day after his high school team (Denton Ryan High School in North Texas) won the 2020 state championship. Having started his first college game as a true freshman in 2021, Henigan will graduate after the fall semester with a degree in business management. By that time, he’ll have three full college seasons under his belt, and still shy of his 21st birthday. What kind of season should Tiger fans expect? It would be tough to top the expectations of Henigan himself, a signal-caller in shoulder pads for as far back as his memory will take him.
Henigan grew up with two brothers (one older, one younger), so competition was woven into the family fabric. Basketball. Football. And the kind of “house sports” only the parents of sibling rivals can fully appreciate. “We’d play ping-pong, darts,” recalls Henigan. “I was always trying to be like my older brother Ian and beat him in everything. I played T-ball but didn’t move on to baseball. Played lacrosse for one year. I’ve always had good hand-eye coordination, but no sport was as fun to me as football.” Ironically, Henigan found himself injury prone in basketball, breaking his nose and his left hand on the hardwood. So hoops became past tense after his sophomore year of high school. “I needed to focus on football,” he says, “and get my body prepared for college.”
University of Memphis junior Seth Henigan will return for his third season as quarterback. A successful season will afford him the opportunity to become only the second quarterback in Tigers football history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Going all the way back to his earliest flag-football memories, Henigan can’t recall playing any position other than quarterback. It helps being the son of a highly successful coach. (Dave Henigan has coached Denton Ryan since 2014 and earned at least one Coach of the Year honor every year from 2016 through the championship season of 2020.) He would accompany his dad on game nights and spend the pregame tossing a football with anyone willing to toss it back. “It was a bonding time,” notes Henigan, “and with my brothers, too. I liked having the ball in my hands. I was pretty fast, and I could throw the ball better than the average kid. Being able to make plays, from a young age, that was the position I was going to play to be the most successful in this sport.”
If quarterback isn’t the hardest position in team sports, it’s in a short conversation. (We’ll allow the case for baseball’s catcher.) Physical tools — height, arm strength, foot quickness — take an athlete a long way, but playing quarterback well enough to win championships requires as much talent between the ears as elsewhere. And the ability to absorb contact is a requirement.
“As you move up levels, the position becomes way more taxing,” says Henigan, “both physically and mentally. I wasn’t hit that much in high school, but at the college level, it’s a different feeling. We don’t get hit in practice because [coaches] are trying to preserve quarterbacks. When you get hit for the first time, it changes the entire game. Having that experience early in my college career really toughened me up. You’re playing 300-pound defensive linemen, and their goal is to harass you.”
As for the mental component, it’s the invisible tools that made Tom Brady the Tom Brady, that allow Patrick Mahomes to see angles and gaps most quarterbacks cannot. “You know so much about coverages,” explains Henigan. “You know the names, you draw them up, you speak them. Some quarterbacks learn better verbally, and some need to see it on a board. Or going through it on a practice field.”
Henigan draws a parallel between a quarterback’s mental challenges and those of a decidedly less physical sport. “Golfers’ mental game is so important,” he notes. “It’s hard to compare to any other position on a football field. You’re in control of so many aspects. You know everyone’s assignment on offense. A middle linebacker may know this for the defense, but he doesn’t have control of the play’s outcome. A quarterback has the ball in his hands. There’s so much going on. You’re thinking of 21 other guys on a field, reacting to a defense. The defensive coordinator’s job is to confuse the quarterback. You have to react as the play is going on.”
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a quarterback must decide between handing the ball to a running back, running the ball himself, or passing to as many as five potential receivers. “Decision-making, accuracy, and toughness are three of the most important components for a quarterback,” emphasizes Henigan. “Fluid intelligence is key. That’s how you make your money, so to speak. Offenses and defenses both have tendencies. After a while, you identify consistencies in the way defenses want to attack our offense. But it changes each year. The base knowledge helps though. You have an out-of-body experience. It feels like you’re watching yourself because you’ve done it so many times. It’s muscle memory, and natural. I’ve seen a lot.”
(Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Henigan grew up a college football fan, more so than any devotion he might have developed for an NFL team. With his family wrapped up in “Friday night lights” followed by college games on Saturday, Henigan’s mom would actually not allow football on television come Sunday. Henigan’s favorite quarterbacks were a pair of Heisman Trophy winners in the SEC: Auburn’s Cam Newton and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel. He loved their exploits but notes he’s never modeled his playing style after another signal-caller.
Despite compiling an eye-popping record of 44-2 over three years as a starter at Denton Ryan, Henigan was not heavily recruited by FBS programs. Former Memphis offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, though, made the kind of impression both Henigan and his family sought in choosing Seth’s college destination. “I had a good year as a junior,” notes Henigan, “but my body wasn’t spectacular. I was always smart and worked hard, and those attributes can take you a long way. Coaches weren’t really talking to me consistently, until coach Johns came after my junior year. He listed attributes of a good quarterback that I displayed and why I was attractive [to Memphis]. He’d show me film on FaceTime, break down plays. He’s the only [college] coach who did that with me. It was exciting, seeing how I’d fit the program here.”
Having enrolled for the spring semester in 2021, Henigan was comfortable with Memphis — both the city and campus — by the time fall camp opened. When the quarterback expected to start the ’21 season opener (Grant Gunnell) tore his Achilles heel late that summer, Henigan seized the opportunity. “Even if I was going to be the backup, I didn’t want to be a weak link,” reflects Henigan. “So I was mentally prepared. I have a whiteboard in my room at home. I’ve had it since my junior year of high school. Every week, I’ll change the name of the opponent, list base defenses, third-down defenses, and how we were going to attack them. I picked things up pretty quickly. That’s all I did that first spring camp: study that whiteboard and learn [as a college quarterback]. Coach Johns and I would throw on weekends at his house. He cared for me as a true freshman.” (Johns has since moved on and is now the offensive coordinator at Duke University.)
The Tigers went 6-6 in 2021 (Henigan’s freshman year) and qualified for the Hawaii Bowl, a game that was canceled the day before kickoff because of a Covid outbreak in the Hawaii program. Memphis went 7-6 last season and beat Utah State in the First Responder Bowl. Two decades ago, such marks would have qualified as successful seasons in these parts. But the program’s standards are higher. So are Seth Henigan’s.
“There’s no such thing as a young quarterback,” says Henigan in evaluating the midpoint of his college career. “You either have it or you don’t. You earn the job. It hasn’t been smooth sailing. We’ve beaten some good teams, but we’ve lost to teams we should have beaten. I didn’t really know what to expect out of college football; I just knew it would be harder than what I’d done in the past. I want to win a conference championship and win more than seven games. There’s so much more to achieve as a quarterback. My teammates respect me and know me as a competitor. I’ve taken hits and gotten up. I’ve been through the ringer, and I’ve stayed here in Memphis. We have a chance to be special.”
Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield would never project his program’s success on the play of one athlete. But he’s cognizant of how important Seth Henigan’s junior season will be to the health — and growth — of the Memphis program. “At the quarterback position, his steps are significant to the success of our entire program,” says the fourth-year coach. “He knows that he’s got to be better. He’s still young for the position, but he’s got experience. We have high expectations for him to make good decisions. You can’t turn the ball over. Find ways to win football games. We’ll continue to push him to be the leader of our team. He’s earned that respect and we’re excited to see what unfolds.”
Henigan is one of only 16 current Tigers who have taken the field for Memphis the last two seasons. He’s a junior, by class, but an extended veteran by measure of proportional service. Who will catch Henigan’s passes this fall? Junior Roc Taylor had 20 receptions last season, the most by any returning player. Senior Joseph Scates caught only 18 passes in 2022, but averaged 22.9 yards per reception. Newcomer Tauskie Dove — a transfer from Missouri — played in high school with Henigan but was a senior when the quarterback rode the bench as a freshman.
A healthy and successful 2023 season would make Henigan only the second quarterback in Memphis history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Brady White did so from 2018 to 2020.) Then there’s 2024. Should Henigan return as a grad student, a fourth season — again, presuming health — would likely shatter every passing record in the Tiger book. But that’s distant future, particularly with that pesky transfer portal. For now, Henigan is focused on the daily chores — as noted on his treasured whiteboard — that will add up to a better college season than his first two in blue and gray.
“Every day is challenging,” acknowledges Henigan, noting his commitment to football, school, his family, and nurturing relationships, particularly those with his teammates. “It’s hard to find time for myself. I have so many responsibilities. I’ve been on a fast track, starting my master’s program in the spring. A [conference] championship would make [this season] successful. Winning nine or 10 games. I think we have all the right guys. We’ve just got to stay consistent.”
Gary Hart (Photo: Laurence Agron | Dreamstime.com)
Who remembers Gary Hart? If you’ve had as many as 50 birthdays, you almost certainly remember the former Colorado senator and two-time candidate for the United States presidency. If you remember Hart’s name, you likely remember another: Donna Rice. You see, Gary Hart had a girlfriend. And (sit down for this) Gary Hart was married at the time.
I’ll share a brief slice of American-scandal history for those of you who may not remember Hart and friend. Only 47 years old in 1984, Hart sought the Democratic nomination in an election that would send Ronald Reagan back to the White House for a second term. Hart seemed Kennedy-esque: lots of dark hair, a solid jawline, sparkling pearly whites. It wasn’t until the next presidential campaign, though, that we learned just how Kennedy-esque Gary Hart truly was.
In the spring of 1987, thanks to journalists doing what we do, America learned that Hart had carried on an extramarital affair with Rice, a woman he claimed was nothing more than a “campaign aide.” But when a photo of the two in each others’ arms appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer, that was the end of the next Kennedy and any hopes he had of occupying the Oval Office.
I’ve thought of Gary Hart often the last few years, every time the name Donald Trump makes news. It’s been 36 years and nine presidential elections since that tabloid cover ruined Hart’s political rise. But what the hell has happened to presidential scandal? Gary Hart was nationally ridiculed for an extramarital affair and Donald Trump has already served a term as U.S. president.
The notion of Trump being excluded from a campaign for the highest office in the land over a mistress seems as laughably silly as a desert coyote coming back to life after repeatedly blowing himself up as he hunts a roadrunner. But that’s the America — that’s the office of U.S. president — we have before us, here in 2023.
How does Donna Rice on your candidate’s resume compare with being twice impeached in your first try at the presidency? How does shagging someone who doesn’t wear a wedding ring you placed on her finger compare with federal charges of absconding with enough classified documents to stuff your bathroom? How does ruining your marriage compare with being the cheerleader for an insurrection mob during your last month as president?
It’s astounding. Rewind to those innocent, clearly naïve days of 1987, and candidate Trump would have been ruined by an association with the likes of Stormy Daniels … his “Donna Rice.” Here in 2023? That association is merely one of three likely indictments candidate Trump will face as he leads (is that the right word?) the Republican party into the election year of 2024.
Jimmy Carter — as decent a man as has ever occupied the White House, if not a great president — essentially turned over the presidency in a 1979 speech when he dared mention an American “crisis of confidence.” Short on confidence? Swagger? Not us hearty Yanks. Let me ask you: What kind of confidence in America do supporters of Donald Trump show when they ignore one scandal after another, each larger in impact than the one before? This is the best we can do? Two impeachments and three indictments. Not to mention, ahem, three wives. (Psst … Donald Trump had a girlfriend, too.)
I was 18 in 1987, and plenty naïve. Even at that age, I wondered if a man might actually be able to lead even if he failed as a husband. My foundational thought was that a man could not lead if he didn’t care fully for the office of president and the country that office represented. He might make mistakes (as Carter did) and he might be short on qualifications (as Reagan was), but an American president would never make us feel scandalous as a country. That was my innocent thinking at its worst. I know Gary Hart would appreciate.
Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.
Dark days have fallen upon the St. Louis Cardinals. A team favored to win the National League’s Central Division in March is languishing in last place, staring at the franchise’s first losing season since 2007, and only its second this century. The Cardinals’ pitching — both starting and relief — has been dreadful. Stars have come up short of past standards, and prospects (not long ago in uniform with the Memphis Redbirds at AutoZone Park) aren’t making the impact expected or forecast. The toughest part about three months of bad baseball is that three months of the 2023 season remain. Can the Cardinals rediscover their flying wings? And will the Redbirds play a part?
There are four players who have spent most of the season with Memphis who could help ease the Cards’ pain, either short-term or long.
• Luken Baker (1B/DH) — Begging for the nickname “Kong,” Baker (6’4”, 285 lbs.) has dominated the International League, slamming 22 home runs in 64 games and posting a jaw-dropping slugging percentage of .664. In a late-May game at AutoZone Park, Baker clubbed a baseball over the leftfield wall despite shattering his bat. In an age where batting average isn’t supposed to matter, Baker was hitting .319 for the Redbirds when promoted by St. Louis on July 3rd. As large as he is, Baker is soft with the glove at first base, a better-than-adequate fielder. But with Paul Goldschmidt (the 2022 NL MVP) entrenched at that position for St. Louis, Baker may become a premium trade chip. Power is the coin of the major-league realm these days, and Baker’s purse is bursting.
• Ivan Herrera (C) — Catchers who can hit have been a rare breed since the first player donned “the tools of ignorance.” Herrera’s slash line for Memphis (.308/.432/.557) makes those of both Willson Contreras (.240/.334/.419) and Andrew Knizner (.227/.254/.418) look silly. And those are the Cardinal players from whom Herrera aims to shave some playing time. The 23-year-old native of Panama was promoted to St. Louis last week when Knizner went on the 10-day injured list. Similar to Baker, Herrera could be auditioning for 29 other franchises as the August 1st trade deadline approaches. Or he could convince the Cardinals’ front office that their catcher of the future is much less expensive than the 31-year-old Contreras.
• Michael McGreevy (P) — The Cardinals will contend for a 12th World Series crown when their starting pitching again excels. A franchise icon (Adam Wainwright) has struggled mightily in his final season. A once-and-future ace (Jack Flaherty) leads the National League in walks. A top prospect (Matthew Liberatore) posted a 6.75 ERA before returning to Memphis last week. Could McGreevy be among the rescue team? The 18th pick in the 2021 draft, McGreevy was solid at Double-A Springfield last year (6-4) and leads Memphis this season in innings pitched while posting a 5-1 record. Noted for his control, McGreevy has posted an ERA of 3.73 for the Redbirds, a figure that would be the envy of most Cardinal pitchers these days.
• Dakota Hudson (P) — Hudson was the 2018 Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year with Memphis, then led St. Louis the next season with 16 wins. But injuries and control problems had him back at Triple-A this season, where he went 5-4 with a 6.00 ERA before getting the call from St. Louis last week after Wainwright went to the injured list. Hudson will be pitching with a chip on his shoulder, which may be precisely what the 2023 Cardinals need right now. Can he survive five innings per start while keeping St. Louis in games? It’s not a high bar to leap these days.
More perspective on the Cardinals’ current mess? The franchise has had only two losing seasons (1999 and 2007) since its Triple-A affiliate moved from Louisville to Memphis in 1998. The Cardinals are staring at their first 90-loss season since 1990 and only the club’s fourth since 1917. Dark days indeed for a proud organization. Perhaps Memphis can provide some light.
It was one of those rare plays you see on a baseball field that makes no impact in the box score . . . but remains unforgettable. On a Tuesday night in mid-April, the Memphis Redbirds were hosting the Indianapolis Indians at AutoZone Park. Playing second base for Memphis, Masyn Winn took a cutoff throw in short right field. An Indian base-runner was cruising home from third base, not so much as looking where the baseball might be. Winn turned and fired a heat-seeking spheroid to the catcher, who tagged the Indians’ runner . . . just after he touched home plate. The throw covered at least 140 feet, maybe 150. (For perspective, the distance from third base to first is 127 feet.) There was no “hump” in the throw. It arrived in the catcher’s mitt shoulder height, precisely where Winn released it. And it arrived there fast.
“A lot of guys aren’t running anymore,” notes Winn with a grin sly beyond his years. “Coaches don’t send them. [My arm] is what I’m known for. But sometimes it still catches guys by surprise. Most [infielders] would just eat that ball, but I thought I had a chance.”
Merely 21 years old and primarily a shortstop, Winn is the 48th-ranked prospect in his sport according to Baseball America. He’s building toward a future in the middle infield despite having a right arm that would be the envy of many players who occupy the pitcher’s mound. (Four years ago, as a junior at Kingwood High School in Texas, Winn posted a 13-0 record as a pitcher with a 0.67 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 76 innings.) He made headlines in the 2022 All-Star Futures Game by hitting 100 mph on the radar gun with a throw from shortstop to first base. That cannon of an arm, though, is a weapon that must be carefully utilized.
Winn first recognized his extraordinary arm strength at age 12 when he made a traveling national team. “Sophomore year in high school, I was throwing mid-90s,” he says. “I knew it was serious then. But I was a pitcher at the time, so didn’t really consider what I could do from short.” In Winn’s first full season as a pro (Class A in 2021), he made 24 errors in 98 games, most of them of the throwing variety. Accuracy, it seems, can improve with a reduction in velocity. Winn credits a longtime Cardinals instructor — newly elected to the franchise’s Hall of Fame — with helping him dial back the power of his right arm when it can benefit the team.
“Defensively, Jose Oquendo may be the best in the world,” says Winn. “He told me that I don’t have to show off my arm with every throw. I can go 80 or 85 percent and still make the play, then dial it up when I need to. Shortening up my motion and throwing like a shortstop [as opposed to a pitcher’s motion].”
At the plate, Winn is focused on making better contact, becoming a catalyst at the top of the Redbirds’ batting order. “I started off the year striking out a lot, so I’m trying to hit more balls on the barrel [of the bat],” he says. “It’s an approach thing. We’ve got sluggers like Jordan Walker, Luken Baker, and Moises Gomez. I’ll let them hit the bombs. I need to be more direct to the ball, get my singles, steal, get a double. Know my game.”
Winn is climbing toward a crowded middle infield with the St. Louis Cardinals. Paul DeJong has reclaimed the shortstop position after a rehab stint with Memphis. Tommy Edman (a Gold Glove winner at second base), Brendan Donovan (utility Gold Glove in 2022), and Nolan Gorman are also in the mix. “I’m gonna play a long time,” notes Winn. “I don’t need to rush anything. I’m enjoying every step. I can’t wait to be [in the big leagues], but I’m having a lot of fun. I get to play baseball.”
