Category: Tiger Blue

• There’s something significant about a Memphis-Navy game at the Liberty Bowl. Maybe it’s the pregame flyover that actually shakes the concrete stadium. The halftime enlistment of future officers reminds us that football is, yes, just a game for fall weekends. But in recent years, the Tigers and Midshipmen seem to cross paths heading opposite directions. In 2015, the Tigers won their first eight games of the season (the finest start in program history) and climbed to 15th in the national rankings. Navy came to town and declawed the Tigers, 45-20, the first loss in what would become a three-game skid for Memphis.

Fast-forward six years, and Memphis took the field Thursday night against Navy on a three-game losing streak, its first since 2015. But this time, the Tigers prevailed, 35-17, to earn their first conference win of the season and improve to 4-3. The win felt significant. Memphis has not been under .500 since its 3-9 campaign of 2013. Coach Ryan Silverfield seemed relieved after the win, noting — as coaches do — resilience as a key measure of a team’s character. “A much-needed win, I’m not gonna hide from that,” he said. “The kids have faced adversity the last three weeks. It seemed to be the same song-and-dance each week: this is what we need to do, we were close, we didn’t finish, we shot ourselves in the foot. It’s hard for [a team] to stick with that kind of mindset. You’re gonna ask us to come back and work harder? That’s what I’m so proud about: We didn’t see anyone tap out. If anything, they grew closer. Those are life lessons.”

• The Tigers’ quick-strike capability remains the most exciting component of this year’s team. In the win over Navy, Calvin Austin III took a pitch in the backfield and ran 69 yards for a touchdown to end the first quarter. Midway through the second period, Eddie Lewis caught a Seth Henigan pass in stride and scored a 74-yard TD. These were the fifth and sixth plays of at least 69 yards for Memphis this season, essentially one per game. These crowd-pleasers can prove disruptive to a team’s defense, as they don’t allow much rest for linebackers, cornerbacks, and safeties. The Tiger defense was on the field almost 40 minutes of Thursday night’s game. That takes a toll physically. But is Austin to tap the brakes on his game-changing speed? Is Henigan to stop looking beyond opposing linebackers for a deep target? If anything, the Memphis defense needs to consider the offense a standard. Force a three-and-out. Get Henigan and friends back on the field. If the two units can prove to be symbiotic, Memphis will indeed have a special team.

• There’s no better rivalry in the AAC (even if lopsided) than Memphis-UCF. After a short week to prepare for Navy, the Tigers now have a long week (a full seven days) to prepare for their visit to the University of Central Florida on October 22nd. This has come to be the game circled annually by close followers of either program. And they tend to be the kind of games TV audiences love. The teams combined for 99 points (Memphis scored 50) last year in an empty Liberty Bowl. UCF beat Memphis in the AAC championship game in both 2017 (62-55) and 2018 (56-41). Since they began playing regularly in 2005, UCF has won 13 of 14 games. The largest motivator of all for Tiger players: Memphis has never won in Orlando. The Knights have two losses (one of them to the Navy team Memphis just beat) with another likely Saturday at third-ranked Cincinnati. A Friday night game on national TV (ESPN2) should be another memory-maker in this series.

• The “D” word. It’s been a while since disappointing was used in describing the University of Memphis football program. The Tigers have won too many games and too consistently over the last seven years for such a word to sneak into the community lexicon. But these 2021 Tigers should be undefeated as they prepare for Tulsa this Saturday. Were it not for four fumbles — two each against UTSA and Temple — a 3-2 record could well be a glowing 5-0, the kind that earns Top-25 votes, even from college football’s perceived kiddie pool we know as the “Group of Five.” Memphis has lost consecutive games for the first time since December 2018 (the second loss coming in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl) and is now tasked with avoiding the program’s first three-game skid since November 2015. “All three phases [offense, defense, special teams] have work to do,” said, yes, a disappointed coach Ryan Silverfield after last Saturday’s loss at Temple. “We have to go back to the drawing board and figure some things out, especially with ball security.”

• Fumblitis. Brandon Thomas has star power. The redshirt freshman from North Little Rock ran for 147 yards in the Tigers’ season-opening win, then sliced through Arkansas State for 191 the next week. He was solid (83 yards) in the huge Tiger win over Mississippi State. But Thomas was the culprit with two of those four key fumbles in losses to UTSA and Temple. He didn’t return to the field after the second-quarter mishap in Philadelphia. (One of his replacements, Kylan Watkins, also coughed up the ball, and merely inches from the Temple end zone.) This is the riddle Silverfield and his staff face: The Tigers are a much better team with Brandon Thomas on the field, carrying the football . . . but only if he doesn’t give the ball to Tiger opponents.

Years ago during a Tiger practice, I witnessed former coach Justin Fuente enter a rage that concerned me for the man’s health. And it was over a fumbled football. An utter professional in front of cameras (and in the Tiger football offices), Fuente had zero tolerance — tactically or emotionally — for the sacrifice of a possession. Those guilty of this crime seldom saw the field, often for weeks. It’s hard to envision the 2021 Tigers being the best they can be without Brandon Thomas — clearly their most talented running back — sidelined for punitive reasons. It’s also hard to envision an otherwise skilled and dangerous offense trusting precious possessions to someone with soapy hands. This will be the most interesting drama to follow the next few weeks. “We’ve got to own the football,” emphasized Silverfield in addressing the matter last Saturday. “It doesn’t matter how good a back [Thomas] is. If we can’t hold on to [the football], we don’t give ourselves a chance.”

• A stadium by any other name . . . The Tigers will soon play in Simmons Bank Memorial Stadium. After more than five decades as the Liberty Bowl, the city’s football headquarters will now carry the name of a financial institution headquartered in Little Rock. My first thought upon learning the news: Is it 1995? Why has it taken so long for the City of Memphis (owner of the stadium) or the University of Memphis (the stadium’s primary tenant) to tap into naming-rights revenue? Was this pursued or did a partner just finally show up with an offer to dance? 

The timing is a bit odd, as there is a renewed (or continued) movement to consider a new stadium for the Tigers, perhaps one on the U of M campus. Whether or not it’s built on campus property, a new stadium would be healthy for Memphis football fans. The Liberty Bowl, er, Simmons Bank Memorial Stadium is a grand old lady, and has delivered countless memories since her debut in 1965. But don’t attend a Tennessee Titans game in Nashville and expect to swell with pride over our stadium here in Memphis. Arenas are built differently now, with comforts and sight lines that weren’t priorities a half-century ago. Perhaps the new name (and revenue it generates) will ironically mark the beginning of the end for one football stadium, and the beginning of something exciting and new (Power 5 conference?) for a program that has earned it.

Let’s go ahead and say it. There was too much Sincerity at the Liberty Bowl Saturday afternoon. UTSA’s junior tailback, Sincere McCormick, carried the football 42 times for 184 yards and three touchdowns to help the Roadrunners upset the Memphis Tigers and end the home team’s 17-game winning streak at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. When Hunter Duplessis split the uprights on a 42-yard field goal as time expired, the Roadrunners stormed the field, road victors (31-28) in this stadium for the first time since UCF on October 13, 2018.

The Tigers took a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, knocking the country’s 10th-ranked defense on its heels, particularly on a 60-yard scoring strike from Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan to Calvin Austin III. The Tigers led 28-14 entering the fourth quarter, but a pair of lost fumbles — one by Henigan and another by Tiger running back Brandon Thomas — proved decisive. The first misplay set up UTSA for McCormick’s third touchdown, and the second ended a Tiger drive in Roadrunner territory when a score could have secured a fourth win Memphis. Instead, the Tigers fall to 3-1 for the season while UTSA of Conference USA improves to 4-0.

“I’m glad [our players] are angry,” said Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield after the game. “I’m glad they’re pissed off. We have to put our hard hats on and get back to work. One game doesn’t define us, but this wasn’t our best effort. We know what’s ahead of us. We’ve got to be ready.”

What can be gleaned from such a heartbreaking end to that program-record winning streak? Foremost, every opponent remains a threat for Memphis. A week after their big win over Mississippi State and a week before traveling to Temple for their American Athletic Conference opener, the Tigers fell in a classic “trap game.” But for UTSA, a fourth win — and in Memphis, no less — would get them closer to the kind of national attention few C-USA teams enjoy. A motivated opponent is dangerous. The Tigers found this out on a warm, late-September afternoon on their home turf.

Then there are the shortcomings on offense. Memphis gained only 78 yards on the ground, part of the reason UTSA dominated possession time (35:42). Deep strikes to Austin and tight end Sean Dykes (six receptions for 167 yards) got the crowd (29,264) to its feet, but an inability to sustain a lengthy drive or two cost the Tigers at game’s end.

Then finally, those turnovers. Henigan was again interception-free (completing 15 of 25 passes for 329 yards), but that fumble inside the Tigers’ 10-yard line in the fourth quarter . . . it was a killer.

“They out-executed us,” emphasized Silverfield. “It’s as simple as that. We didn’t play clean football. [Memphis committed seven penalties.] They were able to establish their running game. There’s a lot to clean up.”

The Tigers travel to Philadelphia to play Temple next Saturday and will only have one home game (against Navy on October 14th) the next six weeks. A road trip to Tulsa awaits. A visit to, gulp, UCF is on the horizon. The silver lining in a loss is learning one’s flaws, and knowing they need to be addressed before another winning streak can be started.

Memphis remains undefeated in conference play. Of course, by that standard, the Tigers are also winless. As the calendar soon turns to October, a football team aims to start anew, with the goal of transforming weaknesses into strengths. The kind of task requiring collective devotion and, yes, sincerity.

• The fates favor . . . Memphis! The Tigers’ win over Mississippi State last Saturday at the Liberty Bowl was as improbable as it was scintillating. The Bulldogs ran 83 plays, 30 more than did the Tigers. MSU gained 469 yards to the Tigers’ 246. The visitors held the ball 37 minutes (to the Tigers’ 23). Do you know how many times the Tigers snapped the ball inside the Bulldogs’ 20-yard-line (“the red zone”)? Zero. Show these numbers to anyone who has observed as many as three football games and they’ll tell you the winner, and it wouldn’t be the team that scored 31 points (to the Bulldogs’ 29) last weekend. 

Calvin Austin’s “dead ball” punt return will be talked about as long as blue meets gray on the gridiron in these parts. But perhaps that improbable — impossible — play swung more than a football game. Perhaps Austin’s heroics are another reminder that the football “fates” — whoever, whatever they are — now shine happily over the Tiger program. An opponent’s missed field goal two years ago helped Memphis reach the Cotton Bowl. How far will the upset of Mississippi State take the 2021 Tigers?

• No panic. When it comes to the fabled intangibles, composure under duress may be the most season-defining such trait for a football team. The Tigers found themselves down 10 points (17-7) at halftime last Saturday. So players (and coaches) had their first 20 minutes of mental duress of the season. The game’s first half made it feel like one the Bulldogs would have to stumble to lose; Memphis hadn’t presented the kind of threat that suggested a comeback victory. But the Tigers scored the next 21 points, Joe Doyle delivered a late, clutch field goal, and the Memphis defense held just enough on that final two-point conversion attempt by MSU. 

“There was no panic in the locker room,” emphasized Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield after the game. “That opening drive to start the second half was not beautiful, but guess what? We have an 18-year-old at quarterback with moxie who says, ‘I got this.’ He threw an interception, but then made the tackle. Our defense was playing their tails off, so it gave everybody a lot of belief. When I walked the sideline, I didn’t see a single young man hanging his head.” The Tigers will trail again this season. Last Saturday established a template for how to respond.

• Roadrunners can be dangerous. UTSA is the only remaining undefeated team in Conference USA. This Saturday’s game is no automatic extension of the Tigers’ 17-game winning streak at the Liberty Bowl. Roadrunner quarterback Frank Harris has completed 66 percent of his passes, many of them to Zakhari Franklin, who averages 15.7 yards on his 22 grabs (with three touchdowns). UTSA ranks 29th in the country in total offense (Memphis is 20th) but more impressively, 10th in total defense (Memphis ranks 123rd out of 130 teams). Now, UTSA has put up its numbers against Illinois, Lamar, and Middle Tennessee, not the kind of teams that will be playing for conference championships. The Tigers will be favored, but this feels like a prototypical “trap game,” falling between Mississippi State and the Tigers’ American Athletic Conference opener (at Temple). Will Memphis be able to sustain offensive drives against that 10th-ranked defense? As always, keep track of the turnovers. This one feels like another fourth-quarter, sweaty-palm affair.

All it took was a 94-yard punt return, a 51-yard field goal, and a final defensive stop on a two-point conversion attempt. Such is Memphis Tiger football these days. Bring a team to the Liberty Bowl from the hallowed SEC — in Saturday’s case, the Mississippi State Bulldogs — and that team will find hostile surroundings and an opponent built on the premise that it has been, is now, and will always be the underdog. (Pardon the somewhat-pun.)

In beating the Bullies, 31-29, in front of 43,461 fans, Memphis improved to 3-0 on the season, extended its home winning streak to 17 games (fourth-longest current streak in the nation), and ended a 12-game losing streak (dating back to 1993) against its longtime regional rivals from Starkville. Bonus fun? The Tigers honored Isaac Bruce — the first Memphis alum to gain enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame — at halftime. Bruce, it should be noted, played for the last Memphis team to beat Mississippi State.

Football in this town hasn’t always been this exciting, this much fun. The last time Mississippi State took the field at the Liberty Bowl — almost precisely a decade ago — they had a lot of fun at the expense of the home team. Ranked 20th in the country, the Bullies obliterated the Tigers, 59-14. If you were to mark a historic low point for the Memphis program, it may not have been September 1, 2011, but let’s say that was another slip toward the low point, the 2011 season ending with a 2-10 record for the Tigers (3-21 in two years under coach Larry Porter).

The rise since 2011 has been epic. Three Top-25 teams, a pair of first-team All-Americans now playing in the NFL, an appearance in the Cotton Bowl. Seven straight 8-win seasons, going on eight. When the home team found itself down, 17-7, at halftime, the feeling was more “how will the Tigers come back?” than “here we go again.” As coach Ryan Silverfield emphasized after the game, “There’s no panic in this team.”

About that 94-yard punt return. I’ve watched hundreds of football games, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Midway through the fourth quarter (with Memphis up four points), a pair of Bulldog coverage men touched the football inside the Tiger 10-yard line . . . but neither downed the ball. No official blew a whistle to end the play. Calvin Austin III — the Tigers’ senior receiver from Harding Academy — picked up the ball (at the feet of the Bulldog defenders) and sprinted 94 yards down the right sideline to give Memphis a 28-17 lead. It was a very athletic play on the part of Austin, but it was also an extraordinarily smart play. More than 43,000 people considered that play over before it was. Calvin Austin turned it into a play none of those people will ever forget.

When kicker Joe Doyle split the uprights from 51 yards to extend the Tiger lead to eight points (31-23) near the game’s end, it felt like another signature victory, and the first for Silverfield. The Bulldogs followed with a touchdown that looked way too easy, but the Tigers held on that two-point attempt, making the day, indeed, one for the history books.

The Tiger program has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade, but don’t confuse that with losing connections to a proud past. Bruce embodied that cross-generational pride when he walked to midfield at halftime with his yellow Hall of Fame jacket (not a drop of rain on this otherwise soggy Saturday). And consider linebacker J.J. Russell making a career-high 14 tackles on a day the Liberty Bowl crowd observed a moment of silence for the late Danton Barto (a man who tackled more foes than anyone else in U of M history). That’s the kind of magic — the kind of moments — Memphis football has come to deliver. Expect more. “We’re not satisfied,” emphasized Silverfield. “First thing we’ll talk about tomorrow is the work we need to do.”

If the goal is a return to some form of normal, Saturday night at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium felt very close. Thirty thousand people gathered (most of them outdoors) to cheer on the University of Memphis in its season opener. It had been almost two years since such a crowd could be counted at the Liberty Bowl, the pandemic having reduced the 2020 Tiger season to the kind fans could only enjoy from their dens and living rooms. So yes, Saturday felt normal.

Part of that normal feeling was the Tigers’ 42-17 win over Nicholls State. It was the program’s eighth consecutive season-opening victory and increased the Tigers’ home winning streak to 16 games (fifth in the entire country). They may be playing under a relatively new coach — Ryan Silverfield is beginning his second season — but this is what Memphis football does these days. The Tigers win, often handily, and they impose a home-field advantage few other programs can claim, an advantage intensified when fans can actually enter the Liberty Bowl.

Along with normal, the Tigers saw some new Saturday night. Seth Henigan became the first true freshman to start an opener at quarterback in the history of the Memphis program. The Texas native completed 19 of 32 passes for 265 yards and threw a touchdown pass. Perhaps most pleasing to his coach, Henigan did not throw an interception.

As for the Tiger ground game, redshirt freshman Brandon Thomas introduced himself with 147 yards on just 16 carries and scored on a ten-yard scamper early in the second quarter. Silverfield has spoken of the need for a “bell cow” ball carrier, and number 22 made his case against the Colonels. Henigan and Thomas led an offense that piled up 587 yards. Then there’s kicker Joe Doyle (a transfer from, ahem, Tennessee): five field goals without a miss. New faces, new hope for a program with aspirations of returning to the nation’s Top 25.

The game wasn’t perfect. Doyle kicked all those field goals because the offense couldn’t get the ball into the end zone to finish five drives. The Tiger defense had only one tackle behind the line of scrimmage and did not register a sack against Nicholls quarterback Lindsey Scott. Shortcomings against an FCS opponent like the Colonels could be magnified with an FBS foe on the other sideline.

Masks were required, it should be noted, in the press box and indoor suites. The stadium has new terrace seating that allows for table-top dining and socializing, but outdoors. Those 30,000 fans in the stands? Very few were masked up. Who knows the percentage of vaccinations? As a pandemic lingers — and a football season begins — the questions (concerns?) will stack upon any answers we find, be they tactics for a football team’s success or strategy for a community’s return to health. But for one night in Memphis, one football game — with fans! — at the Liberty Bowl, we’ll take the dose of normal and bank it for the hope it brings.

My weekly “Three Thoughts on Tiger Football” will return, so check back regularly or follow me on Twitter @FrankMurtaugh.

Emoni Bates is a Memphis Tiger. My heart beats faster as I type those six words. (I kinda like the rush so here we go again: Emoni Bates is a Memphis Tiger.) When the much-anticipated news broke Wednesday, like every other human attached to University of Memphis basketball, I found myself ready to skip a couple of months of football season. Remember when that was natural in these parts?

But here’s the thing. Emoni Bates isn’t a Memphis Tiger yet. Penny Hardaway’s power-packed roster — as currently constituted — will suit up for the first time on October 24th, an exhibition against LeMoyne-Owen at FedExForum. (The team’s regular-season opener is November 9th, when Tennessee Tech comes to town.) That’s two months, and two months as measured by Memphis Tiger basketball is precisely as long as it sounds to your average 17-year-old.

Look above at the cover from our 2019-20 preview. Precious Achiuwa’s smile is bright, but James Wiseman’s is brighter. That season held more hope in these parts than any since the 2007-08 Final Four campaign, and it lasted all of three games — two of them extremely awkward — before Wiseman was a former Tiger. As we — yes, I’m guilty — hyperventilate over the possibilities Emoni Bates and his fellow five-star, Jalen Duren, might bring Hardaway’s Tigers, I’ll offer a suggestion of deep breaths and patience, for the shinier the jewel (the brighter the smile?), the easier it is to tarnish.

Keep in mind that Bates is a star among young basketball stars. He’s different, next level. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated (in 2019) before he could legally drive a car. “Born For This” said that cover. He was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2020 as a high school sophomore. 

Bates has been in demand from coast to coast for two years and, had he not “reclassified” (college basketball’s latest structure-shaking buzzword), would be entering his senior year of high school. He won’t turn 18 until January 28, 2022 . . . meaning he’s not eligible for the NBA draft until 2023 (the year he turns 19). Emoni Bates will be a Memphis Tiger for two years. My heart beats faster when I type those words, too, but in part because I’m laughing. Just as water finds its level, basketball prodigies find their earning value.

Maybe that earning value starts here in Memphis. With players now able to capitalize monetarily on their “NIL” (name/image/likeness), Bates has certainly lined up a revenue stream or two. There are companies — here in Memphis and in other time zones — that would love to attach themselves to a rising star like Bates while he’s still affordable. If he shines for those companies by leading the Tigers back to the Final Four — while juggling a freshman course load — salute to all parties. That’s a college basketball story I’d like to write.

It seems quaint to remember the tale of Tiger great Keith Lee and the shoebox of cash he described receiving to play for Dana Kirk at Memphis State University. (He said it was “between a size seven-and-a-half and a nine.”) Memphis Tiger basketball has had as many notorious downs as it has glorious ups. As Penny Hardaway’s fourth season atop the program nears, it sure feels like “ups” are on their way back. But I’m taking one of those deep breaths with the Emoni Bates arrival. Even as I count the days to November 9th.