Tag: DeAngelo Williams

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From My Seat Sports

Memphis Athlete of the Decade

CREDIT: Larr Kuzniewski

There was a time, not long ago, when naming a Memphis “Athlete of the Decade” was a one-stop shop. Pick the best Memphis State basketball player, and you had your man. In the 1970s it was Larry Finch. The 1980s had Keith Lee. Penny Hardaway dominated the 1990s, first as a Tiger All-American then later as an NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist.

It’s not so easy anymore. The Memphis sports landscape has gained new “scenery” since the turn of the century — including our own NBA franchise, and not just an AAA baseball team, but a soccer team, too, calling AutoZone Park home. The Memphis “AOD” for the century’s first decade was indeed a Memphis Tiger, but he wore a football helmet and shoulder pads — DeAngelo Williams setting rushing (and scoring) records on the gridiron that may never be broken.
Larr Kuzniewski

Marc Gasol

In choosing this decade’s finest Memphis athlete, though, we find ourselves in a barstool debate involving four beloved stars who — together — made the Grizzlies indeed our NBA team. First, the runners-up:

• The Griz revolution began when Mike Conley was drafted by Memphis with the fourth pick in the 2007 NBA draft. Considered undersized by some at the time, Conley played a gigantic role in 12 years as a point guard with more heart than his frame would seem to contain. He helped the Grizzlies beat the mighty Golden State Warriors twice in the 2015 playoffs after breaking his face in the previous round. It’ll be a while before his franchise records for games (788) and points (11,733) are broken.

• Zach Randolph arrived in 2009 with a checkered past, a reputation for causing as many problems off the court as he might solve on it. In eight seasons with the Grizzlies, “Z-Bo” became pure Memphis. A two-time All-Star, Randolph was the first Grizzly to earn All-NBA recognition (third-team in 2011).

• Was there “Grit-and-Grind” before Tony Allen? It may have existed in some metaphysical form, but Mr. “First-Team All-Defense” spelled it out for Memphis and the NBA community at large. He played seven seasons with the Grizzlies and it’s no coincidence the team reached the playoffs all seven.

Marc Gasol is the Memphis Athlete of the Decade. Acquired in a 2008 trade that sent his older brother, Pau, to the Los Angeles Lakers, Gasol transformed himself from a pudgy “little brother” stretching a uniform during his high school days at Lausanne to the 2013 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. (When Gasol jumped for the opening tip at the 2015 All-Star Game — he’s the only Grizzly to start in the event — he did so against Pau.) More than any of his “Fab Four” mates, Gasol embodied the city he represented for almost 11 full seasons, a player who found greatness more with effort and resolve than natural-born gifts.

In 2015, Gasol became the first Grizzly to earn first-team All-NBA honors and also graced the cover of Memphis magazine in December as Memphian of the Year. He described for writer Kevin Lipe a distinctive synergy he felt with the city: “If you give all you have, Memphis will take care of you. The fans will appreciate that. They don’t get blinded by the flashes and the drama and what not. They appreciate hard work, and dedication, and that’s what they want. They want you to be fighting. That’s what they like. So I respect that.”

A fractured right foot cost Gasol much of the 2015-16 regular season and the entire postseason, all but eliminating any chances the Grizzlies had of closing the gap on Golden State in the Western Conference. But he returned the following season, averaged a career-high 19.5 points and played in his third All-Star Game. And by that most workmanlike of basketball statistics — rebounds — Gasol is tops in Grizzlies history (5,942).

Ironically, the Memphis Athlete of the Decade finishes the 2010s in the uniform of the Toronto Raptors. The Grizzlies dealt the 34-year-old center north of the border last February in a move that signaled transition for one franchise while completing what would become a championship roster for another. Gasol’s greatest professional dream may have been realized in Canada, but the man remains forever Memphian, right down to his championship hardware. Engraved on the lavish ring he now owns as an NBA champion: “GRIT&GRIND.”

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

• Since the Tigers’ remarkable win at Houston on October 19th (their sixth victory of the season), not a single person has spoken the words “bowl eligibility” to me. Remember when simply becoming eligible for one of more than 30 bowl games was a big deal for the Memphis program? When you go three decades without playing a postseason game (as Memphis did from 1972 to 2002), qualifying for an extra game in December is indeed a big deal.

Those days are gone. The Tigers will play in a bowl game for a fourth straight season, an unprecedented stretch for the program. We’ve reached the point where the strength of a bowl game matters to Memphis, and the 2017 Tigers have the chance to play on or near New Year’s Day, one sacred “Group of Five” slot open in the still-new format that sends 12 teams to “New Year’s Six” bowl games (including four to the national semifinals). The very idea of Memphis being discussed for such elite placement — here in late October — is a cultural shift that would have been impossible to envision as recently as 2011. Better yet, the Tigers control their positioning (at least until selection of the “Group of Five” representative). Win their remaining four games and Memphis plays for the American Athletic Conference championship. Win the AAC title and “bowl eligibility” will seem as distant a notion as the T formation.
Larry Kuzniewski

Tony Pollard

• If you can turn away from the heroics of Anthony Miller, Riley Ferguson, and Tony Pollard (five kickoff-return touchdowns in two seasons) just briefly, the play of Austin Hall and T.J. Carter on the Tiger defense has transformed this team. During one of the first visits I had with Memphis coach Mike Norvell, he emphasized that playmakers must be found on the defensive side of the ball. A potent offense is invaluable, but defensive playmakers can turn a tight game. That’s precisely what we saw on October 14th, when two Hall interceptions were integral in a three-point win over Navy. Then five days later, Carter grabbed his fourth interception of the season, forced a fumble, and accumulated 14 tackles in a four-point win at Houston. To no one’s surprise, Hall and Carter were each named the AAC’s Defensive Player of the Week. The Tiger defense has room to improve, starting with its pass rush. But with Hall (a sophomore) and Carter (a freshman) in the secondary, holes are going to be filled and mistakes (by opposing offenses) punished. Lots to like in this playmaking pair.

• Through four games of its seven-game home schedule, the Tigers have averaged 34,579 fans at the Liberty Bowl. This is a deceiving average, as only 10,263 tickets were sold for the season-opener against Louisiana-Monroe, a game played in near-hurricane conditions. Memphis has drawn more than 40,000 for its last three games (UCLA, Southern Illinois, and Navy). It will be interesting to see the turnout for the three remaining home games: Tulane (Friday), SMU (November 18th), and East Carolina (November 25th). These aren’t the kind of opponents that typically drive ticket sales, but the circumstances (as noted above) are unique this year. Every game the Tigers win makes the next one more significant. Memphis will surely average more than 30,000 fans a fourth straight year, a streak last seen from 2003 to 2006 (three of those “DeAngelo Years”). The question, really, is can the average climb to 40,000? It’s happened only four times in Liberty Bowl history: 1976, 2003, 2004, and 2015.

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Sports Tiger Blue

ThreeThoughts on Tiger Football

• Navy ruined our chance to see a battle of unbeaten Top-20 teams this Saturday in Houston. Even so, the Memphis-Houston game is the biggest clash in the three-year history of the American Athletic Conference. It will be the first time a pair of AAC teams ranked in the Top 25 face each other on the gridiron. It will also be a showdown between the top two offensive players in the league (at least as measured by total offense). The 25th-ranked Tigers are led by quarterback Paxton Lynch (356.2 total yards per game) while the 16th-ranked Cougars have Greg Ward Jr. under center (327.2). Ward has a decent chance to finish the season with 3,000 yards passing (he currently has 2,116) and 1,000 yards rushing (829), meaning Saturday’s game could weigh heavily in the AAC Offensive Player of the Year race. Two ranked teams — combined record of 17-1 — playing in cities that each have NBA teams in the Southwest Division, led by star quarterbacks and two of college football’s hottest coaching commodities (the Tigers’ Justin Fuente and the Cougars’ Tom Herman). This is about as good as November football gets.

• The late, great Dennis Freehand had an opinion about the start of college basketball season, as it relates to college football. The former Flyer editor felt the two enterprises damage one another by overlapping in November. Why not start the college hoops season after college football’s regular season is complete? Come Saturday night, there will be a lot of Tiger fans — those devoted to football and men’s basketball, at least — who will agree with my longtime colleague’s sentiment. With the nationally televised Memphis-Houston game kicking off at 6 p.m. and the Tigers and Southern Miss tipping off the 2015-16 basketball season at 7 p.m., there will be empty seats at FedExForum that would otherwise have been occupied. (My duties as a reporter will have me at FEF for the basketball game, though I will miss some action with glances for updates from Houston.) This will be the first time since 2003 that the Tiger basketball team’s home opener coincides with a Tiger football game. Twelve years ago, the football team beat Cincinnati at the Liberty Bowl to improve to 8-3 while the basketball bunch beat Fordham by 30 points.

• The Tigers are making significant renovations to the football record book. Last week against Navy, the Tigers became the third team in program history to score 400 points in a season (last year’s team was the second). With his first-quarter touchdown strike to Anthony Miller, Paxton Lynch became the second Memphis quarterback to throw 50 career touchdown passes (Danny Wimprine threw for 81 over his four seasons with the U of M). This Saturday in Houston, another pair of significant marks could be met. Lynch will break the single-season passing yardage record (3,220 by Martin Hankins in 2007) with 207 yards against Houston. And if he scores 11 points, kicker Jake Elliott will become the third Tiger to score 300 career points (after Stephen Gostkowski and DeAngelo Williams).

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: U of M Athletics

• The University of Memphis lost a certifiable legend with the passing of John Bramlett last week. “The Bull” starred as a Tiger on both the gridiron and baseball diamond, building a reputation somehow tougher than the nickname he carried his entire adult life.

With Bramlett’s death, there are only two living members of an exclusive club of six: Tiger football players to have their jerseys retired. Gone before Bramlett were Charles Greenhill (who died in the 1983 plane crash that killed Memphis coach Rex Dockery), Dave Casinelli (killed in a car wreck in 1987), and Harry Schuh, who died in 2013, two years after his jersey was retired. The U of M program is long overdue for actually displaying the names and numbers of these honored greats at the Liberty Bowl. (There’s a handsome wall display at the practice facility on the south campus, but it’s seen only by members of the program, insiders, and wandering media types.) The city of Memphis owns the Liberty Bowl, but the U of M can display banners on game day as it chooses. The Tigers have rightfully honored six great players, including Pro Football Hall of Fame candidate Isaac Bruce and current Carolina Panther DeAngelo Williams. Let’s see their names and numbers prominently displayed at the stadium their alma mater calls home.

John Bramlett

• Speaking of retired jerseys, the next Tiger to be honored should be former quarterback Danny Wimprine. The Louisiana native passed for 4,445 more yards than any other Memphis quarterback (10,215), and tossed 81 touchdown passes (second on the list is Martin Hankins with 43). We need to start tracking Paxton Lynch’s numbers relative to Wimprine’s. If Lynch stays healthy and plays four seasons, he’ll be the first Tiger quarterback to threaten Wimprine’s records. Through his sophomore season (2002), Wimprine had thrown for 4,149 yards and 37 touchdowns. Seven games into his sophomore campaign, Lynch’s numbers are 3,764 and 19.

• This may be the only time all season you read “American Athletic Conference” and “Power Five” in the same sentence. Because the American is woefully weak at the bottom of the league standings, the polar opposite of anything resembling the likes of the Big Ten, ACC, or, gulp, SEC. You might say, actually, the American includes a “Sour Five,” four of whom play the Memphis Tigers over the next five weeks. (Memphis handled the fifth member of this ignominious group — SMU — last Saturday.) Check out the rankings of the Sour Five in scoring among the 128 FBS teams: 97 (Tulsa, this week’s opponent), 108 (USF), 119 (Tulane), 127 (UConn), and 128 (SMU). At 4-3, Memphis could enjoy its longest stretch of success since winning five of six games to finish the 2007 regular season. (SMU and Tulane were among the victims seven years ago.) Tulsa, it should be noted, is 122nd in points allowed (40.7 per game). Needless to say, a loss to any team not named Temple will leave a sour taste.

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From My Seat Sports

Memphis Stars: Penny, DeAngelo, and … Christabel?

I’ve called Memphis home for 22 years now, so I’ve seen my share of University of Memphis athletes, from lithe (volleyball players at Elma Roane Fieldhouse) to large (football players at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium). Among the hundreds of student-athletes I’ve seen play live, exactly three seemed to be playing a game unfamiliar to their teammates and opponents — a level above you might say. The first was Penny Hardaway, the All-America basketball player who electrified fans at The Pyramid from 1991 to 1993. The second was DeAngelo Williams, the All-America tailback who became the fourth Division I college football player to rush for 6,000 yards during his days as a Tiger (2002-05).

Christabel Oduro (facing camera)

My third stop-what-you’re-doing-and-watch Tiger athlete can still be seen (four more home games) at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex. She’s the remarkable Christabel Oduro.

First, the numbers. Having scored 39 career goals, Oduro is four shy of Kylie Hayes’s Tiger record of 43. Oduro’s 100 career points has her within two of Hayes’s record (a soccer player earns two points for a goal, one for an assist). She scored 16 goals as a sophomore for the best team Memphis has yet put together, a club that went 22-1-1 and didn’t lose until the second round of the NCAA tournament. Oduro was named Conference USA’s Offensive Player of the Year in both 2011 and 2012, the Memphis program’s last two seasons in the league before moving this year to the American Athletic Conference. And the best Oduro numbers of all? The Tigers are 54-17-5 since she first took the field for the U of M. Her ink in the Memphis record book is quite permanent.

But the numbers merely suggest the impression Oduro makes on the soccer pitch. “She’s made a tremendous impact on this program,” says Tiger coach Brooks Monaghan. “She’s a player with special traits, extremely athletic and quick. Christabel has grown not only as a player, but also as a person. She’s a game-changer. At any time, she can score. She can create changes on her own. Her ability to beat players one-on-one, and her finishing has improved over time. We like her to play wide, to isolate herself. She’s realized that playing her position the right way creates more opportunities.”

Oduro has played college soccer a long way from home, having grown up in Brampton, Ontario (west of Toronto). She was a four-sport athlete in high school, also playing basketball (point guard), volleyball, and running cross-country at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School. But don’t think soccer — or any of the other high school sports — were at the top of her childhood list. “I didn’t actually like soccer, initially,” she says with a smile. “Thought it was kind of lame. I wanted to play hockey, like all the little kids in Canada. But my parents said it was way too expensive. My older brother played soccer, so they put me in a program [at age 7]. I was terrible. The next year, I moved to outdoor soccer and something clicked. I loved the game.”

Oduro has had a scorer’s finishing touch as long as she can remember, but recognized in high school that she had to move to the U.S. if she wanted to take significant strides as a player. As for her decision to come to Memphis, it came down to her recruiter and a style of play. “I wanted a scholarship,” she notes, “to get school paid for. Coach [Monaghan] recruited me late, but the style of play really got me. It was possession-based, fun to watch. I thought it was a team I could possibly make better by the time I leave. At the end of the day, that’s what I want to be known for.”

Known casually as “Dro” by teammates and friends, Oduro’s stamp on the Memphis soccer program is evident without a score sheet. “She wears her emotions on her sleeve,” says Monaghan, “which can sometimes get you in trouble. She’s the first to challenge a referee. But she’s gotten better with that. Our players feed off her emotion. She’s a winner, extremely competitive. And you need those kind of players on a team.”

Her time in Memphis has flown by, almost as quickly as an Oduro shot from the top of the box. “It’s been a whirlwind,” she says. “I came in, unsure about things, nervous, wanting the seniors to like me. And now … I’m a senior, and I know how the freshmen feel. It can be hard coming in.”

In reflecting on the goals she’s scored, Oduro is fond of one this year against Alabama, where she split a defender’s legs with the ball before hitting the net. But her favorite memory is a larger picture, that of the 2011 season (her sophomore year), where all seemed right with her soccer world. “That was a great group of girls,” she says. “Every game, we came out like, ‘We’re gonna win this.’ If we were down, we fought back. If you have all 11 starters on the same page, you’ll have the synergy for success.”

As for the future, Oduro feels like an NCAA tournament run remains on her path. And she hopes to play in the new National Women’s Soccer League (the 8-team circuit that began play last spring). And then there’s the 2015 Women’s World Cup, to be played in, yes, Canada. Oduro is among a pool of players vying for roster spots on the Canadian national team. “I don’t consider myself a member of the team [yet],” she says. “I get called to camps. But that is my goal.”

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Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: Empty Honors

Here’s a
great mind-bender to play the next time you attend a University of Memphis
football game at the Liberty Bowl. Ask those in your party — or perhaps the
entire seating section — to name the former Tiger players who have had their
numbers retired. And a dish of nachos to the fan who can actually identify the
numbers as well.

U of M
football may not be as tradition-rich as the BCS big boys, but the program has
actually honored four players, three for their exploits on the field and a
fourth as a memorial. But even if you’re a Highland Hundred lifer, in your seat
from kickoff to the final tick of the clock for every Memphis home game, you may
be unaware of these players’ names, much less the numbers they wore as Tigers.
Because, you see, there is no sign, no banner, no plaque, not so much as a
temporary flag displaying the honored names. Has to make you wonder how
“honored” the surviving stars really feel.

Associate athletic director Bob Winn clarifies that the players have had their
jerseys — but not the actual numbers on their jerseys — retired. And the
explanation is perfectly reasonable: with more than 100 players on a college
football roster, a team would simply run out of digits. (This, of course, makes
those nachos so terribly difficult to earn. You may see the “retired number” of
a former star prancing across the goal line for a touchdown.)

When I
asked Winn about the absence of a display — of any sort — at the Liberty Bowl,
he told me I was the first person he can remember even mentioning the perceived
void. “We’ve talked about [putting the numbers up],” said Winn. “We’ve just
never really progressed, and I don’t know why. We’ve discussed a ring of honor,
but just haven’t come up with the appropriate way to do it. It seems like
colleges these days will often honor a [current] player by giving him the number
of a former great, or a special locker, maybe.”

As far
as which players are honored, Winn says the U of M leaves the decision in the
hands of its coaches. Which begs the question: How does a coach in 2007
legitimately consider the impact of a player in, say, 1977? A panel of boosters,
it would seem, might be better equipped — and with longer memories — to define
and recognize a past player’s greatness.

The
city-owned Liberty Bowl has layers of protocol when it comes to decor that the
university wouldn’t have to accommodate if it had complete control of the
facility. (Another arrow in the quiver of the on-campus stadium movement.) But
even with approval needed for any permanent paint display, Winn feels like city
authorities would be receptive if a movement for the display was strong enough
and it didn’t defame the stadium in any way.

“When it
was named Rex Dockery Field,” explains Winn, “there was so much emotion about
Rex being killed in that plane crash, that some of his friends just went
straight to the City Council, and it was done. There was not much of a process.”

Here’s a
cheat sheet for your Tiger Football Legends game:

•
Charles Greenhill, #8 (played for Memphis in 1983) — A defensive back and
former star at Frayser High School, Greenhill was killed in the plane crash that
also killed Tiger coach Rex Dockery on December 12, 1983. He was the first Tiger
to have his jersey retired.

•
Dave Casinelli, #30 (1960-63) — Casinelli was the first Tiger player to rush
for 1,000 yards in a season (1,016 in 1963). He was the program’s career rushing
leader for 41 years and was honored posthumously after being killed in a 1987
car accident.

•
Isaac Bruce, #83 (1992-93) — In 1993, Bruce caught 74 passes for 1,054
yards, records that stand to this day (and really haven’t been challenged). With
more than 900 receptions and over 13,000 yards for the NFL’s St. Louis Rams,
Bruce could become the first former Tiger to reach the Pro Football Hall of
Fame. His jersey was retired in 2003.

•
DeAngelo Williams, #20 (2002-05) — A member of three bowl teams with
Memphis, Williams became only the fourth player in NCAA history to rush for
6,000 yards in his career. He established NCAA records for all-purpose yards
(7,573) and 100-yard rushing games (34). His number was retired in 2006, his
first season as a Carolina Panther.