Tag: football

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

The Game Day Cocktail

Bourbon and Coke (Photo: Jaroslaw Grudzinski | Dreamstime.com)

It’s college football season — whether you are in the Grove, Tiger Lane, or at home — it’s Game Day, and you, gentle reader, need a drink.

Beer is a good go-to for day-drinking because of simple physics: It is relatively low in alcohol and takes up a lot of space, and if you put your cup down to go to the bathroom, you’ve cut your drinking time by a third. Which makes it hard for things to get really out of hand. Still, whether it’s too much gluten or too much “wind,” sometimes only cocktails will do.

The cocktail rules for Game Day are different, and the first is that this is not the time to get too pedantic and start throwing around words like “craft” and “authentic.” With the possible exception of the Grove, if you carry around one of those glass bell jars to smoke your cocktails, you won’t get invited back. You shouldn’t. This is not the time for a cosmo, old-fashioned, or a Sazerac; and unless you plan to wear an actual cheer-squad uniform, do not drink anything called a Dirty Shirley.

Game Day drinks should avoid slicing because in these high-alert days, wielding a knife sends the wrong message to the local security establishment. While it’s not obvious, the drinks should be dark because outside is the one place people are allowed to smoke. I learned this the hard way when I went with a bourbon and branch once, and by third quarter I could see a layer of spent cigarette ash in the bottom of my cup. Which is enough to put anyone back on the wagon.

Of course, drink whatever you want, but football is all about tradition, and nothing says “It’s Game Day under a whiskey blue sky!” like the tried-and-true bourbon and Coke — in a great whacking red Solo cup. Lots of ice and lots of Coke because you’ve got a long stretch of day-drinking ahead of you — even if it’s a night game because you’re still probably going to get started at noon.

A word on your choice of bourbon: There is no need to splash out on the good stuff if you are going to douse it in Coke. If you aren’t drowning your bourbon, there will likely be an awkward hockey-stick in your future where you seem sober enough and then … well … Don’t attempt to maintain that for six hours, 10 if you win, or 14 for a win when your team was supposed to get creamed.

Understand that while all the bourbon on the bottom shelf is cheap, only some of it is rot-gut. The Coke is there for a bit of pep, not to hide you from agonizing reality. Well, actually it does hide the cigarette ash. … At any rate, you can do worse than Very Old Barton, which, believe it or not, is always winning some blind tasting or another. It is good, solid (and evidently award-winning) bourbon that will only set you back about $10. Benchmark, Buffalo Trace’s bottom-shelf entry, is another bourbon that works well as strong Game Day mixer.

Bourbon drinkers have gotten very touchy over the last decade or so but in their defense, bourbon has gotten a lot better, too. Unfortunately, with an uptick in innovation, quality, and choice, you get an uptick in snobbery. We’re all human, aren’t we? If you really can’t stomach the shame of being quite so sensible with your Game Day bourbon, another solid choice is Old Forester’s original expression, at about $20, which is also excellent on the rocks as well.

Obviously, tradition dictates that you mix the concoction with a pom-pom shaker.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Quarterback Quandary

Seth Henigan (Credit: Larry Kuzniewski)

Since Paxton Lynch took over quarterback duty in 2013, the Memphis Tigers have had a remarkably stable stretch at football’s most important position. Lynch didn’t miss a game in three seasons. He was followed by Riley Ferguson, who played in all 26 games over his two seasons (2016-17) as a Tiger. Then Brady White made 39 consecutive starts from 2018 through the 2020 campaign. All of which made last Friday’s contest at UCF … disorienting.

With freshman Seth Henigan sidelined by a right-shoulder injury (suffered in the Tigers’ win over Navy on October 14th), sophomore Peter Parrish took the field to lead the Memphis offense. How disorienting was the Parrish start? Rewind to August, during the Tigers’ preseason camp, and you’d find the LSU transfer fourth on the QB depth chart, behind not only Henigan, but also Arizona transfer Grant Gunnell and redshirt freshman Keilon Brown. Injuries and circumstance (Brown transferred) conspired, leading to a 24-7 loss to the Knights that dropped Memphis to 4-4 on the season.

Parrish had his moments in Orlando. He offered a threat running the ball that Henigan can’t match. He led the Tigers with 60 rushing yards, despite yardage lost on six sacks counting against his total. Parrish completed 31 of 48 passes, but averaged only 4.5 yards per attempt. Most damaging to the Tiger attack, he was unable to find Calvin Austin down field, subtracting one of the country’s most dynamic “chunk play” artists from the Memphis arsenal. (Austin caught seven passes but for only 44 yards.) A pair of second-half deflected interceptions erased chances for the Tigers to reduce their deficit on the scoreboard, or perhaps even steal a win. 

Henigan’s injury is classified as “day-to-day,” and he has two full weeks to heal before the Tigers return to play (November 6th at the Liberty Bowl, against SMU). That throwing shoulder is suddenly the most important joint in the Tiger football program. Memphis fans spent the first half of the season marveling at the future Henigan has as a Tiger signal-caller. Turns out it’s Henigan’s present that is pivotal.

• When watching a football game, our eyes tend to follow the ball. From the snap into the quarterback’s hands, to a running back perhaps, or through the air toward a receiver. Defy this instinct when the Tiger defense is on the field and follow Memphis linebacker J.J. Russell (number 23) and/or safety Quindell Johnson (15). This tandem of tacklers is having an extraordinary season. They each have instincts for ending a play that I’m not convinced can be taught. Russell leads the American Athletic Conference with 86 tackles (53 of them solo) and Johnson is second with 73 (47 solo). They’ll be playing in the NFL in the near future. Keep your eyes on them while you can.

• Memphis is part of an exclusive club, one of only five FBS football programs to have won at least eight games every year since 2014. You’ve hard of the other four: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, and Oklahoma. To make it eight straight seasons, the Tigers must win their final four regular-season games (against SMU, East Carolina, Houston, and Tulane), or win three of them and then win a bowl game. It’s an unlikely scenario for a team that’s lost four of its last five games, but should be prime motivation for a program that feels snubbed by the Big 12’s recent expansion. (The “Power 5” league is absorbing UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston … but not Memphis.) It will be interesting to count the attendance when SMU visits the first week in November, almost precisely two years after the epic Tiger win with ESPN’s GameDay crew in town. What a difference two years can make.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Remembering Danton Barto

Danton Barto (Credit: U of M Athletics)

My memories of Memphis Tiger football in the early 1990s are foggy. (For one thing, it was Memphis State football back then.) But my memories of Danton Barto — both his name and the human being who wore it, along with number 59 for the Tigers — remain distinct. Playing for teams that won games with defense, Barto was the Tiger defense from 1990 to ’93.

I arrived in Memphis in the summer of 1991. I didn’t attend a lot of Tiger football games my first three years in the Mid-South, let alone report on them. But the handful of games I saw at the Liberty Bowl featured a consistent image, that of a hyperactive, if undersized, linebacker making tackles from sideline to sideline in hopes of keeping his team in a position to win. These were not great Memphis teams. The Tigers went 5-6 in ’91 (Barto led the team with 141 tackles), 6-5 in ’92 (Barto led the team with 127 tackles), and 6-5 in ’93 (Barto led the team with 144 tackles). But they beat Southern Cal (!) and Mississippi State Barto’s sophomore year. They beat Arkansas in both ’92 and ’93, and Mississippi State again Barto’s senior year. They brought smiles to this under-appreciated corner of the college football landscape.

And there was Barto’s name. A linebacker’s name. Say it along with Butkus, Nitschke, Bednarik, and Lambert. Danton Barto was born to be a linebacker, one who left an imprint with his tackles. Somehow, Barto never played in an NFL game. When he remained unsigned in the fall of 1994, I hung up my scout’s hat for good. I’ve since seen vastly inferior players line up behind a defensive line on fall Sundays. At the very least, Barto would have been a special-teams killer in the pro ranks.

Danton Barto died Sunday at the still-young age of 50 from complications of Covid-19. He had not been vaccinated, which will haunt those of us who remember him, and particularly those who knew and loved him. Would a pair of injections have protected Barto from the coronavirus? The likelihood is a resounding yes. The most tragic deaths are those that could be avoided, in Barto’s case with what now amounts to a simple medical decision.

The day will come — and it will be soon — when Danton Barto’s name and the stories associated with him bring smiles again. His impact was too positive, his love and devotion to Memphis (especially its flagship university) too large for the circumstances of his death to linger as a shadow. For now-veteran sportswriters and our ilk, we must “defog” our memories, to Saturday nights when number 59 was the best defensive player on the field at the Liberty Bowl. When Danton Barto’s next hit would be even more ferocious than his last. A man of impact then. A man of impact still.

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From My Seat Sports

Hoop Lockdown and Big Dates

CREDIT: Joe Murphy / Memphis Athletics

Football is a sport designed with lengthy delays, typically six days off for every game day. Basketball is very different, a sport built around rhythm and flow. Ask a hot shooter when he’d like to have a day off and he’ll say when the season’s over. When the Memphis Tigers next take the floor (Wednesday night?), they will have gone almost three weeks (at least) without playing a game that counts. With a 12-6 record (and only three losses in American Athletic Conference competition), Memphis is, by the numbers, in contention to win a league championship and earn an NCAA tournament berth. But what kind of Memphis team will we see after such a lengthy interruption by Covid-19?
Joe Murphy / Memphis Athletics

Alex Lomax

The Tigers won six of their last seven games before the current lockdown, thanks largely to collective shooting improvement. Over one five-game stretch, Memphis shot 49 percent from three-point range and moved to the top of the AAC in the category. Will Landers Nolley, Lester Quinones, and friends be on target when the season resumes?

Alex Lomax was playing the best basketball of his three-year college career before the lockdown. The pride of East High did his best Antonio Anderson impression in the Tigers’ last game, a win over East Carolina: 10 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals. Will Lomax be a difference-maker when the Tigers return to play?

The AAC tournament is scheduled for March 11th-14th in Fort Worth. That’s less than three weeks. With four games remaining on the Tiger schedule, how many of the four games postponed this month (so far) can be played? Among those games: two against Houston and one against Wichita State, the teams Memphis must leap to win the conference title. (One of the Houston games and the Shockers contest are among the postponements.) And if the Tigers only complete a partial schedule, what will that mean for seeding at the AAC tourney? What will it mean for at-large consideration for the NCAA tournament? We’re still living in a pandemic. There are more questions than answers, naturally.

• A distinct ray of sunshine during last week’s historic deep freeze was the Memphis Redbirds’ 2021 schedule release. Even the idea of a baseball game at AutoZone Park — Opening Day April 6th! — feels like a shortening not only of winter, but the pandemic (which cost the Redbirds their entire 2020 season). The Pacific Coast League is a thing of the past. Memphis will now compete in the Triple-A Southeast Division. Instead of traveling as far as Tacoma, Reno, and Albuquerque to play, the Redbirds will compete with teams from Louisville, Jacksonville, and Gwinnett (the Atlanta Braves’ Triple-A affiliate), cities we can call regional rivals, at least with a wink.

Those into pop culture will welcome visits to AutoZone Park by the Durham Bulls (for whom Crash Davis starred) and Toledo Mud Hens (adored by Corporal Klinger from MASH). There was a time when Memphis-Louisville was Ali-Frazier in college basketball. Now, the Redbirds will play several games against the city the franchise called home before moving to Memphis in 1998. And hey, Bats and Redbirds are natural enemies, aren’t they?

• The Memphis Tigers last played Mississippi State on the gridiron in 2011. Justin Fuente’s name was not on the minds of Tiger fans ten years ago, much less Mike Norvell’s. It’s been two legitimate “eras” since the Bullies came to town. The drought ends September 18th. The Tigers will likely carry a 16-game home winning streak into the showdown with SEC competition. (Memphis opens its season two weeks earlier by hosting Nicholls State.) Let’s hope, here in February — still winter, still pandemic conditions — that the Tigers and Bulldogs clash in a packed Liberty Bowl. In many ways, that would be a larger victory than anything Memphis fans might see on the scoreboard. 

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Joe Murphy

• The Memphis Tigers need to win a bowl game, and the Montgomery Bowl will have to do. The Tigers finished 2019 by playing in the 84th Cotton Bowl, one of college football’s prestigious “New Year’s Six” events, an unprecedented stage for the Memphis program (and Ryan Silverfield’s debut as head coach). Almost precisely a year later, they’ll finish 2020 in the very first — and maybe last — Montgomery Bowl, an event replacing something called the Fenway Bowl for reasons to do with the ongoing pandemic. After facing one of the sport’s blue bloods (Penn State) in last year’s Cotton Bowl, Memphis will oppose a team whose initials — FAU — roll off the tongue of only the most devoted college football fans. (Florida Atlantic University finished second in the East Division of Conference USA, the Tigers’ old stomping grounds.)
Joe Murphy

Ryan Silverfield and Brady White embrace on Senior Day.

But the site and opponent really don’t matter. As well as the Tigers have played over the last seven seasons, they are riding a five-game losing streak in bowl games. They’ve come close, losing by a point (to Iowa State) in the 2017 Liberty Bowl and by three points (to Wake Forest) in the 2018 Birmingham Bowl. Two Tigers (Anthony Miller and Darrell Henderson) have reached All-America status without enjoying a bowl-game victory. It would be nice to see record-setting quarterback Brady White throw a 90th career touchdown pass (he needs three) and finish his career with a big, shiny trophy. Even if it’s a trophy no team will ever raise again.


• Over the first century of Memphis Tiger football, exactly one receiver topped 1,000 yards in a season (Isaac Bruce in 1993). A Memphis receiver has now topped 1,000 yards in each of the last five seasons. And junior speed demon Calvin Austin III did so this fall in just 10 games. It’s not such a surprise when you consider the philosophy transformation that arrived with coach Justin Fuente in 2012. Recruit with speed a priority. Create space with beyond-conventional play-calling. Find quarterbacks unafraid of throwing the ball down field. It makes for exciting Saturdays, gets Memphis on national highlight shows, and attracts precisely the kind of players who want to play fast and deep. (They all do.) The Tigers have a program-record seven straight winning seasons. Again, not such a surprise.

• It’s staggering to consider the directions Memphis and Tennessee have taken since the programs last played. Three years after Memphis played on home turf in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the Tennessee Volunteers — owners of a 3-7 record — will appear in the event for the first time since 1986. The Tigers and Vols last met in 2010, a 50-14 victory for UT at the Liberty Bowl. Memphis has still won only one game (out of 23) against the state’s most decorated program. But check out the win totals over the last seven years for Tennessee: 7, 9, 9, 4, 5, 8, 3. And the Memphis win totals over the same period: 10, 9, 8, 10, 8, 12, 7. If football in the state of Tennessee were a see-saw, it has swung left (west) with a thud. And it’s not budging. The Vols are not on a future Memphis schedule, meaning the current drought between meetings — the longest since the programs first met in 1969 — will continue. And this is a shame for football in the Mid-South. That 1996 upset of Peyton Manning and friends lives on in the memory of Tiger fans. It would be nice to see these programs play with Memphis as the favorite.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tennessee announced Monday afternoon that it will not play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl due to Covid-positive tests within the program.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Tyler Kaufman

• Jackie Smith was a Hall of Fame tight end with the St. Louis Cardinals. Over 16 NFL seasons, he caught 480 passes and was named All-Pro five times. But it was a pass Smith dropped at the end of his one season with the Dallas Cowboys — in the end zone, late in Super Bowl XIII — that sportswriters tend to bring up four decades later. It’s unfair, but such is the weight of playmakers in the sport of football.
Tyler Kaufman

Calvin Austin in full flight.


Junior receiver Calvin Austin III is the most dangerous weapon currently deployed by the Memphis Tigers. The speed demon from Harding Academy is 49 yards from 1,000 for the season (he’s averaged more than 100 per game). He leads the Tigers with nine touchdowns, his latest coming on a 59-yard pass from Brady White in the first quarter of last Saturday’s game at Tulane. But alas, Austin dropped a pair of passes that would have been touchdowns, deflating drives that, had they produced 14 more points, would have changed a game the Tigers lost by precisely that total. Memphis wouldn’t be 6-3 without Austin, but they might be 7-2 had his hands been a little stickier in New Orleans. It’s an unfair assessment. Individuals don’t lose games; teams lose games. But such is the weight of playmakers in the sport of football. Look for Austin to take a star turn this Saturday against Houston.

• The recent revolution in Tiger football was led by coaches Justin Fuente and Mike Norvell. Each departed after four seasons for the greener pastures of the Atlantic Coast Conference. How are things at Virginia Tech and Florida State? The Hokies are 4-6, not the kind of mark envisioned for year five of the Fuente era, particularly after Virginia Tech went 10-4 and played for the ACC championship upon the coach’s arrival in 2016. (The Hokies are 37-26 since Fuente took over.)

As for Florida State, it’s uglier. The Seminoles are 2-6 and will suffer a third straight losing season (their first under Norvell’s watch). The program is essentially the inverse of Memphis, once so mighty a 10-win season was the starting point for discussions of championship dreams. Now Florida State is staring up at North Carolina State and Wake Forest in its division of the ACC. Deep breaths, Coach Norvell.

Fuente and Norvell will forever be heroes in these parts. And they’re in a different tax bracket, having taken jobs at “Power Five” schools with much larger recruiting tools with which to play. But I wonder if either has been as happy as we saw them when they each raised a trophy at the Liberty Bowl to celebrate an American Athletic Conference title. Sports are funny that way. Happiness and success don’t necessarily go hand in hand.

• Since joining the AAC in 2013, the Tigers have only had one defensive back earn first-team all-conference honors (Bobby McCain in 2014). Look for Quindell Johnson to make it two this season. The sophomore safety intercepted a pass and forced a fumble for the second straight game at Tulane. He leads the Tigers with 50 solo tackles (fourth in the AAC and 12 more than any of his teammates). He’s a game-changer, the kind of player on the defensive side of the ball who elevates the heart rate of opponents and captures the eye of NFL scouts. Just ask McCain, currently starting at safety in his sixth season with the Miami Dolphins.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Carolyn Andros

• The Memphis defense can win a game. You have to go back a quarter-century — October 28, 1995 — to find a game the Tigers won without scoring more than 10 points as they did last Saturday at Navy. In Rip Scherer’s first season as coach at the U of M, the Tigers edged Tulsa, 10-7, at the Liberty Bowl. The win improved that team to only 3-5, though, and it would not win another game that year.
Carolyn Andros

The 2020 Tigers are not Rip Scherer’s defense. Even after shutting down Navy, Memphis ranks 106th in the country (out of 127 teams), allowing 457 yards per game. But Saturday night in Annapolis, that defense rose when it had to, in particular sophomore safety Quindell Johnson. The New Orleans native delivered a fumble-causing hit behind the Navy line of scrimmage on fourth down to end one second-quarter drive with the game tied at 7. Then on the next Midshipman drive, Johnson stepped in front of a Tyger Goslin pass for an interception with Navy already in field-goal range. Rare is the defensive playmaker in modern college football. But Johnson, Morris Joseph (two tackles for loss), and Sanchez Blake (forced a Navy fumble) made key plays last weekend to earn Memphis a third straight victory.

“It isn’t easy coming to Navy’s home field and beating them,” said Johnson after the win. “We all had fun, flying around, just playing together, communicating. We lead as a defense when we play like that.”


• Seven is a lucky number . . . and well earned. Should the Tigers beat Tulane this weekend, it will mark seven straight seasons with at least seven wins for the Memphis program. It would extend an already unprecedented stretch, as the longest streak of seven-win seasons before the current one was four years (from 1960 to ’63 and 1973 to ’76). Better yet, two more wins would make it seven seasons in a row with eight victories for the Tigers. (If COVID testing allows, the Tigers should play three more games, including a bowl contest.) The University of Memphis has a history with more valleys than peaks, but we are witnessing a golden era, one that now stretches across three head-coaching administrations. Fans tend to get lost either in the past or with what’s to come (recruiting is everything, remember). If you wear blue and gray in these parts, you’d do well to pause, raise a glass, and salute the now of Memphis Tiger football.

• Ten thousand is a big number . . . also well earned. With 88 passing yards at Tulane, Brady White will become only the second Memphis quarterback to top 10,000 yards for his career. (Danny Wimprine’s record is 10,215.) White’s 2,602 yards this season are eighth in the country and his 24 touchdown passes this year are tied for fourth. The superlatives will keep coming a few more weeks for the Ph.D. candidate, now with a record 26 wins to his credit as Tiger quarterback. It will be interesting to see how NFL  scouts view White’s credentials. His two predecessors — Paxton Lynch and Riley Ferguson — also put up big numbers, but fell short of signal-calling duty on Sundays, even with Lynch having been drafted (by Denver) in the first round. White is blessed with physical tools, but not the size or arm strength of most men you see winning Super Bowls. He’s also skilled between the ears and, simply put, knows how to win. Here’s hoping he gets the chance to compete for an NFL job in 2021. He won’t be intimidated by the challenge.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Joe Murphy/Memphis Athletics

• Ryan Silverfield is a balanced coach. It should be no surprise that the Memphis offense is putting up 40 points regularly, even in this disjointed season, under a new head coach. Silverfield served as Mike Norvell’s right hand for four seasons, so no man on the planet knows more about what’s worked at Memphis than the rookie now calling the shots. Particularly with a familiar quarterback (Brady White) climbing the program’s passing charts, Silverfield’s prime task has been to maximize his “skill position” players across the depth chart. Through four games, Memphis has run the ball 172 times and passed 164. The only game with a discrepancy of more than five between run and pass plays was the season-opening blowout of Arkansas State (48 runs, 36 passes).

Offensive coordinator Kevin Johns is in a luxurious position, knowing his team can attack both on the ground and through the air. Would departed tailback Kenneth Gainwell have rushed for 650 yards through four games? Perhaps. But Dreke Clark and Kylan Watkins have combined for that total, each averaging more than five yards per carry. More than enough to balance the Tigers’ passing attack, which brings me to my second thought.
Joe Murphy/Memphis Athletics

Tahj Washington

• Damonte who? In pure “next man up” fashion, Memphis claims one of the finest pass-catching trios in the country. I was convinced the Tiger offense would suffer when senior Damonte Coxie announced before the UCF game that he was stepping aside to prepare for the NFL draft. That’s because I hadn’t seen Calvin Austin’s speed split a secondary, or Tahj Washington’s hands in traffic. I wasn’t sure tight end Sean Dykes could be a weekly threat. Well, Austin has topped 150 yards receiving in each of the last two games and is on pace for a 1,000-yard season (424 through four games). Washington is averaging 15.1 yards per catch and stands the most to gain from Coxie’s departure. And Dykes is second on the team with four touchdowns despite only one reception in the win over Temple.

For the Tigers to have so many skilled receivers within target range of a veteran quarterback, all they really need is some time in the pocket for White, and smart decisions by White to avoid turnovers. If the above-mentioned run-pass balance can be retained, gaps down field will be exploited by the Tiger passing game. And one glaring absence on the roster won’t be nearly as glaring.

• When the Tigers take the field at 7th-ranked Cincinnati, they’ll be seeking only the fourth upset of a Top-10 team in the history of the program. Memphis fans of a certain age vividly remember the stunning win over 6th-ranked Tennessee (quarterbacked by Peyton Manning) at the Liberty Bowl in 1996. The Tigers knocked off 7th-ranked Auburn in 1975 and 10th-ranked Mississippi State in 1965. And that’s it. Memphis has played 30 other games against Top-10 opponents and the best the Tigers can claim are ties against 2nd-ranked Ole Miss (a 0-0 affair in 1963) and 6th-ranked Florida State (in 1984). Saturday’s game will be only the Tigers’ seventh against a Top-10 team since the upset of UT 24 years ago, and only the second such program they’ll face from the American Athletic Conference (the Tigers fell twice against UCF in 2018). History is there to be made, against a team Memphis beat twice a year ago (including the AAC championship game at the Liberty Bowl). Better yet, the Bearcats and Tigers go back well before the formation of the AAC, having played 36 times since first meeting in 1966. (Memphis leads the series, 23-13.) Halloween is gonna be some scary fun for a pair of teams still in the running for a conference title.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Memphis Tiger Football

CREDIT: George Walker/University of Memphis

• When Memphis takes the field this Saturday at the Liberty Bowl, the Tigers will have played one football game in six weeks. The program hasn’t had a “season” as much as a pair of one-off teasers to open the months of September (a win over Arkansas State) and October (a loss at SMU). Few sports are structured more rhythmically than football, with each day of “Game Week” devoted to different components of preparation, be it film review, injury treatment, or the institution of a game plan. With the exception of injury treatment — a single game in six weeks does wonders for sprains, bruises, and such — the Tigers will play what amounts to a third opening game of their 2020 season when UCF comes to town.
George Walker/University of Memphis

Dreke Clark

But the fun starts Saturday. At least if Memphis and eight other programs can keep the coronavirus outside the room. The Tigers will play eight games in eight weeks, all conference affairs with the exception of Stephen F. Austin on November 21st (an FCS opponent that replaced UT-Martin on the schedule). Three of the next four will be at the Liberty Bowl (the only road game being at Cincinnati on Halloween). With more fans gradually allowed to attend games (12,500 are expected this Saturday), that feel for football season may finally arrive in the Mid-South. Just mask up and keep your distance till game day, fellas. After all, teams face two opponents every week in 2020.

• Memphis has to get over the UCF hump. The Tigers have played the Knights 13 times since 2005, and lost 13 times. They’ve faced UCF in the American Athletic Conference championship game twice, and lost both times. Memphis has lost to UCF in one-win seasons (2010) and Memphis has lost to UCF in 10-win seasons (twice in 2017). In other words, the Tiger program has reached new heights over the last decade . . . but still has a daddy.

Josh Heupel’s team will visit Memphis already saddled with a league loss (to Tulsa), so the game has enormous implications as teams jockey for the top two spots in the AAC (no divisions this year to determine combatants for the championship game). The Knights scored 49 points in a win over Georgia Tech and 51 in beating East Carolina. (The Golden Hurricane held them to 26, and in Orlando.) McKenzie Milton may not be quarterbacking the UCF attack (sophomore Dillon Gabriel is now behind center), but the Tiger defense will be tasked with forcing just enough punts or turnovers for the Memphis offense to outscore this longtime nemesis. Even in an abbreviated, interrupted season, a Tiger victory this weekend would be historic.

• Everywhere you look on NFL Sundays, you see Memphis Tigers. There’s no greater validation for the rise of the Tiger program than to see former stars in blue-and-gray now making an impact with “the shield” on their jerseys. Anthony Miller is catching passes for the Chicago Bears while Antonio Gibson is scoring touchdowns for Washington’s team. Bobby McCain is starting at safety in his sixth season with the Miami Dolphins while Chris Claybrooks is finding his way onto the field as a rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tony Pollard is returning kicks and taking handoffs for the Dallas Cowboys while Dontari Poe plays defensive tackle in Big D. Darrell Henderson leads the L.A. Rams with 260 rushing yards while Jake Elliott (Philadelphia Eagles) and Stephen Gostkowski (Tennessee Titans) have each won Super Bowls kicking field goals, the latter now 12th on the NFL’s all-time scoring chart. Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football, and top recruits have their sights set on playing beyond their college years. Memphis has developed an NFL highlight reel few programs outside the “Power Five” can offer these days. Bodes well for both future Saturdays and Sundays in Tiger Nation.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Memphis Tiger Football

CREDIT: Joe Murphy

• No Norvell, No Gainwell, No Crowd . . . No Problem.

The Memphis Tigers won their season-opener. It’s what they do — seven straight years now, after losing nine consecutive openers from 2005 to 2013. Star tailback Kenneth Gainwell shook up the roster by announcing his opt-out a week before kick-off, so sophomore Rodrigues Clark rushes for 109 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Offensive wizard Mike Norvell departed for Florida State, so Ryan Silverfield takes command of a team that tops 500 yards (yet again), converts nine of 17 third-down snaps and a fourth down via fake punt, defensive lineman Joseph Dorceus (?!?) scampering 25 yards to retain possession . . . with Memphis up 17 points.
Joe Murphy

Rodrigues Clark takes the ball from Brady White.

Oh, and the Tigers’ passing game seems to be in capable hands. Senior Ph.D. candidate Brady White completed 26 of 36 passes and tossed four touchdowns, in so doing becoming only the third Memphis quarterback with 60 touchdown connections. Damonte Coxie caught eight passes for 90 yards (ho-hum), but tight end Sean Dykes did his best Travis Kelce impression, hauling in 10 passes for 137 yards and a pair of scores. It all felt normal, formulaic even. A primetime win on national TV for the University of Memphis? We’ve been here before.

• Pandemic football stinks . . . but it’s the best we’ve got.

Football was made for television. From the dimensions of the field to the contrast and collision of uniform colors, the sport provides an aesthetic — if such can exist in a game so violent — unlike any other. But there’s a sadness to football in 2020, starting with the virtually empty parking lots as kickoff nears. And no sound system can replicate the noise of a crowd (even as “small” as 20,000) celebrating a big touchdown. The pandemic conditions are especially cruel for the Memphis program, which has seen nights when fewer than 10,000 people chose to attend a game. (The Larry Porter jokes were flying over social media last Saturday night.) Here’s hoping college football finds ways to safely and gradually welcome more fans to stadiums across the country. Seems like a long shot, and against the grain in a world where college students are studying as much from dorm rooms as lecture halls. But let’s hang on to hope. In the year we’ll remember as 2020, it’s the best and only approach.

• Arkansas State felt right . . . but the Tiger program can do better.

Not that long ago, it seemed like former Memphis coach Justin Fuente and I were the only men in town not interested in seeing an SEC program on the Tigers’ schedule. (The year was 2013.) It was nice to see the Red Wolves (merely a Sun Belt foe) back in town for the first time in seven years, but Tiger athletic director Laird Veatch should aim higher, and ambitiously. It’s a crime against Mid-South football culture that the Tigers haven’t played the Arkansas Razorbacks in 22 years. The programs will meet again, but not until we have a new U.S. president (one way or another), in the year 2025. Mississippi State will visit the Liberty Bowl next year, but Ole Miss has fallen off future Tiger schedules and Memphis hasn’t faced Tennessee in a decade. (Imagine what the Memphis winning streak might be against the Vols.) One of these four programs should meet Memphis every season. Could be an eight-year rotation (home and away for each). The marquee home game on this year’s Tiger schedule is UCF (October 17th), a legitimate conference rival for Memphis. But the kind of game that could fill the Liberty Bowl to capacity (remember those days)? Hardly.