Tag: Memphis football

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Joe Murphy

• Five minutes into the third quarter of last Saturday’s game at the Liberty Bowl, it appeared stories about the event would focus more on what was missing for Memphis — star receiver Damonte Coxie and a pass defense — than anything the Tigers actually did well on the field. Turns out, we saw the first huge win of the Ryan Silverfield era. In erasing a 35-14 deficit over the game’s final 20 minutes, the Tigers established themselves as legitimate rivals to the UCF Knights (winners of the team’s previous 13 meetings) and kept alive hopes of a fourth straight appearance in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
Joe Murphy

Minus Coxie, Tiger quarterback Brady White merely earned Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week honors by passing for 486 yards and six touchdowns. The Ph.D. candidate made stars of Coxie’s replacements, Calvin Austin hauling in nine passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns, Tahj Washington catching seven passes for 131 yards. With 217 yards on the ground (112 courtesy Dreke Clark), Memphis managed to outscore an opponent the Tiger defense couldn’t contain, that final, misdirected field-goal attempt by UCF’s Daniel Obarski a rare 2020 blessing. An early-season comeback win does wonders for the collective psyche of a football team. When the Tigers find themselves down this Saturday, or the next Saturday, or the one after that … remember the UCF game.

• The Temple game is one best served cold. It’s hard to come up with a “revenge game”  following a 12-2 season like Memphis enjoyed in 2019. But had a late reception by Tiger tight end Joey Magnifico in Philadelphia last year not been ruled incomplete (after a dubious video review), Memphis may have pulled off an undefeated regular season. Instead the Tigers absorbed a two-point loss to the Owls and are now 2-3 against Temple since the programs became AAC rivals in 2013.

It seems silly, this being each team’s third conference game of the season, but it’s essentially a play-in game for the AAC championship. Each team is already saddled with a league loss (Temple fell to Navy), and it’s highly unlikely that a two-loss team will play for the league title. The Owls can light up a scoreboard, but no more so than the UCF Knights. Another winnable home game for Memphis, with the trip to 9th-ranked Cincinnati looming. And yes, the Tigers have the revenge factor. Should be fun.

• The Tigers will miss Damonte Coxie the rest of this season, but his decision to leave the program is understandable. Brady White’s favorite target leaves the program with 185 career receptions (third in Memphis history) and 2,948 yards (also third). No team loses a playmaker like that without feeling some sting. But in the year 2020, fans (and columnists) require a form of empathy when it comes to prominent athletes that hasn’t been called upon before. From major-league stars like Buster Posey to prominent college athletes like Coxie and Kansas running back Pooka Williams, athletes are “opting out” for reasons more personal than even they could have envisioned a year ago. And under pandemic conditions, it’s really not anyone’s business why a person feels called to priorities larger than a playing field.

I haven’t had the chance to visit with Coxie about his decision. I know he and White have a friendship that runs deeper than football, one that will last, hopefully, the rest of their lives. Coxie emphasized, via social media, that he intends to earn his degree at the University of Memphis, not an incidental decision even for a man likely to put away some cash as an NFL receiver. Coxie was part of the greatest season in Tiger history and should be saluted for the impact he made for what is now one of the most prolific offenses in college football. As for the months ahead, in navigating his life with the coronavirus still running rampant, we must wish Coxie and his family all the best. And look forward to the next time we see him on a football field.

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From My Seat Sports

Tigers Tested, Sweet Lou, and the NBA

The coronavirus, college football, and math. You can choose two, but you can’t have all three.

The average reproductive number for coronavirus infection — the number of people a person carrying the virus infects — is between 2 and 3. Some carriers of the virus won’t infect anyone they encounter, but some will infect more than 10. It’s the nastiest “bug” in recent human history, precisely because it’s so easy to share but so hard to detect.

Take this math and apply it to a college football game. Two programs on a field, each with a minimum of 100 people sharing a sideline. The idea of one of those teams playing as many as eight games this fall and keeping that reproductive number at zero is really bad math. It’s ludicrous. The Memphis Tigers and the program’s followers learned this after but one game, their season-opening beating of Arkansas State. With multiple members of the program testing positive for COVID-19 (as announced last Friday), the Tigers’ next game — scheduled for this Friday against Houston at the Liberty Bowl — has been postponed. At least.

So pandemic football comes down to the frequency of COVID tests within each program, and how those tests are reported. Were Tiger players and staff infected with the virus during their game against the Red Wolves (six days before the positives were announced)? Arkansas State played its game at Kansas State last Saturday, but several players on the depth chart were sidelined. And there was plenty of finger-pointing — toward the A-State program — over social media throughout the weekend. It stands to reason, if I understand contact tracing, that if one team had infected players during a football game, the opposing roster would be compromised (as potential carriers) a week later. It’s ugly math if you’re a football fan. And no game on your favorite schedule should be written in ink.

• For the third time in eight seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals are wearing a patch commemorating the life of a legendary player, one whose statue stands in front of Busch Stadium. The greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan Musial, died in 2013. Five years later, Red Schoendienst joined his former roommate in that great clubhouse in the sky. Then on September 6th, Lou Brock passed away at age 81. It seems especially cruel that a man whose number 20 has been retired by the Cardinals for more than 40 years was taken from us in the already-plenty-dreadful year 2020.

Brock’s 3,000th hit (in August 1979) is my earliest distinct memory of the Cardinals. I got the chance to meet Mr. Brock twice — once at Tim McCarver Stadium and once at AutoZone Park — and both times he treated me like I was the first fan he’d ever met. Like fellow Hall of Famers Musial and Schoendienst, Brock was somehow better at being a human being than he was at playing baseball. He also happens to have been one of the most competitive men to ever set foot on a diamond. (Brock is the only player Sandy Koufax acknowledges having hit with a pitch on purpose. Brock was that disruptive upon reaching base.) The world needs more Lou Brocks. I’m grateful we had him as long as we did.

• Nine months into the most unpredictable year of our lives, it’s nice have the NBA playoffs nearing completion. When it comes to the NBA Finals, what you expect is typically what you get. Since the turn of the century, only three teams seeded lower than third have reached the Finals. And all three — the 2006 Mavericks, the 2010 Celtics, and the 2018 Cavaliers — lost the championship series. The fifth-seeded Miami Heat could become the fourth “surprise” entry if Jimmy Butler and friends can knock off the third-seeded Boston Celtics. More than likely, the de facto Finals will be played in the Western Conference, where we could see a “Battle for L.A.” (unless the Denver Nuggets crash the party): both the Lakers’ LeBron James and Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard are aiming to lead a third franchise to a title. The NBA doesn’t exactly welcome Cinderella to its dance, but a clash of familiar champions — even in new uniforms — might be just the right vitamin for a 2020 sports fan.

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Sports Tiger Blue

#23 Tigers 52, ULM 33

The 23rd-ranked Memphis Tigers scored a pair of touchdowns within nine seconds of playing time after ULM closed within six points in the fourth quarter and improved to 5-0 with a victory at Monroe, Louisiana, Saturday afternoon. Freshman tailback Kenneth Gainwell scampered 68 yards for his second touchdown of the game with 6:16 left in the contest to give Memphis a 45-33 lead. On the Warhawks’ ensuing possession, Tiger safety La’Andre Thomas intercepted a Caleb Evans pass and returned it 33 yards for the game-clinching score.

With senior running back Patrick Taylor sidelined for a fourth straight game, Gainwell lived up to his name with 210 yards rushing (on just 14 carries), his third straight contest with at least 100 yards on the ground. He had a 40-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter that gave Memphis a 14-3 lead.

The Tiger defense sustained its first real assault of the season, allowing 575 yards to ULM and surrendering 100 yards rushing to a pair of Warhawk ball-carriers (Josh Johnson and Evans). But Memphis averaged 8.9 yards per play in gaining 535 yards and scoring on six of its first eight possessions.

Immediately after a short touchdown pass from Brady White to tight end Kameron Wilson gave the Tigers a 21-10 lead in the second quarter, Memphis kicker Riley Patterson recovered his own onside kick. Kylan Watkins completed the next drive with a 14-yard touchdown run and the Tigers converted a two point play for a 29-10 lead.

ULM scored before halftime to reduce the Memphis lead to 12 points (29-17) at the break, but was unable to capitalize on an interception of White in the fourth quarter — the Tigers leading 39-26 at the time — turning the ball over to Memphis on downs within the red zone. A 36-yard touchdown pass from Evans to Josh Pederson made the scored 39-33 with 6:31 to play before Gainwell’s dash restored a double-digit lead for the Tigers.

White completed 15 of 23 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns (with the one interception). Eight different Tigers caught passes with Antonio Gibson and Damonte Coxie each scoring a touchdown.

The Tigers’ remaining seven-game schedule will be entirely within the American Athletic Conference, starting next Saturday when they travel to Temple. The Owls are 4-1 and, like Memphis, 1-0 in AAC play.

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Sports Sports Feature

Former Tigers Coach Larry Porter Talks Memphis Football

CREDIT: North Carolina University

North Carolina University

UNC running backs Coach Larry Porter

“Ya’ll got it going on over there in football,” are the first words spoken by Larry Porter after his initial greeting on the phone.

The former University of Memphis football coach is now the running backs coach at North Carolina. His second year with the Tar Heels has him busy, but he keeps tabs on the program he played for in the early 1990s and coached from 2010-2011 before being fired after going 3-21.

“I’m fired up,” he says. “I’m proud of the product they are putting on the field. [Memphis coach] Justin [Fuente] has done a great job. The kids are taking what coach is telling them to the field. The community is supporting him. When you put a good product on the field people want to show up.”

Like Porter, Fuente, also struggled out of the gate, going 7-17, during his first two seasons at Memphis. With two more years at the helm, Fuente has the program moving in the right direction. The Tigers finished 10-3, including a bowl win, in 2014. The 2015 squad won eight games before dropping their first to Navy last weekend.

When asked if he feels he could have made significant improvements given more time, Porter let it be known he does not deal in “what ifs.”

“Here’s what I do know,” he says. “Memphis has moved on and I have moved on. I think the focus should be on what is going on now. Me and how I feel is irrelevant at this particular time. I’m excited the university has accomplished a lot since I left. It is a performance-based position and I understand that. But I will always be a Tiger.”

Since leaving Memphis, Porter has also been a Sun Devil at Arizona State and a Longhorn at Texas before landing in Chapel Hill. He was running backs at each stop.

In 2013, Porter’s name surfaced in a Sports Illustrated report that alleged he paid players to sign with Oklahoma State while serving as the team’s running backs coach from 2002 to 2004.
“There was no wrongdoing on my part,” says Porter. “I believe the NCAA did a full investigation and there were no issues.”

Although the football program was put on probation for not following its drug-testing policy and recruitment guidelines, the allegation of payments to players was unfounded, according to the NCAA and OSU’s independent review.

As for his job at UNC, Porter says he’s happy because he’s still doing what he loves to do.  “I always enjoy having an influence on young men,” says Porter. “(North Carolina) presents a new situation. And it’s a nice place to live.”

Still, Porter’s goal is to once again head a program of his own. “Absolutely,” he says. “It’s what drives you. It’s what should drive every coach. You do your job and you let your work speak for you.”

But he’s in no rush to move on. “My life has always been about God’s plan,” he says. “I’ve been blessed and in great situations. So we will see what happens.”

Porter’s Tar Heels are ranked 17th in the nation by AP. The team is preparing for a home game against the Miami Hurricanes. But Porter is well aware of the Tigers’ upcoming conference battle with Houston. Before hanging up the phone he has two final words: “Go Tigers!”

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Former Tigers Coach Larry Porter Talks Memphis Football

CREDIT: North Carolina University

North Carolina University

UNC running backs Coach Larry Porter

“Ya’ll got it going on over there in football,” are the first words spoken by Larry Porter after his initial greeting on the phone.

The former University of Memphis football coach is now the running backs coach at North Carolina. His second year with the Tar Heels has him busy, but he keeps tabs on the program he played for in the early 1990s and coached from 2010-2011 before being fired after going 3-21.

“I’m fired up,” he says. “I’m proud of the product they are putting on the field. [Memphis coach] Justin [Fuente] has done a great job. The kids are taking what coach is telling them to the field. The community is supporting him. When you put a good product on the field people want to show up.”

Like Porter, Fuente, also struggled out of the gate, going 7-17, during his first two seasons at Memphis. With two more years at the helm, Fuente has the program moving in the right direction. The Tigers finished 10-3, including a bowl win, in 2014. The 2015 squad won eight games before dropping their first to Navy last weekend.

When asked if he feels he could have made significant improvements given more time, Porter let it be known he does not deal in “what ifs.”

“Here’s what I do know,” he says. “Memphis has moved on and I have moved on. I think the focus should be on what is going on now. Me and how I feel is irrelevant at this particular time. I’m excited the university has accomplished a lot since I left. It is a performance-based position and I understand that. But I will always be a Tiger.”

Since leaving Memphis, Porter has also been a Sun Devil at Arizona State and a Longhorn at Texas before landing in Chapel Hill. He was running backs at each stop.

In 2013, Porter’s name surfaced in a Sports Illustrated report that alleged he paid players to sign with Oklahoma State while serving as the team’s running backs coach from 2002 to 2004.
“There was no wrongdoing on my part,” says Porter. “I believe the NCAA did a full investigation and there were no issues.”

Although the football program was put on probation for not following its drug-testing policy and recruitment guidelines, the allegation of payments to players was unfounded, according to the NCAA and OSU’s independent review.

As for his job at UNC, Porter says he’s happy because he’s still doing what he loves to do.  “I always enjoy having an influence on young men,” says Porter. “(North Carolina) presents a new situation. And it’s a nice place to live.”

Still, Porter’s goal is to once again head a program of his own. “Absolutely,” he says. “It’s what drives you. It’s what should drive every coach. You do your job and you let your work speak for you.”

But he’s in no rush to move on. “My life has always been about God’s plan,” he says. “I’ve been blessed and in great situations. So we will see what happens.”

Porter’s Tar Heels are ranked 17th in the nation by AP. The team is preparing for a home game against the Miami Hurricanes. But Porter is well aware of the Tigers’ upcoming conference battle with Houston. Before hanging up the phone he has two final words: “Go Tigers!”