Memphis Tiger football would not be where it is today — and Ryan Silverfield would not be in charge of the program — were it not for Mike Norvell. The Tigers travel to Tallahassee this week for a Saturday confrontation with Norvell’s current team, the Florida State Seminoles. It’s hard to imagine a more poignant game against a former coach in the history of the Memphis program.
Should your memory be unusually short, Norvell arrived in Memphis as a rookie head coach before the 2016 season (with Ryan Silverfield a member of his staff). If you were familiar with the 35-year-old Arizona State assistant then, you frankly spent too much time on college football. But in just four years, Norvell won 38 games, led the Tigers to three appearances in the American Athletic Conference championship game (winning in 2019), and earned the most prestigious bowl berth (the 2019 Cotton Bowl) in Tigers history. That’s how you get the Florida State gig before your 40th birthday. Last season, Norvell’s fourth at FSU, the Seminoles went 13-0 but were somehow left out of the four-team College Football Playoff. (After several players opted out of the Orange Bowl, Florida State was crushed by Georgia.)
Florida State will not go 13-0 this season, having lost its first two games, to Georgia Tech and Boston College. Memphis will not be facing a Top-10 team this weekend, a disappointment for a program favored to win a “Group of 5” league but thirsty for an early-season attention grabber. Blowout wins over North Alabama and Troy go only so far.
Last July, I asked Silverfield about facing his former boss early in the 2024 schedule. “I’m gonna treat it like any other game,” he said. “I’ll see some of my closest friends down there. I’m from Jacksonville. If I didn’t get this job, I might still be sitting next to Mike, coaching his offensive line. But once training camp starts, I won’t give that game a single thought until the Sunday [before].”
To translate, it will be an emotional game for those with fond memories of Mike Norvell in Memphis (read: anyone who saw a game from 2016 to 2019). But for Ryan Silverfield and the current Memphis Tigers, the contest has to be treated like a step — among 12 games on the schedule — toward a higher goal. And the only way to stack wins toward a conference championship (and playoff contention) is going 1-0, week after week. Thus Florida State is “any other game.”
The Seminoles will play better than the 0-2 team they are. The Tigers will likely fall short of the standard they’ve set by outscoring two teams 78-17. But quarterback Seth Henigan is climbing the Tiger and AAC record charts with every contest and the Memphis ground game seems to be in the capable hands of Mario Anderson (125 yards on 17 carries against Troy). This Saturday’s showdown in Tallahassee will be a fun and, yes, sentimental showcase for a Memphis team still rising.
• As for the U of M basketball program, coach Penny Hardaway is once again surrounded by smoke. (Didn’t he ask for this upon taking the job six years ago?) An anonymous letter to the NCAA alleges both financial and academic misdeeds on Hardaway’s watch. You can safely ignore the padding of recruits’ wallets. (See the $20 million it has reportedly cost Ohio State to build its current football roster.) But if academic fraud involving Malcolm Dandridge can be traced to Hardaway, it will be a sad and awkward exit for a local legend. That’s a big “if,” of course. Here’s to a day we can again discuss Tiger basketball without a cloud of scrutiny growing thicker and darker.
There’s no such thing as a perfect football game. Or is there?
In their 36-26 victory over Iowa State in the 2023 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the Memphis Tigers put three zeroes on the stat sheet that have never been seen together in these parts, and may never be seen again. Memphis committed zero turnovers and zero penalties and (sit down for this one) allowed the Cyclones zero rushing yards. In baseball terms, it was a form of no runs, no hits, no errors … perfection.
“All season, you want to play a complete game,” says Ryan Silverfield, entering his fifth season as head coach of the Tigers and ninth with the program. “It’s getting harder and harder. We had games where the defense carried us, then the offense or special teams. We finally saw a cumulation of a lot of things going well, and at the right time. Beating Ole Miss [in 2019] was great, College Gameday, the Cotton Bowl, beating Mississippi State [in 2021]. But I had more people tell me that winning the AutoZone Liberty Bowl meant the most to them, 60-year-old fans or teenagers. It capped off the season, and it was a relatively clean beating. It set up a great deal of momentum going forward, sort of a snowball effect of positivity.”
With six wins, Seth Henigan would break the record for career victories (28) by a Memphis quarterback. (Photo: Wes Hale)
Perfection may not be a fair standard for the 2024 Memphis Tigers, but let’s say the bar is high for this team. For the first time since joining the American Athletic Conference in 2013, Memphis has been picked to win the league championship in the preseason media poll. Last season, Memphis finished sixth in the country in scoring, averaging 39.4 points per game. And the Tigers have the luxury of the most experienced quarterback in the country returning to lead their offense. Senior Seth Henigan is the only FBS quarterback returning for a fourth year as a starter at the same program. The MVP of that Liberty Bowl victory, Henigan has already broken the Memphis record for career passing yards (10,764) and needs just 12 touchdown passes to top Brady White’s record of 90. Most significantly, with six wins, Henigan would move past White’s 28 for the most victories by a Tiger signal-caller.
“Seth started [his college career] as a 17-year-old,” notes Silverfield. “It was like starting a rookie in the NFL. Two years later, he wins 10 games. We all get better. Seth learned how to win games last year. Now he can carry the team, be a leader. It’s his team. Push the standards for everybody on a day-to-day basis. Not just throwing the ball nicely and putting up good stats. When adversity hits, be the one saying, ‘No, this is the way we do things.’ He embraces it fully.”
Ryan Silverfield has won more bowl games (three) than any other coach in Memphis history. (Photo: Wes Hale)
“Watch lists” — those compendiums of candidates for myriad college football individual awards — tend to be more hype than substance, but a single player being on five lists grabs your attention. Henigan is included among contenders for the Maxwell Award (most outstanding player), the Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Davey O’Brien Award (best quarterback), the Manning Award, and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. If he tops his 2023 season (3,883 yards and 32 touchdown passes), Henigan could well be a finalist for one of these trophies.
Considering his lengthy track record, how does Henigan improve this fall? “He’s got to play the next play of his life perfectly,” says offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey. “Every single day, however many reps he has. That’s hard to do for an entire game. But not for the next play.”
Henigan will have his share of targets, starting with senior wide receiver Roc Taylor, a second-team all-conference pick (like Henigan) in 2023 who caught 69 passes for 1,083 yards to lead Memphis in both categories. Also back are Demeer Blankumsee (901 yards), Koby Drake (352), and tight end Anthony Landphere (260).
“Since I’ve been here, it’s been a grind,” says Taylor, starting his fourth season alongside Henigan. “Building friendships. The loyalty [the program] has given me, I’m giving back. I want to leave my own legacy here. I watch a lot of film on myself, and there are little things I can work on to get better. Knowing reads, when to run a route at a certain speed, and having a connection with Seth.”
The Tigers’ running game will look different this season with Blake Watson (1,152 yards last season) having exhausted his eligibility. But returning are Sutton Smith and Brandon Thomas, both to be pushed by South Carolina transfer Mario Anderson (707 yards for the Gamecocks in 2023). “We have high expectations,” says Silverfield. “Sutton Smith is a dynamic football player. I’m pleased with our depth.” Thomas rushed for 191 yards in a 2021 win at Arkansas State. The idea that he might be the Tigers’ third option on the ground speaks to that depth.
Linebacker Chandler Martin aims to be the Tigers’ “quarterback on defense.” (Photo: Wes Hale)
The Tiger defense will be led by junior linebacker Chandler Martin. A preseason All-America candidate, Martin led the Tigers with 95 tackles last season including an eye-popping 17 behind the line of scrimmage. “Sometimes it’s that kid from the FCS level [East Tennessee State] who gets here, does a good job, and takes the bull by the horns,” says Silverfield. “He’s a leader for our team and was appreciative of the opportunity we gave him; he could have gone to larger schools. He does it the right way all the time, a complete student-athlete.”
Like Taylor, Martin heard from other programs over the offseason. But he’s back in blue and gray, and there wasn’t much deliberation. “It’s about loyalty,” he says. “They believed in me here, gave me the chance to be the best version of myself. I’m happy to be back, and be a leader for this team.”
Defensive coordinator Jordon Hankins is relying on Martin being the linebacker we all saw a year ago, but with the added duty of role model for the rest of the Tiger defense. “You don’t have the success he had individually,” notes Hankins, “without understanding you can’t do it without the people around you. He bought into that leadership role. People in the locker room want to be around him. He keeps everybody level-headed. We’re as good as our last play. That’s how he is, every day.”
Alongside Martin will be the most significant transfer arrival of 2024: junior Elijah Herring from Tennessee. Herring led the Volunteers last season with 80 tackles but wasn’t guaranteed a starting spot this fall, so he moved west. Among the veterans returning to the Tiger defense are linemen CorMontae Hamilton and Keveion’ta Spears and senior safety Greg Rubin, a three-year starter who played locally at White Station High School.
“We just have to make sure we stay locked in,” emphasizes Martin. “On the same trajectory, with the same standards. Coach Silverfield does a great job, showing us how we do things. Personally, I want to be the quarterback on defense. Last year, I was just trying to figure it out, fit in. My goal is always no missed assignments. Making sure I do my job within the framework. Once I get the assignment down, how can I make secondary plays? Little details.”
Why are stars like Henigan, Taylor, and Martin back for another season in blue and gray when the transfer portal — and likely more NIL (name/image/likeness) riches — beckon at every corner? “They’re great young men,” stresses Silverfield. “I think loyalty is one of those things that’s getting lost in society, and especially in sports. When I sat down with Roc, I told him about all the positives we have here, and also the negatives. What’s the best choice for him? When the dust settles, a lot of guys are finding that this is the best opportunity: the culture and what we’re trying to do. If we have a lot of good things going, don’t go to the unknown. We have good relationships. They appreciate the truth. And they can maximize everything they want in their college football experience right here.”
The Memphis football program has rarely made national headlines during the summer, but it did in June, when Antwann Hill Jr., the third-ranked quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class, announced his intention to play for the Tigers. If he signs in February, Hill will become the highest-ranked signee in the program’s history. It’s one more effect of that “positivity snowball” Silverfield mentions, a snowball made dramatically larger last fall when FedEx founder Fred Smith announced a $50 million donation toward renovations at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. (The university is matching the figure on top of $120 million in funds from the state of Tennessee.)
“We are so grateful to the Smith family,” says Silverfield. “I consider them friends. It truly is a game-changer. We were too far behind with NIL. I worried about our ability to compete, no matter how good our staff was. It’s getting harder and harder to build a roster without NIL. It’s allowed us to compete. Do we want to be relevant or not?”
Renovations to the Tigers’ home stadium — a facility that opened in 1965 — will be done with eyes on relevance in the next round of FBS realignment. What was once a “Power 5” is now four mega-conferences: the SEC (16 programs), the Big 10 (18), the Big 12 (16), and perhaps the most likely landing spot for Memphis, the ACC (14). For now, though, Silverfield’s message is clear and direct: Win the American Athletic Conference championship. Earn that trophy and the bonus may be a berth in the newly expanded 12-team playoff for the national championship.
“Winning helps a lot of things,” says Silverfield, “but it’s not what will decide conference realignment. SMU wanted to move to a larger conference, so SMU put a ton of money into football. Tulane wanted to get better at football, so they put a ton of money into football. Our goals always start with winning the conference. Realignment? We know it’s not done. No one ever woke up thinking Rutgers and UCLA would be playing a Wednesday night volleyball match. I can control what I can control, and I stay up to date. But head football coaches can’t decide that.”
Having “won” the preseason media poll, the Tigers can’t exactly play the no-respect card, a rarity in these parts. But Martin speaks for his teammates in accepting the role as AAC favorites. “It puts a chip on [our opponents’] shoulder,” he says. “Everybody’s going to give us their best shot. It just makes us have to lock in even more, pay more attention to details. You gotta take it week by week.”
Even teams outside those four “power leagues” can aspire to win a national title now, the postseason dance card having expanded from four teams to a dozen. “I use the heck out of that in recruiting,” emphasizes Silverfield. “It makes Memphis that much more special. There are teams in the SEC that have no chance at making the playoff. We do. We need to focus on having our best season, look up in December, and see where the chips fall.”
Five weeks into the Memphis Tigers’ current season, I mentioned a certain good-fortune factor that seemed to be playing a role for a program historically cursed by, we’ll call it today, less-than-good fortune. (Anyone remember the name Gino Guidugli?) When breaks happen on Tiger game days, historically, they don’t tend to go the blue-and-gray way. Folks … that was then. Since that column (October 2nd), Memphis has won a game in which it allowed a go-ahead touchdown with 47 seconds remaining in the contest. Memphis has won a game in which it allowed its opponent 50 points on home turf. And now, Memphis has won a game in which it trailed by 10 points on the road with less than eight minutes to play. That sparkling 8-2 record could easily be 5-5, or worse.
Following his team’s three-point win over Boise State on September 30th, Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield painted a picture of his team’s collective culture. Having fallen behind the Broncos, 17-0, the Memphis program seemed to turn a corner that may have changed this season permanently. “The 118 guys on the sideline were like, ‘What do we have to do? How do we keep fighting?’ That’s what makes this group special. There was no fret. There was no ‘Oh my gosh.’ Just, ‘What do we need to do to get back in this game?’” A win or two can be attributed to luck, and that goes for every team in every season. But a team doesn’t win eight of 10 games without having two things: collective talent and collective will. It’s been especially gratifying to see an “unlucky” football program pile up wins that seem to tilt in its favor in ways opponents once enjoyed.
• With SMU coming to Memphis this Saturday for a clash between 8-2 teams, you can’t help but think back to November 2, 2019, when an 8-0 Mustangs team visited a 7-1 Memphis team to cap the biggest Saturday — at that time — in the program’s history. With ESPN’s College GameDay crew on Beale Street and more than 58,000 fans packing the Liberty Bowl (no SEC team in sight!), the Tigers won a classic, 54-48, on its way to an AAC championship and a berth in the Cotton Bowl.
Both SMU (6-0 in the American Athletic Conference) and Memphis (5-1) are in contention to play in the AAC championship game … but the Tigers cannot afford another loss for such a dream (last realized in that unforgettable 2019 season). Will 50,000 fans pack what we now call Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium for this Saturday’s 11 a.m. kickoff? Almost certainly not. Might we see 40,000 in the stadium for the first time this fall? If not, more consideration needs to be given to the fact that the Tigers’ den is simply too large for the program. Because this Memphis team has earned a football party.
• The Tigers will take the field Saturday with a home record of 4-1 this season and a total of 55 home wins since 2014. Only three programs in the country have won more in front of their own fans over the last decade of college football, and you’ve heard of them: Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State. No, Memphis isn’t beating SEC, ACC, or Big 10 foes. But the Tigers have made Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium a rough place to play for visitors. How many seasons before 2014 were needed for Memphis to win 55 home games? The answer is twenty (1994-2013), precisely twice as long as the current decade of joy. The “golden era” of Memphis Tiger football? You’re living it. Still.
The University of Memphis football program needs to be in a bigger, better conference than the American Athletic. This is a topic much discussed, and one that won’t go away until the dream is realized. The program is just as desperate, though, for a rival. A true, villainous, pure-evil, dressed-in-black-even-when-they’re-not rival. Which made Saturday’s game at UAB fun, and somewhat special as the Tigers work their way through a watered-down AAC schedule. The first “Battle for the Bones” in 11 years meant the heaviest rack of ribs — if not heaviest trophy — in college football would see daylight again. (The trophy weighs more than 90 pounds.) After a slow start, Memphis walloped the Blazers, 45-21, to improve to 5-2 on the season and retain ownership of those bronze bones. It felt like the Tigers turned back a rival.
Is UAB the Tigers’ answer for that role of gridiron gremlin? Not long-term, I don’t believe. They’ve actually only played 16 times (Memphis has won six). Compare that with Arkansas State, a Memphis foe no fewer than 62 times. But can the Red Wolves be considered THE rival for Memphis? Not until they’re in the same conference. Ole Miss and Mississippi State aren’t the answer, both part of the privileged SEC, and both dominant historically against Memphis. Tulane feels like a rival, particularly as the Green Wave has risen to the top of the AAC and won three of the last five meetings with the Tigers. I miss the Black-and-Blue Game with Southern Miss (last played in 2012). I’m not sure which program can play this role for Memphis, but with North Texas, South Florida, and Charlotte coming up on the Tigers’ schedule, I know a void when I see it.
• Saturday’s victory at UAB was the 26th win for Ryan Silverfield as head coach of the Memphis Tigers. It’s a significant number, for me, as it matches the total Justin Fuente compiled over his four seasons (2012-2015) atop the program. This isn’t to suggest Silverfield is as good a coach as Fuente, or has had the kind of impact on the program Fuente had (he has not), but it is a connection to the man we must credit most with turning a moribund program into one expected to play in a bowl game at season’s end, one expected to compete for conference championships. Fuente inherited a bottomed-out operation that had won a total of three games the two seasons before he took over. By his third year, Fuente commanded a 10-win AAC co-champion ranked 25th in the country. There have been few turnarounds in college football history as quick or as dramatic. Silverfield is a beneficiary of that turnaround, having arrived as an assistant to Mike Norvell in 2016 when Fuente departed for Virginia Tech. Will the Tigers win 10 games this season? Win the AAC? Both seem unlikely right now. But is the Memphis program relevant, competitive, worthy of attention? Absolutely. Here’s to 26 more wins, and then some, for Ryan Silverfield.
• Memphis is the only team in the AAC with a player among the league’s top four in passing (Seth Henigan, 265.1 yards per game), rushing (Blake Watson, 84.7), and receiving (Roc Taylor, 79.4). With 593 yards, Watson has already topped last season’s Tiger rushing leader (Jevyon Ducker, 544 yards). With 556 yards, Taylor will likely top last season’s leader (Eddie Lewis, 603 yards) this Saturday at North Texas. A football team doesn’t necessarily require an offensive “big three,” but one can help win a lot of games.
The Memphis Tigers have a rare breed in junior quarterback Seth Henigan. With the transfer portal shuffling college football rosters like an overstuffed deck of cards, an athlete playing the sport’s premium position at the same school for three years is becoming rare. In fact, only 15 FBS quarterbacks (among 133 programs) will appear in the same uniform for a third season this fall having started more games than Henigan’s 24. A recent review of said transfer portal revealed no fewer than 74 quarterbacks (starters and backups, mind you) having departed one program for another since the 2022 season concluded.
Yet Henigan remains in blue and gray, the colors he’s worn since, literally, the day after his high school team (Denton Ryan High School in North Texas) won the 2020 state championship. Having started his first college game as a true freshman in 2021, Henigan will graduate after the fall semester with a degree in business management. By that time, he’ll have three full college seasons under his belt, and still shy of his 21st birthday. What kind of season should Tiger fans expect? It would be tough to top the expectations of Henigan himself, a signal-caller in shoulder pads for as far back as his memory will take him.
Henigan grew up with two brothers (one older, one younger), so competition was woven into the family fabric. Basketball. Football. And the kind of “house sports” only the parents of sibling rivals can fully appreciate. “We’d play ping-pong, darts,” recalls Henigan. “I was always trying to be like my older brother Ian and beat him in everything. I played T-ball but didn’t move on to baseball. Played lacrosse for one year. I’ve always had good hand-eye coordination, but no sport was as fun to me as football.” Ironically, Henigan found himself injury prone in basketball, breaking his nose and his left hand on the hardwood. So hoops became past tense after his sophomore year of high school. “I needed to focus on football,” he says, “and get my body prepared for college.”
University of Memphis junior Seth Henigan will return for his third season as quarterback. A successful season will afford him the opportunity to become only the second quarterback in Tigers football history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Going all the way back to his earliest flag-football memories, Henigan can’t recall playing any position other than quarterback. It helps being the son of a highly successful coach. (Dave Henigan has coached Denton Ryan since 2014 and earned at least one Coach of the Year honor every year from 2016 through the championship season of 2020.) He would accompany his dad on game nights and spend the pregame tossing a football with anyone willing to toss it back. “It was a bonding time,” notes Henigan, “and with my brothers, too. I liked having the ball in my hands. I was pretty fast, and I could throw the ball better than the average kid. Being able to make plays, from a young age, that was the position I was going to play to be the most successful in this sport.”
If quarterback isn’t the hardest position in team sports, it’s in a short conversation. (We’ll allow the case for baseball’s catcher.) Physical tools — height, arm strength, foot quickness — take an athlete a long way, but playing quarterback well enough to win championships requires as much talent between the ears as elsewhere. And the ability to absorb contact is a requirement.
“As you move up levels, the position becomes way more taxing,” says Henigan, “both physically and mentally. I wasn’t hit that much in high school, but at the college level, it’s a different feeling. We don’t get hit in practice because [coaches] are trying to preserve quarterbacks. When you get hit for the first time, it changes the entire game. Having that experience early in my college career really toughened me up. You’re playing 300-pound defensive linemen, and their goal is to harass you.”
As for the mental component, it’s the invisible tools that made Tom Brady the Tom Brady, that allow Patrick Mahomes to see angles and gaps most quarterbacks cannot. “You know so much about coverages,” explains Henigan. “You know the names, you draw them up, you speak them. Some quarterbacks learn better verbally, and some need to see it on a board. Or going through it on a practice field.”
Henigan draws a parallel between a quarterback’s mental challenges and those of a decidedly less physical sport. “Golfers’ mental game is so important,” he notes. “It’s hard to compare to any other position on a football field. You’re in control of so many aspects. You know everyone’s assignment on offense. A middle linebacker may know this for the defense, but he doesn’t have control of the play’s outcome. A quarterback has the ball in his hands. There’s so much going on. You’re thinking of 21 other guys on a field, reacting to a defense. The defensive coordinator’s job is to confuse the quarterback. You have to react as the play is going on.”
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, a quarterback must decide between handing the ball to a running back, running the ball himself, or passing to as many as five potential receivers. “Decision-making, accuracy, and toughness are three of the most important components for a quarterback,” emphasizes Henigan. “Fluid intelligence is key. That’s how you make your money, so to speak. Offenses and defenses both have tendencies. After a while, you identify consistencies in the way defenses want to attack our offense. But it changes each year. The base knowledge helps though. You have an out-of-body experience. It feels like you’re watching yourself because you’ve done it so many times. It’s muscle memory, and natural. I’ve seen a lot.”
(Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Henigan grew up a college football fan, more so than any devotion he might have developed for an NFL team. With his family wrapped up in “Friday night lights” followed by college games on Saturday, Henigan’s mom would actually not allow football on television come Sunday. Henigan’s favorite quarterbacks were a pair of Heisman Trophy winners in the SEC: Auburn’s Cam Newton and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel. He loved their exploits but notes he’s never modeled his playing style after another signal-caller.
Despite compiling an eye-popping record of 44-2 over three years as a starter at Denton Ryan, Henigan was not heavily recruited by FBS programs. Former Memphis offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, though, made the kind of impression both Henigan and his family sought in choosing Seth’s college destination. “I had a good year as a junior,” notes Henigan, “but my body wasn’t spectacular. I was always smart and worked hard, and those attributes can take you a long way. Coaches weren’t really talking to me consistently, until coach Johns came after my junior year. He listed attributes of a good quarterback that I displayed and why I was attractive [to Memphis]. He’d show me film on FaceTime, break down plays. He’s the only [college] coach who did that with me. It was exciting, seeing how I’d fit the program here.”
Having enrolled for the spring semester in 2021, Henigan was comfortable with Memphis — both the city and campus — by the time fall camp opened. When the quarterback expected to start the ’21 season opener (Grant Gunnell) tore his Achilles heel late that summer, Henigan seized the opportunity. “Even if I was going to be the backup, I didn’t want to be a weak link,” reflects Henigan. “So I was mentally prepared. I have a whiteboard in my room at home. I’ve had it since my junior year of high school. Every week, I’ll change the name of the opponent, list base defenses, third-down defenses, and how we were going to attack them. I picked things up pretty quickly. That’s all I did that first spring camp: study that whiteboard and learn [as a college quarterback]. Coach Johns and I would throw on weekends at his house. He cared for me as a true freshman.” (Johns has since moved on and is now the offensive coordinator at Duke University.)
The Tigers went 6-6 in 2021 (Henigan’s freshman year) and qualified for the Hawaii Bowl, a game that was canceled the day before kickoff because of a Covid outbreak in the Hawaii program. Memphis went 7-6 last season and beat Utah State in the First Responder Bowl. Two decades ago, such marks would have qualified as successful seasons in these parts. But the program’s standards are higher. So are Seth Henigan’s.
“There’s no such thing as a young quarterback,” says Henigan in evaluating the midpoint of his college career. “You either have it or you don’t. You earn the job. It hasn’t been smooth sailing. We’ve beaten some good teams, but we’ve lost to teams we should have beaten. I didn’t really know what to expect out of college football; I just knew it would be harder than what I’d done in the past. I want to win a conference championship and win more than seven games. There’s so much more to achieve as a quarterback. My teammates respect me and know me as a competitor. I’ve taken hits and gotten up. I’ve been through the ringer, and I’ve stayed here in Memphis. We have a chance to be special.”
Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield would never project his program’s success on the play of one athlete. But he’s cognizant of how important Seth Henigan’s junior season will be to the health — and growth — of the Memphis program. “At the quarterback position, his steps are significant to the success of our entire program,” says the fourth-year coach. “He knows that he’s got to be better. He’s still young for the position, but he’s got experience. We have high expectations for him to make good decisions. You can’t turn the ball over. Find ways to win football games. We’ll continue to push him to be the leader of our team. He’s earned that respect and we’re excited to see what unfolds.”
Henigan is one of only 16 current Tigers who have taken the field for Memphis the last two seasons. He’s a junior, by class, but an extended veteran by measure of proportional service. Who will catch Henigan’s passes this fall? Junior Roc Taylor had 20 receptions last season, the most by any returning player. Senior Joseph Scates caught only 18 passes in 2022, but averaged 22.9 yards per reception. Newcomer Tauskie Dove — a transfer from Missouri — played in high school with Henigan but was a senior when the quarterback rode the bench as a freshman.
A healthy and successful 2023 season would make Henigan only the second quarterback in Memphis history to post three 3,000-yard seasons. (Brady White did so from 2018 to 2020.) Then there’s 2024. Should Henigan return as a grad student, a fourth season — again, presuming health — would likely shatter every passing record in the Tiger book. But that’s distant future, particularly with that pesky transfer portal. For now, Henigan is focused on the daily chores — as noted on his treasured whiteboard — that will add up to a better college season than his first two in blue and gray.
“Every day is challenging,” acknowledges Henigan, noting his commitment to football, school, his family, and nurturing relationships, particularly those with his teammates. “It’s hard to find time for myself. I have so many responsibilities. I’ve been on a fast track, starting my master’s program in the spring. A [conference] championship would make [this season] successful. Winning nine or 10 games. I think we have all the right guys. We’ve just got to stay consistent.”
Brandon Thomas takes a handoff from Seth Henigan. (Credit: Larry Kuzniewski)
• Fourth and foul. Nothing spotlights (or exposes) a head football coach like the make-or-break decision of a fourth-down play. Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield made two such calls last Saturday that went awry and contributed to the Tigers’ seven-point loss to 25th-ranked UCF. With the game tied at 7 in the first quarter and the Tigers inside the Knights’ 10-yard line, Memphis faced fourth-and-one. Silverfield passed up a gimme field goal (three points) and called a running play in the shotgun formation. Taking the ball from quarterback Seth Henigan five yards behind the scrimmage, running back Brandon Thomas was stuffed short of the first down. UCF took over possession.
Then late in the third quarter, the score again knotted (21-21), Memphis faced fourth-and-16(!) from the Knights’ 39 after a lengthy delay to review a targeting penalty on the Tigers’ reserve tight end, John Hassell. (Do these kind of problems hit other programs?) A Henigan pass fell incomplete and UCF scored on its next possession, taking the lead for good. After the game, Silverfield said his team was not adept at “pooch punting” and felt they wouldn’t gain enough yardage in the exchange of possession. Needless to say, the Tigers gained no yardage in turning the ball over (again) on downs. Silverfield owned the calls, as he should. They don’t look good in the rearview mirror.
• This ain’t horseshoes. It’s easy to agonize over how close the Tigers might be to a 6-3 record, or even 7-2 (instead of 4-5). Blown leads and late losses to both Houston and East Carolina. Then consecutive defeats against teams ranked 25th in the country (first Tulane, then UCF). Memphis scored more points last Saturday (28) than any other team has against the Knights this season. But questionable calls, a missed (short) field-goal attempt, and two turnovers generally lead to losses, so Memphis is riding its longest losing streak (four games) in nine years. Making matters worse, all four losses are to American Athletic Conference teams, so the best Memphis can finish in the league is an even 4-4. This is a significant drop for a program that recently played in the AAC title game three straight seasons (2017-19).
Silverfield was here for those glory years as an assistant to Mike Norvell. Following Saturday’s loss, he acknowledged the Memphis fan base deserves better. “I respect our fan base, because they care,” said Silverfield, “and the expectations for this program aren’t what they were two years ago. I [hope] they will hang with us and continue to believe, because the players do. We’ll come out all right, I promise you that. The young men are staying true to this university. Everyone will show up Thursday [to play Tulsa] and continue to fight.”
• Bowl or bust? Silverfield mentioned the “noise” around the Memphis program. To translate: “Noise” means speculation a head coach could be replaced if wins aren’t secured, and soon. There are a lot of empty seats at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on game days. (Attendance last Saturday was 28,048. The stadium seats more than 50,000.) Football remains the revenue engine of a university’s athletic department, so unsold tickets mean less to invest in women’s soccer or men’s golf. The face of the football program is outsized and inflated, but such is the nature of an industry that gobbles up television dollars for more than four months.
The Tigers can gain bowl eligibility for a ninth straight season with two wins in their final three games. It’s hard to envision Silverfield being retained if they don’t. Memphis will beat North Alabama (1-8) on November 19th. Which means they must beat Tulsa (3-6) at home this Thursday or SMU (5-4) on the road on November 26th. Bottom line: Thursday’s game is a must-win for Ryan Silverfield. The two best feelings in sports are winning a championship and ending a losing streak. Here’s hoping a wobbly Memphis football program can achieve the latter against the Golden Hurricane.
Linebacker Xavier Cullens (photo by Larry Kuzniewski)
So close . . . and so far. The Tigers have lost consecutive games by a total of three points. Brutal stuff. With as few as two plays going differently — an onside kick against Houston, a two-point attempt at East Carolina — Memphis would be riding a six-game winning streak and heading to Tulane for a clash of 6-1 teams near the top of the American Athletic Conference. Instead, the Tigers are staring at a formidable foe that could reduce Memphis to a .500 team entering its bye week, with UCF (5-1) looming November 5th. Such is the nature of college football for programs trying to establish footing in a transition period.
And that’s what this feels like, even with Ryan Silverfield overseeing his third season as head coach. Memphis is playing with a first-year offensive coordinator (Tim Cramsey) and a first-year defensive coordinator (Matt Barnes). The Tigers have a veteran quarterback, if a sophomore (Seth Henigan) can be called such. But other stars have yet to emerge. Plenty of backs (Asa Martin, Jevyon Ducker, Brandon Thomas) and receivers (Gabriel Rogers, Joseph Scates, Caden Prieskorn) tease with big plays, but do any feel like The Go-To Guy? I’m convinced Memphis needs That Guy to avoid these crushing, narrow, late-game defeats. For now, ending a losing streak sits atop Silverfield’s priority list. That bye week will feel like a month if the streak is extended to three at Tulane.
Get six (wins). For Memphis, the 2022 American Athletic Conference championship is out. No team with two league losses will qualify for the December 3rd title game. But goals (and priorities) remain, starting with the six wins (a .500 record) necessary for bowl eligibility. The Tiger program is on an unprecedented streak of eight consecutive years reaching that standard, a minimum these days if a football program is to be considered competitive. (And let’s remember the days — as recently as 2011 — when bowl eligibility seemed beyond reach for the Tiger program. Then Justin Fuente came to town.)
The Tigers must win but two of their final five games to qualify for a bowl. North Alabama — an FCS program, currently 1-5 — is a gimme (November 19th), but Memphis will have to earn a sixth, or seventh, or eighth victory. The Tigers will be underdogs against Tulane (Saturday) and UCF (November 5th). Tulsa (November 10th, a Thursday) and SMU (November 26th) are tests, it seems, one season after another, whether on the road or at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. The 2022 season has grown uncomfortable for a football team that rode a four-game winning streak into October. Still much to play for.
Missing Q. Entering the season, senior safety Quindell Johnson was the Tigers’ most celebrated defensive player. Considering an injury forced Johnson to leave the Houston game in the second half and miss the entire contest at East Carolina, he may have been undervalued. The Tigers have blown leads of 19 points and 17 points while Johnson recuperates from the undisclosed ailment.
Memphis has dropped to eighth in the AAC in scoring defense (30.1 points allowed per game) and ninth in total defense (419.6 yards allowed). It’s easy to point fingers at the Tiger offense getting conservative with those big leads (or with a two-point attempt to beat the Pirates), but the Memphis defense has been on the field as those leads evaporated. And it’s not a one-man bunch. Silverfield described linebacker Xavier Cullens’s play as “All-American” over the first month of the season. Cornerback Sylvonta Oliver had ten solo tackles against ECU. But it’s a defense that has both bent and broken the last two weeks. With or without its senior leader, the Memphis defense needs to rise as the temperature drops.
“Remember the Cougars.” Last Friday’s fourth-quarter collapse against Houston could linger as a stench over the Memphis program the rest of this season, perhaps the rest of Ryan Silverfield’s tenure as head coach. Or it could become a rallying cry, of a sort, a reminder of how much can be gained, but the cost of a lapse. The Cougars are clearly better than their record (2-3) suggested at kickoff last week. It takes a very good team to lead the Cougars by 19 points in the final quarter. Memphis is that team. Memphis is also the team that coughed up that lead like a Bengal-sized hairball.
What Silverfield, his staff, and players must avoid is dismissing the collapse as water under the bridge. Because the Tiger fan base won’t. This program is at a crossroads, eager for bigger things (starting with the league in which it plays) but unable to get 30,000 fans into a stadium that seats more than 50,000. Silverfield must sell a better product than the one 28,000 fans saw on October 7th. I’m convinced he has a better product … unless that stench truly settles in.
Gabe’s Game. My stack of Memphis football media guides reveals no previous Tiger to have pulled off a trifecta like that of fifth-year senior Gabriel Rogers against Houston: a rush, pass, and reception of at least 15 yards each. A sad footnote to the fourth-quarter meltdown is that a Tiger victory would have likely been remembered as “the Gabriel Rogers game.” He was that extraordinary, particularly in tossing a 41-yard touchdown pass to Asa Martin (after receiving a lateral from quarterback Seth Henigan) to give the Tigers that 19-point lead (26-7) early in the final quarter.
Rogers leads the Tigers with 302 receiving yards (on 22 catches), and he put up 71 of those yards against the Cougars. He also gained 23 rushing yards on just two carries. He was that fabled “triple threat” of lore, only in a game his team gave away. But halfway through the 2022 campaign, the Tigers have a front-runner for the playmaker tag. Keep your eyes on number 9 when Memphis snaps the ball.
Recognizing a rival. A longtime problem for the Memphis program: No annual “rivalry game.” No, the Tigers and Ole Miss — or Mississippi State — aren’t rivals in the classic college football sense. (A series must be more competitive over a longer period of time.) The Tigers built up some rivalry with UCF and Houston, but both the Knights and Cougars are departing the American Athletic Conference for the Big 12 next year. In searching for a familiar foe that has tested Memphis for a couple of decades (or three), it’s the East Carolina Pirates. Motivation shouldn’t be a problem this Saturday in Greenville.
The Pirates and Tigers went back and forth last season at the Liberty Bowl, ECU prevailing in overtime, but only when Memphis failed on a two-point attempt to win. The Tigers trail the series, 16-8, primarily due to a dominant seven-year winning streak by East Carolina when the Memphis program found itself staggering for leadership (2006-2012). One of two Tiger teams will show up this weekend: One still reeling from the program’s worst collapse in memory, or a group mobilized to prove it’s not thatteam. East Carolina feels like the right opponent for such a clash.
• Audience Participation. Down five points with less than two minutes to play Saturday night at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, Arkansas State faced fourth down near midfield. The Red Wolves were then penalized for false starts on consecutive plays. When the center finally snapped the football, he did so over the head of ASU quarterback James Blackman. When Memphis linebacker Jaylon Allen recovered the ball inside the Wolves’ 10-yard line, it all but clinched a Tiger victory. There have been larger crowds at a Tiger home opener, but there’s little doubt the 32,620 fans in attendance last Saturday helped Memphis improve to 2-1 this season.
Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield was appreciative. “That last drive, what they were able to do as a crowd. … It’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like that,” said Silverfield. “It started with the [pregame] Tiger Walk. We talk about ways to celebrate the city [for 901 Week]. I can’t say enough great things about how wonderful that crowd was. They get credit for the win. I’m proud of our guys’ perseverance. It wasn’t always pretty.”
• Big target. For a player who arrived at the University of Memphis as a walk-on quarterback, Caden Prieskorn has become one hell of a tight end. Prieskorn caught a pair of touchdown passes in the first half against Arkansas State, each time tying the score. But neither of those was his biggest catch of the game. That came on a fourth-and-five play late in the fourth quarter, the Tigers trailing (32-31) at the time. Despite not being quarterback Seth Henigan’s first pre-snap option, Prieskorn found a gap between an ASU linebacker and safety, and Henigan found Prieskorn for 17 yards to keep what proved to be the game-winning drive alive. The Tigers are deep at wide receiver this season, so Prieskorn makes the passing attack that much more dangerous.
“My body has changed the last three or four years,” said Prieskorn after the win. “I’ve gained 40 pounds. It’s been a long journey. Redshirting. Not getting a lot of playing time, behind a really good player in Sean Dykes. But he taught me a lot.” Prieskorn also threw a key block to help Henigan himself score on an 8-yard bootleg shortly before halftime. Basketball helped develop Prieskorn’s hands (for catching) in high school. But blocking is a newly learned talent, and one this rising Tiger star — all 255 pounds of him — should display on a weekly basis.
• What a rush. The Tigers ran the ball 45 times against the Red Wolves for 187 yards. In the pass-first world of modern football, this may as well have been the 1990s, with Chuck Stobart or Rip Scherer on the Memphis sideline. Jevyon Ducker led the Tigers with 75 yards, more than half of them coming on a game-winning 39-yard touchdown scamper in the fourth quarter. Brandon Thomas — the Tigers’ lead dog on the ground — gained 46 yards and also scored a touchdown. Freshman Sutton Smith entered the game in the second half and averaged seven yards on three carries.
Best of all, particularly in Silverfield’s eyes, the Tigers didn’t turn the ball over. The running game suffered “fumble-itis” in dramatic fashion last season, costing Memphis at least one win, maybe two. If Saturday’s performance can be replicated, the Tiger offense will be a two-pronged handful for opposing defensive coordinators. Silverfield has a mantra for his team: Own the football. No better way to own it than by chewing up yardage and time with the ground game.
• The SEC remains the SEC. Since shocking Peyton Manning and 6th-ranked Tennessee on November 9, 1996, Memphis has played teams from the Southeastern Conference 35 times . . . and lost 30 times. Most of these games have been against Ole Miss (the Tigers are 4-10 against the Rebels) and Mississippi State (1-10). Tiger fans relished recent victories over Ole Miss (2015 and 2019) and the Bulldogs (2021), but to think the gap has been closed with SEC competition would mean an extra shade of rose on the lenses. SEC programs operate with “resources” (read: money) that Memphis can’t approach. Alabama’s football revenue (just football) is considerably more than the U of M athletic department’s (all sports). For the Tigers to capture a rare win requires a precision in roster-building that simply can’t be replicated one year after another. That truth was made clear in the declawing suffered last Saturday in Starkville. Be grateful for those recent wins, ye Tiger faithful, but retain perspective — and don’t panic — when Memphis appears second-rate against an SEC foe.
• “Let’s not compare this guy to Mike Norvell.” A Twitter follower suggested this approach in evaluating the 2022 Tigers and their third-year head coach, Ryan Silverfield. Sorry to disappoint, but Silverfield will be compared with Norvell as long as he’s wearing blue and gray. Norvell hired him. Norvell nurtured Silverfield’s growth as an assistant coach for four years, all but placing him on a tee for Memphis to hire when Norvell departed for Florida State after winning the 2019 American Athletic Conference championship. Said U of M president David Rudd upon Silverfield’s hiring, “I am confident that he will build on a well-established foundation to help us take another step forward for Tiger football.” Well-established foundation. There the comparisons to Norvell began.
In Norvell’s third season as Tiger coach, Memphis lost at Tulane, 40-24. Three weeks later, the same team lost at Missouri, 65-33. (SEC . . . ugh.) Needless to say, better days arrived for Norvell and the Tigers. While we won’t find Anthony Miller or Tony Pollard on the current roster, there’s reason to believe better days will come for Silverfield in his third season as head coach, starting this Saturday at Navy.
• Stretch the arm, Seth. The Tigers will win (and lose) games on sophomore quarterback Seth Henigan’s right arm. Henigan was solid but well short of spectacular against Mississippi State. He completed 63 percent of his passes (19 for 30), but averaged only 5.5 yards per attempt. Compare this with the 8.5 he averaged last season as a freshman. (Brady White averaged 8.7 yards per attempt over his record-breaking three seasons as the Tigers’ quarterback.) Henigan didn’t throw an interception, so his decision-making passed the first-game test. But Memphis will have to stretch the field offensively, I’m convinced, to climb back into contention in the AAC. Seven players caught passes against the Bulldogs, so Henigan would seem to have targets. Here’s hoping new offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey draws up some plays with deep arrows for Saturday’s game at Navy.
