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.”
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.
Caden Prieskorn scored a first-quarter touchdown in Saturday's win over North Texas (photo by Larry Kuzniewski)
• Defense delivers. With a third of their season in the books, the Memphis Tigers are still determining this year’s playmakers. With star power, particularly on offense, a larger crowd than 23,203 shows up for a football game on a sunny afternoon in late September. Seth Henigan is among the best quarterbacks in the American Athletic Conference, if not the entire country. But he can’t sell tickets by himself. Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield likes to say his running backs — primarily Brandon Thomas, Jevyon Ducker, and Asa Martin — are “running hard,” but that’s not quite the same as running like Darrell Henderson or Kenneth Gainwell (each currently carrying footballs in the NFL).
But stars are emerging on the defensive side of the ball for Memphis. Early in the third quarter of Saturday’s win over North Texas, senior defensive end Jaylon Allen intercepted a Mean Green pass (on a ball tipped by Tiger cornerback Greg Rubin), and ran it back 39 yards for a touchdown to give Memphis a 27-13 lead. Allen, it should be noted, sacked UNT quarterback Austin Aune in the first half. Then early in the fourth quarter, with the Tiger lead down to seven points, senior linebacker Xavier (Zay) Cullens delivered another “pick six,” this one for 37 yards. The two defensive touchdowns were vital in a 10-point victory and suggest this year’s playmakers may emerge when the opponent snaps the ball.
• 59 forever. I’m rather thrilled for the family, friends, and many fans of the late Danton Barto, who will become the seventh Tiger football player to have his jersey (number 59) retired. We lost Barto way too soon, a victim last year of covid-19. But his legacy, to say the least, lives on. It’s hard to imagine Barto’s program record of 473 career tackles ever being topped. (The most by a Memphis player since Barto played his final game in 1993: 416 by Kamal Shakir.)
“The defense stepped up in a big way, and what a day to do so,” said Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield after Saturday’s win. He noted how pleased Barto would have been by the way Memphis won with big plays on defense. Barto is the third Tiger defensive player to receive the ultimate honor, joining John Bramlett, who had his jersey retired in 2013, and the late Charles Greenhill, who died in the 1983 plane crash that also killed Memphis coach Rex Dockery.
• Testy Temple. The Tigers’ history with Temple dates back only to 2013, just seven games. But the Owls have delivered a pair of painful recent defeats to Memphis, both in Philadelphia. In 2019, a controversial no-catch call late in the game cost the Tigers the win and, quite possibly, an undefeated regular season. Then last year, Memphis literally fumbled the game away, two turnovers proving to be the difference in a three-point Temple win. Henigan was asked after Saturday’s win if last year’s game is a motivator for this Saturday’s clash and he denied it is . . . but only after mentioning those fumbles.
The Owls are averaging merely 18 points per game, but they’re allowing only 15 (good for 18th in the country). Their two wins have come against Lafayette and Massachusetts, hardly the kind that shape a season. The Owls are 1-2 at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, their win coming in 2016 (Mike Norvell’s first season as head coach). With a Friday-night visit from Houston looming (October 7th), the Tigers will be tested Saturday by a familiar villain. A 4-1 record entering the Houston game would look a lot better than 3-2.
• 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.
University of Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield is tired of answering questions about the pandemic, the transfer portal, and NILs (name-image-likeness deals for student athletes). But here’s the thing: He’ll keep answering those questions, and with a smile on his face. Because that’s college football today. The case could be made that the sport has changed more since Silverfield took over the Tiger program — in December 2019 — than it did over the previous three decades. Recruiting is different (what kind of NIL possibilities exist?). Retaining players is a new challenge (that pesky portal). And graduating players? Keeping a standout running back for four (or five) seasons? You must be thinking of 2018.
“This is my 24th year of coaching,” notes Silverfield. “And the last three years have changed [the profession] dramatically. Not just for a head coach. The game has changed so much itself. That’s been what’s so dynamic. Who would have thought my first few months on the job would be the most normal? [Silverfield made his debut at the 2019 Cotton Bowl after his predecessor, Mike Norvell, departed for Florida State.] I couldn’t call [Alabama coach] Nick Saban up and ask how he dealt with a pandemic. I couldn’t call [LSU coach] Brian Kelly and ask how he handled the transfer portal in 1989. How did coaches deal with NIL in the late ’90s? We’re in a different, ever-changing game. When will we ever be able to just talk football? I don’t know if we’ll be on that trajectory anytime soon. Every coach is dealing with it.
“So the only constant is change. With a little bit of patience — as a man and a coach — I understand that every day something new will occur. You better adapt and adjust and get on the bus, or you’re going to get run over. We’re trying to stay ahead of it, to be proactive. And I believe we’re doing that here. The game’s hard enough. When you’re working 100 hours a week, to get frustrated does you no good. There’s a lot. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for a head coach who makes a good salary and gets to live his dream. But it’s changed.”
The 2021 Memphis Tigers, it can be said, broke even. They won six games and lost six. (Memphis hasn’t had a losing season since 2013.) They scored 30.1 points per game (a total that ranked 52nd among 130 FBS teams), and allowed 29.2. They were strong at home (5-2) but weak on the road (1-4). Most troubling, Memphis finished 3-5 in the American Athletic Conference, well short of a primary goal every season: winning the AAC championship. The Tigers qualified for a bowl game for the eighth season in a row (the Hawaii Bowl), but the game was canceled when their opponent (the University of Hawaii) had a Covid outbreak the day before kickoff. Silverfield’s second season as a head coach was decent, but he doesn’t hesitate in emphasizing Memphis football should be better.
“It starts with me,” says Silverfield. “I’ve got to be better. We were 3-0 after beating Mississippi State and up 21-0 on a UTSA team that went 12-2. We had a pair of injuries and our 18-year-old quarterback threw a pick-six. At that point, the kids looked up and felt there was a chink in the armor. We were never over-confident, but we must stay healthy. We had 47 guys out last season at some point. We played 27 freshmen and redshirt-freshmen. On paper, we’ve put together the best back-to-back recruiting classes in the program’s history, so that bodes well for the future.”
Silverfield acknowledges the most common factor in a good program going sour for a stretch of time. “We turned the ball over too much,” he notes. “We fumbled the ball inside the one-yard line against Temple. Then again on the 15. Two different running backs. We have to do a better job of establishing the run. We’ve been a rotational backfield, more so than I ever wanted. It will sort itself out through camp. Asa Martin has come on the last two seasons. Rodrigues Clark has shown some flashes but has to be more consistent. Brandon Thomas, when healthy and well, has been a force to be reckoned with. [Thomas led Memphis with 669 rushing yards last season.] Marquavius Weaver started against Navy [last year]. We need to have two or three we can rely on heavily. I don’t want to play six running backs. It’s a wide-open competition.”
Seth Henigan (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
One position the Tigers did not rotate a year ago is quarterback. When Arizona transfer Grant Gunnell was sidelined by injury shortly before the season opener, freshman Seth Henigan — merely nine months after his last high school game — took command of the Memphis offense. He completed 60 percent of his passes for 3,322 yards and tossed 25 touchdown passes (with eight interceptions). Silverfield is counting on an even better Henigan in 2022.
“What allowed Seth to play so well as a freshman are his maturity and intelligence,” says Silverfield. “He has a lot of tools. But he threw three pick-sixes and at times played like a true freshman. Part of that is growing pains, but we saw growth every single game. It may not have resulted in the best completion percentage, but in recognizing situations: ‘Did you see where that safety was?’ He’s got more comfort now. It’s not just studying the playbook. Grasp the offense, but grow in year two. He’s had a full offseason in the weight room, getting his body right.”
“I’ve gained 15 pounds since last season,” says Henigan. “That should help me withstand hits, stay in the pocket, and deliver strikes. And knowing I’m the starter … that’s a good feeling. Building chemistry, and not splitting reps [in practice]. The experience from last year will benefit me this season and in the long run. We have a lot of kids capable of having a breakout season. Our receiving corps is really deep; our offensive line is more experienced. We should be pretty dynamic, fun to watch.”
The Tigers’ biggest loss from a season ago is wideout Calvin Austin III. The speed demon will now split coverages for the Pittsburgh Steelers after being drafted in the fourth round of April’s NFL draft. But Silverfield likes the group of receivers Henigan will be targeting this fall. What they may lack when compared with Austin’s flaming speed, they make up for with collective size. “This is the most depth we’ve had at wide receiver since I’ve been at Memphis. Javon Ivory has shown production. People are expecting big things from Gabe Rogers.” Joe Scates (a transfer from Iowa State) will be in the mix, as will Eddie Lewis (four touchdowns last season). Sophomore Roc Taylor brings the kind of size (6’2”, 225 lbs.) that can punish defensive backs.
“The size [of our receivers] will stretch the field,” notes Silverfield. Caden Prieskorn should get the majority of snaps at tight end, and he checks in at 6’6”, 255 lbs. He’ll actually have a size advantage on some of the edge rushers Memphis faces.
In looking at the Tiger defense, let’s start with the secondary, where safety Quindell Johnson returns for what he hopes will be a third-straight all-conference season. (Motivation? Johnson was named second-team All-AAC each of the last two years.) Johnson’s 66 solo tackles were 17th in all of college football last season, but the numbers merely approximate his value to the Memphis cause.
“Quindell Johnson is the leader of our team,” says Silverfield. “The leader of our defense, certainly. Intelligent. Had the opportunity to go to the NFL, but decided to come back and compete. He cares, lives at the football complex. Could have transferred, but he stayed here. Loyal to the program. His family raised him right. Usually when I get a text from a parent, it’s negative. But his mom will text me just to say, ‘Hope your day is going all right. I know you have a lot on your plate.’ He’ll need to continue to make plays on the ball. Our new defensive scheme will suit him. He wants to win. It’s not just about improving his draft stock. Let’s win a championship. I admire that in him.”
Johnson relishes the chance to win a conference championship before his Tiger days are complete. (He graduated with a degree in business management last December and is now working toward a master’s degree.) “We have new guys, new coaching staff,” he notes, “and I’m just excited to see how it plays out. Playing football with the people I love.” Johnson refuses to name the teammates who will impact this year’s defense, insisting fans will need to “watch all of us.” Johnson’s offseason was spent building a more complete football player, as he puts it: “Getting faster, stronger, working on my technique, being a student of the game.”
And for those wondering why Johnson stayed despite alternatives, a program’s culture made the difference. “I’ve been so loyal,” emphasizes Johnson. “This program has given me nothing but love. I was in a situation where I didn’t need to leave. I’m somewhere I know I can play; I’m comfortable. The love the city’s given me … it’s unconditional.”
Johnson may be the most decorated, but the Tiger defense will have veterans at every level, with fifth-year seniors on the line (Wardalis Ducksworth), at linebacker (Xavier Cullens and Tyler Murray), and in the secondary (Rodney Owens). Even a sophomore like cornerback Greg Rubin — in 2020 a senior at White Station High School — brings experience, having started 11 games as a true freshman. “It’s maturity and confidence,” says Silverfield when asked how Rubin made an impact so quickly. “He’s shown an ability to work. Had the opportunity to go elsewhere, but stayed home and has found success.”
The Tigers will take the field for their opener at Mississippi State under the guidance of a new offensive coordinator (Tim Cramsey joins the program after four years at Marshall) and a new defensive coordinator (Matt Barnes arrives after three years at Ohio State). When asked for a connecting thread between the two hires, Silverfield says, “They’re great teachers.” Having interviewed seven candidates for each position, Silverfield chose men he feels can match his players when it comes to energy and passion.
“They’re dynamic,” says Silverfield. “They both bring energy, both have a chip on their shoulder. They have an underdog mentality and want to prove how good we can be, how great their units can be. When I interviewed [Barnes], he was getting all sweaty, uptight, jumpy. I said, ‘All right, this guy gets it.’ He wants to prove what he’s capable of.”
The Tigers will host seven games. (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
Silverfield sees the larger picture of college football’s shifting landscape. USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, for crying out loud. We can erase the word geography from any equation measuring a program’s value for one “power conference” or another. The AAC is losing three of its top programs — UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati — after the 2022-23 academic year. Joining the AAC are programs that won’t exactly sell football tickets by themselves: UAB, Rice, UTSA, Charlotte, North Texas, and FAU. (If it feels like the old Conference USA days, it should.)
“We want to be in the best conference for football,” says Silverfield. “Football is the driving force [of revenue for an athletic department]. It’s ever-changing. We’re doing things the right way, with some of the best facilities in the country. We’re pouring money into [significant] renovations of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Back-to-back years, we’ve had the highest graduation rate of any football program in our conference. All those things will put us on display, and we’ll see what the future entails. We want to play at the highest level we can.”
Before Seth Henigan was born, a 6-6 season may have been welcomed in these parts. But Memphis football has new standards now, and the sophomore quarterback is here to meet them. “I’m trying to get us back at least to the top of the AAC,” says Henigan. “The standard at Memphis is a level of excellence, grit, grind, and all that stuff. We work really hard, but we need to prove it on Saturdays. Nobody really cares if we don’t win on Saturdays.”
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.
