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Three Thoughts: Rock Bottom?

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.

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Memphis Tigers: Wreck and Recover

Jalen Duren, Penny Hardaway, and Emoni Bates (Photo by Larry Kuzniewski)

Penny Hardaway was in a dark place, and visibly, during his postgame press conference on December 10th. The basketball coach had just witnessed his Memphis Tigers’ fourth consecutive loss, to Murray State, in what should be a place of comfort, FedExForum. I asked Hardaway if he’d ever felt so low in his basketball life.

“There’s so much going on in our country,” he replied, after shaking his head. “Four losses in a row is devastating, but it’s not life and death. My faith in God; I understand what’s going on. We have to weather a storm. I’ve never been here, but I know I’m a fighter, and I’ll figure it out.” When “life and death” are mentioned — with allusion to the ongoing pandemic — during a discussion about a basketball game . . . it’s a dark place.

Just four days later, the Tigers played 40 minutes of furious basketball and upset the 6th-ranked team in the country, the Alabama Crimson Tide. It was the program’s first win over top-10 competition since March 2014 and the biggest victory in Hardaway’s four seasons as a college coach. 

Four days after the big win, though, with fans already in the stands at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, the Tigers’ much-anticipated clash with Tennessee was cancelled when Landers Nolley and Tyler Harris tested positive for Covid-19. Making matters worse, we learned the majority of Hardaway’s roster had not been vaccinated. By the time the Tigers returned to play on December 29th at Tulane, two starters (Jalen Duren and DeAndre Williams) were sidelined for Covid protocols along with a third (Emoni Bates) with a hand injury. Memphis lost (by a single point) to the Green Wave, a team that will not finish in the top half of the American Athletic Conference standings.

It’s been that kind of season so far for a Tiger team now 1-1 in AAC play after an impressive win at Wichita State on New Year’s Day. A league championship (regular season or tournament) is all but required for a berth in the NCAA tournament. Can a seven-year Big Dance drought be boxed up and left for the history books? Or will the 2021-22 Tigers become chapter eight in an “era” no Memphis fan will celebrate years from now?

Three observations for the Tigers’ two-month push for national relevance:

• Memphis is best when Hardaway squeezes the rotation. Seven players absorbed 91 percent of the minutes in the upset of Alabama. Those seven players: Alex Lomax, Lester Quinones, Landers Nolley, Tyler Harris, Bates, Duren, and Williams. Much was made about the depth of the Memphis roster entering the season. Hardaway has a pair of players — Johnathan Lawson and Sam Onu — redshirting this season that could start for other AAC programs. But a basketball team must play as a unit to perform at optimum capacity. We saw a strong, seven-man unit beat the Crimson Tide by 14 points. To try and force nine or ten players into that “unit” . . . it’s impossible.

• Minutes for Minott. Freshman forward Josh Minott made virtually no impact in the win over Alabama (two points in four minutes of playing time). But in hockey terms, Minott was one of the Tigers’ three stars (along with Duren and Williams) in the victory over Wichita State: 15 points, six rebounds, and a pair of steals in just 19 minutes. Minott gained playing time against the Shockers by virtue of Lomax sitting out with an ankle injury. When Lomax returns, Minott must remain a sixth (or seventh) man. He brings too much for peripheral status.

• No more second-tier surprises. The loss at Tulane and the win at Wichita State might each be considered surprise results, so they’re a wash. But the Tigers cannot afford to lose any more games against lesser competition, and there’s a lot of lesser competition on the AAC schedule. The league favorite, Houston, is down a pair of rotation players. Cincinnati comes to FedExForum this Sunday for a nationally televised showdown. A conference championship is there for the taking. The kind of accomplishment that turns darkness into light.

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Quarterback Quandary

Seth Henigan (Credit: Larry Kuzniewski)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tiger Truths

CREDIT: Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy

You can learn a lot about a basketball team with four games in eight days. The Tigers finished January by winning three of those four games, and they displayed a few factors that will impact the remainder of the season.

Whither D.J. Jeffries? The sophomore forward from Olive Branch was a preseason second-team all-conference selection. It now seems he can’t crack the Tigers’ starting lineup. In the blowout wins over Wichita State and East Carolina, Jeffries scored a total of 13 points (and took 14 shots). He played well in the win over SMU at FedExForum (12 points off the bench; 5 of 7 from the field), but disappeared in the rematch at Dallas (a single point in 15 minutes on the floor), a game Memphis lost by two points. For now, Jeffries is this team’s enigma. He seems to have had some thunder stolen by transfers Landers Nolley and DeAndre Williams. For the Tigers to be their best in February, Jeffries must join the party.
Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy

Penny Hardaway


Willpower is there, at least in bursts. Eight minutes into the first game against SMU, the Tigers were beaten. Down eight points, they looked to be facing a rarity: a more athletic group of basketball players. But a 17-2 run seized the lead at halftime and Memphis traded punches with the Mustangs over the final 20 minutes and earned the win. They utilized a run of precisely the same margin (17-2) to get back into the game at SMU two days later. They had a late lead. They had a chance to force overtime with free throws. It didn’t work out. But the fight was there. This is an important variable, especially with crowds still nonexistent for home games. The only way this team makes the NCAA tournament is by winning a few games in February that they shouldn’t. That will require teeth as much as talent.

The Tigers can shoot from distance. Memphis hit at least 10 three-pointers in the wins over Wichita State, East Carolina, and SMU. They hadn’t hit so many in any of their previous 11 games. Seven Tigers found the net from long range in the win over the Pirates. Not an especially strong opponent, but that kind of collective shooting is hard to beat. The beauty in this, of course, is that it’s hard for seven players to slump at the same time. Tiger coach Penny Hardaway needs to adjust his rotation to accommodate shooters who are on target, and this will surely change from one game to the next. The Tigers even hit nine treys in the loss to SMU. Add a 10th and that two-point loss is a fourth straight win. Follow this stat line the rest of the season.

This team’s “identity” is defense. It’s an overused descriptor for a group of athletes tasked with winning games and chasing championships: What’s their identity? Just as individual players have several layers to what they bring on game night, so does a team. Those layers are peeled back depending on the opponent, location, injuries, time of year. In other words, a team’s “identity” changes as a season unfolds. But these Memphis Tigers will go as far as their defense takes them. SMU guard Kendric Davis is a leading candidate for American Athletic Conference Player of the Year. In two games against the Tigers last week, Davis missed 21 of his 27 shots and committed nine turnovers. The Tigers rank 26th in the country in points allowed (62.9 through the second SMU game). They rank 13th in field-goal percentage defense (39 percent). They beat teams by stopping teams, an asset Hardaway has sought since taking the job.

Boogie is better than he’s been. It was hard seeing Boogie Ellis miss that second free throw in the final seconds of the loss at SMU. Because Ellis is the one Tiger most in need of finding his role for this team. Remember his 24 points in the season-opening win over St. Mary’s? He hasn’t put up as many as 15 in a game since. This is a scorer, one originally committed to, ahem, Duke. Ellis needs a confidence-booster, to be sure. Hardaway must find the right place and time to bring Boogie back.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers’ Top 10 Individual Seasons

CREDIT: U of M Athletics

With the University of Memphis marking a centennial of basketball, the time is right for a look at the 10 greatest individual seasons in program history. Here they are.

10) Dajuan Wagner (2001-02) — Wagner’s abbreviated NBA career has left him somewhat of a footnote in the sport’s history, but his one college season was memorable for two reasons. His 762 points are the most ever scored by a Memphis player in one campaign and he finished the season raising a “national championship” trophy, having led the Tigers to victory in the NIT at Madison Square Garden.

9) Jeremiah Martin (2018-19) — Until Martin’s senior season, seven Memphis players had scored 40 points in a game, but no one had done so twice. Martin scored 40 points twice in the month of February (the first time in a single half). A player who averaged 2.7 points as a freshman became just the fifth Tiger to score 700 points in a season.
U of M Athletics

Larry Kenon


8) Andre Turner (1985-86) — The Little General averaged 7.7 assists per game in the first season After Keith Lee. In the 34 years since, no Tiger has averaged as many as 7.0 and only two have hit the 6.0 mark (Penny Hardaway and Chris Garner). Turner also averaged 13.9 points, joined the 1,000-point club, and helped the Tigers to a fifth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

7) Forest Arnold (1955-56) — Arnold is one of only two Tigers to rank among the program’s top 10 in both scoring average (21.2, seventh) and rebounding average (13.5, fourth) from the same season. His 46 points against Hardin-Simmons on December 7, 1955, are the second-most for a single game in Memphis history. (Larry Finch scored 48 in a 1973 game.)

6) Chris Douglas-Roberts (2007-08) — CDR became only the third Memphis player to earn first-team All-America honors from the AP and did so sharing the floor with a man (Derrick Rose) who would be the top pick in the 2008 NBA draft. His 724 points rank third in Tiger history and he might be even higher on this last had he not missed a pair of late free throws in the national championship against Kansas.

5) Win Wilfong (1956-57) — Wilfong averaged 21.0 points and 12.4 rebounds (63 years later, both figures rank among the Tigers’ top 10). He led Memphis State to the NIT final and earned MVP honors with 31 points despite the Tigers’ loss to Bradley. Converse named him first-team All-America.

4) Keith Lee (1984-85) — You could really take your pick from Lee’s four Tiger seasons, but we’ll go with his senior campaign, one that earned the West Memphis native first-team All-America recognition from the AP. Lee averaged 19.7 points and 9.2 rebounds in leading the Tigers to the first 30-win season in program history and their second Final Four appearance.

3) Larry Finch (1972-73) — To this day, no Tiger has averaged more than Finch’s 24.0 points per game over the course of a season. (Finch’s 23.9 average from the 1971-72 campaign ranks second.) I’ve heard it said by several that he would have averaged 30 points with a three-point line. He was the first Tiger to top 700 points for a season, capped off by 29 against UCLA in the national championship.

2) Penny Hardaway (1992-93) — Hardaway broke his coach’s single-season scoring record with 729 points while also becoming just the second Tiger to dish out 200 assists in a season. Over three days in early January, Hardaway became the first (and still only) Tiger to post two triple-doubles. He was named first-team All-America by the AP, only the second Tiger to be so honored.

1) Larry Kenon (1972-73) — Kenon is the only Tiger player to have his jersey number retired for only one season of actually wearing it. And that season was good enough to top this list. Kenon is the only Tiger to pull down as many as 400 rebounds in a season, and he had 501. (Ronnie Robinson’s junior and sophomore seasons are second and fourth on the chart, respectively, but his senior year, Kenon pulled down anything round or orange.) Kenon had 25 double-doubles in 30 games, averaging 20.1 points and 16.7 rebounds. As great as Finch and Robinson were, those Tigers don’t reach the Final Four without Larry Kenon.