• 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.
