The joke in the press box midway through the University of Memphis’ annual spring game was that new coach Tommy West was just trying to sell season tickets. How else to explain this new Tiger offense which under the direction of new coordinator Randy Fichtner threw on first down, operated without the benefit of a huddle, scored the first time it had the ball, and generally ran circles around the vaunted Tiger defense.
Behind quarterbacks Travis Anglin and Danny Wimprine, the offense scored five touchdowns during the two-hour scrimmage. When Anglin or Wimprine were not passing the ball effectively, they were handing it off to running backs Sugar Sanders, Aaron Meadows, and Jeremiah Bonds. Anglin had two touchdown passes and ran for another TD, while Wimprine threw for one and ran for another.
Afterward, coaches and players alike expressed enthusiasm. “How did you like that,” one assistant coach asked after the scrimmage.
“This is the most excited I’ve ever seen our team,” said junior receiver Tripp Higgins. “Our defense even gets pumped up because of the tempo of our offense. They like seeing us do good.”
“We’re pleased with what we’ve accomplished in 13 practices,” West said after the scrimmage. “I think they’ve really come a long, long way. Our offensive players have an attitude right now that you want. They realize that they haven’t been very good; they haven’t been very productive. They’re listening to the fundamental coaching.”
West admitted that there were some areas that still need work and had some blunt words for his quarterbacks.
“We had some miscues at quarterback where we got people open. That’s not good enough to play quarterback here,” he said. “When we’ve got people wide open, we have to hit them or you can’t play Division-I college football. That’s the way it is.”
The Tigers will go into August without a number-one quarterback. “I really don’t think we have a quarterback who deserves to be number one. I don’t think anybody is playing to a level that we’ll have to play to win games,” West said. “I think we’ve got some good competition and I don’t want to cut it off. I’m going to carry it into August.
“I think Travis has done some good things. He needs to improve in the passing game, but he certainly is a threat running the ball,” West continued. “I think he has improved throwing the ball. He has improved his accuracy. He is certainly in the mix.”
Wimprine said he welcomes the battle. “Competition only makes you better,” he said. “Hopefully, all the quarterbacks will get better from this situation.”
Excitement was the word of the day.
“We’re all excited about the new offense, it’s explosive,” said Trey Erye, who is competing for the starting right guard position. “The best thing is that it makes everybody accountable for themselves. Today we had a lot of good things happen.”
“Coach West and his staff has done a great job of installing a new offense. It makes it fun,” added Higgins. “The defense does not have as much depth as we do now. We just got a lot better. Not to take anything away from them, but we did a lot of things good today.”
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