All it took was a 94-yard punt return, a 51-yard field goal, and a final defensive stop on a two-point conversion attempt. Such is Memphis Tiger football these days. Bring a team to the Liberty Bowl from the hallowed SEC — in Saturday’s case, the Mississippi State Bulldogs — and that team will find hostile surroundings and an opponent built on the premise that it has been, is now, and will always be the underdog. (Pardon the somewhat-pun.)
In beating the Bullies, 31-29, in front of 43,461 fans, Memphis improved to 3-0 on the season, extended its home winning streak to 17 games (fourth-longest current streak in the nation), and ended a 12-game losing streak (dating back to 1993) against its longtime regional rivals from Starkville. Bonus fun? The Tigers honored Isaac Bruce — the first Memphis alum to gain enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame — at halftime. Bruce, it should be noted, played for the last Memphis team to beat Mississippi State.
Football in this town hasn’t always been this exciting, this much fun. The last time Mississippi State took the field at the Liberty Bowl — almost precisely a decade ago — they had a lot of fun at the expense of the home team. Ranked 20th in the country, the Bullies obliterated the Tigers, 59-14. If you were to mark a historic low point for the Memphis program, it may not have been September 1, 2011, but let’s say that was another slip toward the low point, the 2011 season ending with a 2-10 record for the Tigers (3-21 in two years under coach Larry Porter).
The rise since 2011 has been epic. Three Top-25 teams, a pair of first-team All-Americans now playing in the NFL, an appearance in the Cotton Bowl. Seven straight 8-win seasons, going on eight. When the home team found itself down, 17-7, at halftime, the feeling was more “how will the Tigers come back?” than “here we go again.” As coach Ryan Silverfield emphasized after the game, “There’s no panic in this team.”
About that 94-yard punt return. I’ve watched hundreds of football games, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Midway through the fourth quarter (with Memphis up four points), a pair of Bulldog coverage men touched the football inside the Tiger 10-yard line . . . but neither downed the ball. No official blew a whistle to end the play. Calvin Austin III — the Tigers’ senior receiver from Harding Academy — picked up the ball (at the feet of the Bulldog defenders) and sprinted 94 yards down the right sideline to give Memphis a 28-17 lead. It was a very athletic play on the part of Austin, but it was also an extraordinarily smart play. More than 43,000 people considered that play over before it was. Calvin Austin turned it into a play none of those people will ever forget.
When kicker Joe Doyle split the uprights from 51 yards to extend the Tiger lead to eight points (31-23) near the game’s end, it felt like another signature victory, and the first for Silverfield. The Bulldogs followed with a touchdown that looked way too easy, but the Tigers held on that two-point attempt, making the day, indeed, one for the history books.
The Tiger program has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade, but don’t confuse that with losing connections to a proud past. Bruce embodied that cross-generational pride when he walked to midfield at halftime with his yellow Hall of Fame jacket (not a drop of rain on this otherwise soggy Saturday). And consider linebacker J.J. Russell making a career-high 14 tackles on a day the Liberty Bowl crowd observed a moment of silence for the late Danton Barto (a man who tackled more foes than anyone else in U of M history). That’s the kind of magic — the kind of moments — Memphis football has come to deliver. Expect more. “We’re not satisfied,” emphasized Silverfield. “First thing we’ll talk about tomorrow is the work we need to do.”
