If the goal is a return to some form of normal, Saturday night at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium felt very close. Thirty thousand people gathered (most of them outdoors) to cheer on the University of Memphis in its season opener. It had been almost two years since such a crowd could be counted at the Liberty Bowl, the pandemic having reduced the 2020 Tiger season to the kind fans could only enjoy from their dens and living rooms. So yes, Saturday felt normal.
Part of that normal feeling was the Tigers’ 42-17 win over Nicholls State. It was the program’s eighth consecutive season-opening victory and increased the Tigers’ home winning streak to 16 games (fifth in the entire country). They may be playing under a relatively new coach — Ryan Silverfield is beginning his second season — but this is what Memphis football does these days. The Tigers win, often handily, and they impose a home-field advantage few other programs can claim, an advantage intensified when fans can actually enter the Liberty Bowl.
Along with normal, the Tigers saw some new Saturday night. Seth Henigan became the first true freshman to start an opener at quarterback in the history of the Memphis program. The Texas native completed 19 of 32 passes for 265 yards and threw a touchdown pass. Perhaps most pleasing to his coach, Henigan did not throw an interception.
As for the Tiger ground game, redshirt freshman Brandon Thomas introduced himself with 147 yards on just 16 carries and scored on a ten-yard scamper early in the second quarter. Silverfield has spoken of the need for a “bell cow” ball carrier, and number 22 made his case against the Colonels. Henigan and Thomas led an offense that piled up 587 yards. Then there’s kicker Joe Doyle (a transfer from, ahem, Tennessee): five field goals without a miss. New faces, new hope for a program with aspirations of returning to the nation’s Top 25.
The game wasn’t perfect. Doyle kicked all those field goals because the offense couldn’t get the ball into the end zone to finish five drives. The Tiger defense had only one tackle behind the line of scrimmage and did not register a sack against Nicholls quarterback Lindsey Scott. Shortcomings against an FCS opponent like the Colonels could be magnified with an FBS foe on the other sideline.
Masks were required, it should be noted, in the press box and indoor suites. The stadium has new terrace seating that allows for table-top dining and socializing, but outdoors. Those 30,000 fans in the stands? Very few were masked up. Who knows the percentage of vaccinations? As a pandemic lingers — and a football season begins — the questions (concerns?) will stack upon any answers we find, be they tactics for a football team’s success or strategy for a community’s return to health. But for one night in Memphis, one football game — with fans! — at the Liberty Bowl, we’ll take the dose of normal and bank it for the hope it brings.
My weekly “Three Thoughts on Tiger Football” will return, so check back regularly or follow me on Twitter @FrankMurtaugh.
