Butch Jones Preparing for a ‘Typical Memphis Football Team’

By now, practically every college football fan has heard that the Arkansas State Red Wolves didn’t exactly have the greatest kickoff to the 2023 football season. On top of surrendering 73 points to Oklahoma in week one, the Red Wolves were only one of two teams in FBS football to be held scoreless. The other team? Sam Houston State, who also happened to be playing their first game at the FBS level after moving up to Conference USA from the Western Athletic Conference over the summer. The rocky start to the year left media and fans in Jonesboro asking how Butch Jones and company can turn the page and adequately prepare for a game against their biggest rival, the Memphis Tigers.

After taking the Tigers to the wire in his first two seasons at Arkansas State, Jones was asked on Monday what he saw in Ryan Silverfield’s team ahead of Saturday night’s matchup. Jones responded by saying, in part, that he was preparing for a “typical Memphis football team”, and while that may sound like a slight on the surface, the seasoned coach in his 33rd year of college football was quite complimentary of his program’s oldest adversary. “They’re big in the lines of scrimmage, very active, very physical,” Jones added to his comments. Two days later, he repeated the sentiment, saying the Tigers “play a lot of personnel, they play a lot of people, and it doesn’t matter who is in, there’s not a big drop-off in the way they play defense, so it’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

In a regional rivalry that’s been going strong since 1914, it appeared as if Ryan Silverfield and his team reciprocated their respect for the Red Wolves program this week. “We’re going to get everything they have,” Coach Silverfield said on Monday, “Coach Jones has done a fantastic job, he’s won everywhere he’s been, so we know we’re going to get their best shot.” Last season inside Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, former Arkansas State QB James Blackman put the Red Wolves up by one with a little over four minutes left in the game. The Tigers responded with a 75-yard drive that was capped off with a 39-yard touchdown run by Jevyon Ducker. With an opportunity to win the game, a raucous Memphis crowd rattled Arkansas State, forcing them to commit back-to-back false start penalties and a high snap fumble was recovered by Jaylon Allen, sealing the victory for the Tigers.

In the 2021 season, the Tigers went into the locker room with a double-digit halftime lead, but even with career games from Brandon Thomas, Calvin Austin III, and Seth Henigan, the Red Wolves still managed to storm back and force a shootout. Arkansas State scored on their final four possessions of the game before a 56-yard Hail Mary attempt failed as time expired. “Our first year at Central Michigan in 2007 we went to Clemson and had basically the same result (as our loss to Oklahoma), we lost 70-14, and that team came back and won a bowl game and a championship,” Butch Jones said when speaking on building upon last week’s loss.

While the season commenced in opposite directions last week, coaches at both schools are choosing to look at the recent history of this series to prepare for the final matchup between Memphis and Arkansas State until 2026. “They’re definitely going to clean up,” Memphis Offensive Coordinator Tim Cramsey told the press on Tuesday, “they have really, really good coaches on that staff (at Arkansas State). Their players, I don’t know their players, but I’m assuming they’ve got a heck of a lot of pride, so to me they’re going to come out flying.”

After committing 14 penalties and looking borderline disinterested against Oklahoma, the Red Wolves feel as if they’ve gotten their wake-up call before hosting Memphis. A team that’s dropped four consecutive games in a rivalry that means a great deal to both fanbases, the Arkansas State locker room knows they have to step up to avoid another disappointment in the Paint Bucket Bowl. “It’s as competitive as it gets,” Arkansas State Senior LB Melique Straker said regarding the rivalry with Memphis, “being in that environment, whether it’s the fans, the approach of the fans, seeing that scarlet-and-red and then you see that blue, that clash against each other, it’s real, and you feel it around the facility now and you feel it going into the week. To be honest with you, I’m getting chills sitting up here even talking about it now.”

The Tigers and Red Wolves will face off in Jonesboro this Saturday at 6 PM on ESPN+.