Records Broken, Interim Tags, and Battle Scars — A Night to Remember for Memphis Football

Some two hours before kickoff, Memphis Interim Defensive Coordinator Jordon Hankins walked to midfield staring momentarily toward the visitor’s locker room. Warming up within his line of sight, mostly in cutoff shirts, was the Iowa State offensive line, a unit averaging 6′ 6″, 325 pounds, who had only surrendered 16 sacks through the regular season. “I think they’re going to line up and run it down their throats,” a local radio commentator predicted of Iowa State’s game plan in the hours leading up to the game. As a light rain mixed with a little sleet began to fall, Hankins turned and slowly walked back into the Tigers’ locker room. Despite the line in Vegas swelling up to -10.5 in favor of Iowa State, the Tigers’ wide receivers, dressed a little bit warmer than their Midwestern opponents, calmly and playfully stretched as Hankins strolled by.

As the countdown clock on the Jumbotron dwindled, clashing colors of red and blue began to fill Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium just as it did six seasons ago. “I think we’ve actually got them outnumbered this time,” a Tiger fan in Section 120 mentioned as the National Anthem concluded. Iowa State won the coin toss and elected to put their Top-30 defense on the field first. The fans from Ames roared as the Tigers faced an early 3rd-and-5, and that’s when the fireworks commenced. Seth Henigan, on the cusp of becoming the all-time leading passer in Memphis Football history, hit a streaking DeMeer Blankumsee for a 70-yard touchdown on the third play of the game. Calling his first game as Defensive Coordinator since his days at UT-Martin in 2019, it was Hankins’ turn to show what the Tigers’ defense could do.

On a 4th-and-1 from their own 46-yard line, the Cyclones were ready to flex their muscles. No way the 97th ranked run defense in the country could hold for a mere yard, right? On a quarterback keeper, Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year Rocco Becht was stuffed, giving the Tigers’ offense a great opportunity to quickly strike again. As he’d done frequently throughout the regular season, First Team All-AAC Running Back Blake Watson found a hole to scramble for 14 yards to the Iowa State 32-yard line. A few plays later, Seth Henigan escaped the pocket (often by choice this season) to dive in the end zone from 11 yards out, moving the Tigers’ lead to 13 points. Another Iowa State punt turned Tigers’ score extended the Memphis lead to 19 points with 30 seconds still remaining in the first quarter.

Iowa State started punching back, scoring on their final three possessions of the first half. A fake kneel-down good for 22 yards and a 17-yard completion to Roc Taylor gave Tigers’ kicker Tanner Gillis a chance at a Liberty Bowl record 49-yard field goal attempt as time expired. As the ball squeaked past the crossbar, the Cyclones’ defense had already surrendered more points than their season average of 21 in just the first half. The Tigers home crowd, sitting in unfamiliar territory, rose to their feet in applause of the fiery start from Geoffrey Cantin-Arku and company.

Consecutive three-and-outs from Iowa State answered by Tiger touchdowns blew the game wide open at 36-13 in the third quarter. Anthony Landphere caught his third touchdown pass of the season and Sutton Smith turned a dump-off in the flat into a 48-yard highlight reel score. After Iowa State Abu Sama III was walled-up on back-to-back rushing attempts, the Cyclones practically abandoned the run and aired it out for scoring drives from 85 and 80 yards out. In a 10 point game with under 10 minutes remaining, Memphis Offensive Coordinator Tim Cramsey conducted a 17-play drive for 73 yards that drained over nine minutes off the clock. Iowa State took possession off a turnover-on-downs from Memphis, but with 38 seconds remaining in the game, the Tigers had already secured their most prestigious bowl victory in school history

“I think they played tough defense and coaches that have played against this defense know that and they had the ability to make some plays (in) some critical moments,” Iowa State’s Matt Campbell said in the post game, “Give those guys a lot of credit.” To be frank, though, no opposing coaching staff on the Tigers’ schedule saw a defensive performance like the one Memphis displayed on Friday night. The Tigers allowed zero rushing yards, the second-fewest ever allowed in the Liberty Bowl’s 65-year history and Chandler Martin set a Liberty Bowl record with 5 tackles for loss in the game. The Tigers’ defense recorded 2 sacks and 8 TFLs, and never allowed Iowa State’s dynamic quarterback to sit comfortably in the pocket throughout the game.

Offensively, the Tigers ended the season on a red-hot streak. With 102 receiving yards on 8 receptions, Roc Taylor became just the fifth 1,000 yard receiver in school history. It was also the first time since 2019 that the Tigers had a 1,000 yard rusher and receiver in the same season. In addition to being the all-time passing leader at Memphis, Seth Henigan broke a program record for completions in a season with 317. Despite losing two starting offensive linemen to the transfer portal, Memphis had zero penalties, surrendered zero sacks, controlled time of possession, and racked up 540 offensive yards in their first victory over a Power 5 opponent since 2021.

Where does the victory rank among Ryan Silverfield’s favorites? “You’re always going to appreciate the most recent ones, you know, there’s been some good ones that have occurred, but I’d say in my collegiate coaching career and my entire coaching career, this is the absolute very best.” Silverfield, who became just the fourth head coach in Memphis Football history to win 10 or more games in a season, revealed he was hit with a Gatorade cooler in the postgame celebration, gashing his forehead.

And while the Tigers’ best season since 2019 is officially over, that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty to talk about going into the offseason. A social media campaign to remove the “interim” tag from Jordon Hankins’ newest title had already started amongst Tigers players and the Memphis fanbase on Friday night. It’s also likely that Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium will have a much different look when Memphis fans reassemble next fall. Seth Henigan and Roc Taylor have both announced their intentions to return next season, but can the Tigers’ staff keep other key contributors from being snatched away by big players in the NIL world?

The College Football Playoffs will expand to 12 teams in 2024 and the Tigers have already been mentioned as an early contender for the G5’s spot. SMU is off to the ACC, Fritz and Pratt are gone at Tulane, and UTSA will seek to move on from the Frank Harris era in San Antonio. Rumors swirled of a connection between Ryan Silverfield and Indiana last month, and now the Memphis administration will need to begin contract extension talks before the heavily-favored Tigers begin play next year.

Where’s the monkey? No longer on Ryan Silverfield’s back. The third-most winningest coach in Memphis Football history will now seek to take the Tiger’s program to heights it’s never before experienced while the conference realignment wheel continues to churn in the background. “I live my life every day just to make sure this program is beating to the right standard, and we have a standard of excellence in everything we do,” Silverfield said with pride Friday night, “Hopefully this time next year, I’m not putting grandiose expectations, but man, I think we all know we gotta go swinging at this championship thing and see what else is out there for us as a program.”