Two weeks into the season, the Memphis defense turned heads throughout the fanbase. With a historic start out of the gate, Matt Barnes’s unit allowed only 3 points through the first 120 minutes of game play. After a back-and-forth battle with Navy two weeks ago and allowing Luther Burden III and company to put up 542 total yards in St. Louis, the Tigers’ defensive coordinator said Memphis needed to “get back to our roots” ahead of their matchup with Boise State on Saturday.
From one offensive superstar to the next, though, the challenge for Memphis defensively doesn’t get much easier. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty will enter Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Saturday coming off a 254 all-purpose yard performance against San Diego State last week, and Matt Barnes stated Wednesday that there’s not been many defensive schemes to successfully slow him down so far this season. “You’ve got to tackle (him). There’s no magic pill, there’s no magic defense. Believe me, if there was I’d call it,” Barnes said, “There’s no magic scheme. It’s never what you do, it’s how you do it.”
With 63 carries over the last three weeks, media members in Boise have expressed concern about whether Jeanty’s workload is sustainable in the long term. “We’ve got to find creative ways in practice to limit his reps, get him in there when he needs to, but still keep his timing and everything right, so it’s a happy medium,” Boise State Running Back Coach James Montgomery told the media on Thursday. “(Jeanty) is insane; it’s like you’re watching a Madden highlight. It doesn’t seem real — like nobody can tackle him,” Boise State WR Eric McAlister said regarding his running back’s recent performance.
So for the third straight week, the Tiger defense will have a unique challenge at hand. Two weeks ago, Memphis needed to scheme against a new-look triple-option offense in Brian Newberry’s first season at Navy. Last week, Matt Barnes had to devise a plan to stop a future first-rounder playing in front of his hometown crowd. This week, the Memphis coaching staff will have to stop one of the hottest hands in the country in a huge non-conference home game. So how do they do it?
“It’ll be a group effort,” Matt Barnes said Wednesday, “We know we’re not going to be able to shut him down completely, obviously, but we need to do a better job of limiting explosive plays particularly relative to what we gave up last week.” One could argue that the big plays were the difference in the loss to Missouri in St. Louis. The Tigers gave up nine plays of 20 or more yards last week, and Luther Burden III was responsible for four of those plays. On drives when Burden III was held to one or fewer receptions, Missouri only scored three total points on the night.
This Saturday, the Broncos will plan to use Ashton Jeanty similarly. A scenario in which Memphis limits his impact on the game will likely result in a good outcome for Ryan Silverfield and the Tigers. Boise State comes into the game with a struggling secondary. The Broncos are giving up an average of 294 yards per game through the air and are 85th nationally on third-down defense this season. Blake Watson has emerged as the go-to option in Tim Cramsey’s offense and Roc Taylor will look to build on the best statistical game of his career with 7 receptions for 143 yards last week.
After scoring 27 points against the toughest defense on their schedule, the Tigers will strive to increase their offensive output against a less formidable group this Saturday. “We just want to execute to the best of our ability. We haven’t done that this year,” Seth Henigan said Wednesday, “We have a really explosive offense but we just need to.. be consistent every single snap, every single drive.” With performance being either hot or cold from drive-to-drive, the Tiger offense believes “drive killers” play a big role in becoming a more reliable unit. “I think we had eight driver killers (last week), which are penalties, sacks, stuff like that.”
The Tigers are 7-4 all time against opponents from the Mountain West and will look to go 1-0 in the first-ever matchup between two powerhouse programs at the Group of 5 level.