The Memphis Tigers endured a frustrating 2021 season in which they finished 6-6 and did not play in a bowl game because of COVID-19 complications. If you want to understand why Memphis didn\u2019t do better than 6-6, it begins with the offense. When Memphis won division titles and competed for AAC championships a few years earlier under former coach Mike Norvell, the Tigers had an elite offense. In 2019, Memphis won 12 games, including the AAC championship. It went to the prestigious Cotton Bowl and produced a hugely successful season. That year, the Tigers had an offense which averaged 40.4 points per game, one of the very best in the country. The defense did not have to be spectacular to win games. It just had to be average, which it was, allowing nearly 30 points per game. If the defense allowed 30, the offense would score 35 or 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This past season, the Memphis offense averaged 30 points per game and the defense allowed an average of 29. The defense was actually good enough, but the offense did not match the high standard of previous seasons. Memphis lost a number of close games in which the offense wasn\u2019t consistent enough: 31-28 against UTSA, 34-31 against Temple, 35-29 against Tulsa, 30-29 against East Carolina. The offense failed to score over 35 points in each of those games. Had it done so, Memphis would have won. Coach Ryan Silverfield has to get more out of his offense this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incoming transfer receiver Joseph Scates will try to provide a boost on that side of the ball, all while linebacker Geoff Cantin-Arku will try to ensure that no meaningful slippage occurs on defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key Personnel Lost<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Memphis has lost a number of players to the pros, mostly on offense. Guard Dylan Parham was a top-90 NFL draft pick. Receiver Calvin Austin was picked in the NFL draft. Tackle Brandon Murphy is pursuing an NFL career. On defense, safety Jacobi Francis is an undrafted NFL free agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To fill the gaps on offense, incoming transfer running back Jeyvon Ducker will try to make an impact, along with Joseph Scates, who was noted above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Important Incoming Freshmen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Defensive lineman Joshua White is one notably impressive recruit who is entering the program, but all eyes are on quarterback Tevin Carter, whom Memphis hopes will become the school\u2019s next elite quarterback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key Position Battles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Quarterback does take the spotlight. It will be interesting to see if Carter, as a freshman, can win the job, or if he will start the season as a backup and work his way into form with limited snaps over the course of the season. Memphis depends on quarterback play for its production and success as a program. With a top QB recruit now in the program, this is a huge test of Silverfield\u2019s ability to develop a prime quarterback from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biggest Offseason Goal(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At quarterback and elsewhere on the roster, Memphis and Silverfield need to develop players so that Memphis can return to the standard of having a 40-point offense. The defense is fine. The offense has to be more than average for Memphis to prosper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Memphis Tigers endured a frustrating 2021 season in which they finished 6-6 and did not play in a bowl…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22603,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22600\/revisions\/22603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}