Under a sky as gray as the trim on their uniforms, the Memphis Tigers made some local football history at the 65th AutoZone Liberty Bowl. In beating Iowa State, 36-26, Friday afternoon at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, Memphis reached 10 wins in a season for only the fifth time in program history (and the fourth since 2014). The 2023 Tigers go into the record books as only the second to win 10 games and finish the season with a bowl victory, joining the 2014 squad.
The victory in its home stadium was the eighth postseason win in 16 games for Memphis, and crowned the Tigers champions of the oldest, most prestigious bowl game among those eight. The win serves as a measure of revenge for a loss the Tigers absorbed against the Cyclones in the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
“108 years of Memphis football,” emphasized Tiger coach Ryan Silverfield after his third bowl victory in four years atop the program. “To be the fifth team ever to win 10 games . . . It’s been an absolute honor to coach this wonderful group of young men. They’ve gone through so many trials and tribulations, but they continue to persevere.”
Junior quarterback Seth Henigan earned MVP honors by tossing four touchdown passes and rushing for a fifth. His 70-yard strike to DeMeer Blankumsee on the third play of the game put the Tigers up in a contest they led for 58:41 out of 60 minutes of game action. Henigan’s 51-yard connection with Joe Scates made the score 19-0 before the end of the first quarter. The Cyclones closed within six points (19-13) late in the second quarter, but a Tanner Gillis field goal made it 22-13 at halftime. A pair of Henigan touchdown passes in the third quarter made the margin 36-13, enough to earn Memphis its first win over a “Power 5” program in 2023.
In passing for 364 yards, Henigan surpassed Brady White to establish a new career record for Memphis with 10,764 yards. He also became the first Tiger quarterback to complete 300 passes in a single season. Henigan intends to return for a fourth season in 2024.
“Our players expected to win the football game,” said Silverfield. “We knew who our opponent was. We cranked it up. Our players had full confidence in themselves.”
Both Henigan and the Tigers’ defensive player of the game — linebacker Chandler Martin — acknowledged aggravation at their team being a 10.5-point underdog against the Cyclones. “I took it personal,” said Henigan. Martin showed just how personal he took things by making five tackles behind the line of scrimmage, almost half his total (12) for the season entering the game. Martin’s heroics helped the Memphis defense hold Iowa State to zero rushing yards, a first for the Tiger program in 30 years. Memphis added another pair of zeroes to a remarkable postgame stat sheet: zero penalties and zero turnovers.
“Zero rushing yards [allowed] is a feat in any game,” noted Henigan, “but especially in a bowl game, against a good Big 12 opponent. The coaching staff preached the opportunity to have a 10-win season. That’s what we were playing for. Our guys knew that. This was a huge win, going into the offseason and recruiting.”
Silverfield likes to emphasize a word he put on the back of t-shirts way back in August, before temperatures cooled and the heat of a 12-game regular season rose: “finish.” Having finished the 2023 season as strongly as any team in the program’s history, the coach relished positive steps toward an “ultimate goal” he says the team still hasn’t achieved. “This season was unique,” he said, “as we found ways to win games that maybe in the past we hadn’t. We found ways to finish. College football has changed so much, but it’s still about building a program, and doing it the right way. My number-one job is to serve these young men. And that’s not going to change. This was a great way to put a ribbon on a fantastic season.”
