For six seasons now, University of Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield has emphasized the importance of his Tigers going “1 and 0 this week.” Win the next game; don’t look beyond it. This isn’t profound wisdom. Show me a coach who says his team should go “3 and 0 this week” and I’ll show you a brief coaching career. Nonetheless, the mantra has held up. And this season, the “1 and 0” weeks, when stacked, add up to 6 and 0. And this makes not looking beyond the next game a challenge.
Various algorithms have Memphis as the favorite to land the lone “Group of Five” slot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. This, friends, is looking way beyond the next game. There is virtually no margin for error over the course of six remaining regular-season games and the American Conference championship (December 5th) if Memphis is to actually secure a chance to compete for — let’s say it — a national championship.
Hurdles remain. The highest may be South Florida (October 25th) and Tulane (November 7th), both games to be played at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. And Navy (Thanksgiving night) is never a picnic. But the path, as the analysts insist on telling us, is there. As homophones go, “one” and “won” make fist-pumping synchronicity.
• Win a bar bet with your favorite Tiger fan. Ask him or her to name the only three (!) returning starters from the 2024 Memphis team that finished 11-2. They may know William Whitlow Jr. (an all-conference defensive lineman). If they identify offensive linemen Malachi Breland and Chris Adams, you owe them more than a drink.
There are 136 FBS programs, but how many can be said to have a system? Despite losing 19 starters on offense and defense and despite welcoming more than 70 newcomers to the roster (transfers and true freshmen), Silverfield has the Memphis program marching forward with the longest winning streak in the country (10 games and counting). Coordinators Tim Cramsey (offense) and Jordon Hankins (defense) have plugged in the likes of Brendon Lewis (quarterback) and Chris Bracy (safety), and have received game-winning performances in return. These are young athletes — human beings — so reducing their success to a “system” in place may not be fair. But when young men are willing to adapt to their veteran coaches’ scheme and direction for the greater good, well, a winning system, be it a business or a college football team, is the result.
• The Tigers’ regular season is half complete: six games down, six to go. Consider this: If Memphis were to reach the national championship game, the Tigers would play 11 more games. They would need to win the American Conference championship (December 5th), then win no fewer than three playoff games to reach the title tilt. The total of 17 games would be the equivalent of an NFL regular season.
I’m old enough to remember a day when college football players were considered “kids” or, get this, “student-athletes” and the physical toll of their sport was front of mind. When a 12th regular-season game was added (in 2002), it was done so with trepidation in some circles. Today? Let the kids play ball!
College football’s highest level, we now recognize, is minor league football. Stars are making millions of dollars, sponsorship and TV revenue top that of many professional sports, and the collective appetite of fans across the country is insatiable. Here’s to a fun second half of the 2025 season, and here’s to the players and staff at Memphis matching their success on the field with equal health — physical and mental — when elsewhere.
