Memphis HC Ryan Silverfield on Week 9 vs. No. 21 USF, Group of 6 CFP Selection, & more

Memphis Head Coach Ryan Silverfield joined the podcast and discussed the Week 9 matchup with No. 21 USF, Group of 6 CFP Selection, & more.

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Memphis HC Ryan Silverfield on Week 9 vs. No. 21 USF, Group of 6 CFP Selection, & more

Joining us here, head coach of the Memphis Tigers, Ryan Silverfield, massive matchup, uh, in the AAC this week against South Florida. Winner maybe with the, uh, the, the inside track to that, uh, college football playoff berth. So coach, I I don’t, I don’t wanna harp on last week, but I, I feel it’s something that in this sport, you hear about kids and emotions, uh, look ahead spots, sandwich games and you see UAB going through a coaching change and you’re a big Favor and you know you’ve got that big home game, uh, the following week against South Florida. Is that something that we just kind of use as hyperbole or is there something there where it really is difficult at times to get these kids to go one game at a time, even though, as you as coaches always say one game at a time, one and no every week. Yeah, we absolutely say it, right? Every coach in the country uses that, that example. But ultimately for us, you know, I think that we had a great week of practice leading up to it. You know, I think the guys were bought in, um, and truly, you know, did it the right way with great focus on the task at hand. And ultimately, we didn’t go out there and execute at a high enough level. But, uh, I don’t think it had anything leading up to it. We, we weren’t thinking ahead. Um, I think you put too much preparation, too much work in the week. To focus on playing a Saturday in any given week. We’re seeing what some of these teams have done with interim head coaches, right? Whether it’s UCLA, some of these other schools, right? They bring in an interim and, and usually they’re playing really hard, uh, for a few weeks. And, and there’s a lot of unknowns. Literally, I was watching film of the quarterback from high school on my phone. In the locker room pre-game, we found out they were having a change there. So, ultimately, no excuses, no explanations. We didn’t handle our business and, uh, led to our first loss. Speaking of, uh, a quarterback play, you do have an injury at quarterback. How do you prepare in a week for a game like this when you’re sort of trying to figure out which quarterback you have healthy? Yeah, Jeff, we’re, we’re fortunate. We got, you know, 3 quarterbacks that we’ve played in games so far this year that we feel comfortable with. They can go out there and play at a high level. I think you get a feel, OK, hey, if the starters, you know, not playing up to the performance, or he can’t go well enough at practice, then we got to go with one of the other two. And ultimately, whether it’s Arrington Maiden or AJ Hill, we feel very, very comfortable with both of those young quarterbacks, right? One of them just turned 18, the other just turned 19. One’s a true freshman, the other is a red shirt freshman. Obviously, Brendon Lewis, who had been the starter, has had a lot of success. Um, but, you know, if He’s injured, what you do is you, you look at it, how the week goes during practice. If you can’t go at all, or at a high enough level to where it may, you know, hurt your chances, then ultimately, you gotta go with another hand. Coach, off the loss, now you’re a dog. If that doesn’t work for motivation, nothing will, huh? This is a great spot to get the boys ready to go. Yeah, look, we’re, this is the, uh, a great opportunity. It’s the next opponent, right, to use the coach speak, right? We’re just trying to go 1-0 this week. We know how important every game is. I, I think the world of this conference, the American, um, you know, there’s some great competition. I think we’re seeing that now as the season goes on, you know, every team, Navy is still playing a really high-level two lane. Obviously, South Florida. East Carolina’s had some really close ones on any given week. Any team is capable. And so, ultimately, this is the next challenge ahead of us. This is a huge one. I’m glad that they’re still nationally ranked and look forward to this opportunity. What makes playing South Florida and Alex Gold’s offense so tough because they really have outside of the Miami game where they fell behind and the Miami kind. Uh, defensively one of the better teams in the country. Uh, not many teams have really slowed them down this year. I know the Florida game was a little bit of a mess, but, uh, they, they, they’ve been pretty efficient so far. Uh, what is about, uh, Gol’s offense that makes him so difficult to, uh, slow down? Well, they’ve done a good job of taking care of the football, right? They’re, uh, first in the conference and turnover margins. So let’s start there. And then ultimately, they’re one of the fastest tempos in college football. And so, can you handle the tempo? Can you get lined up as a defense, make the calls, and then go out there and execute it at a high level. We understand they’re, they’re very explosive, right? They’ve averaged 57 points over the last 4 games. But ultimately, can we get lined up? Can we stop the explosive? They’re gonna take shots down the field throughout the game, and then their quarterback, it starts and ends with him, right? There’s times where there’s design quarterback runs, and then there’s also times where, right, it’s 3 and 8. He just pulls the ball down. Next thing you know, he’s down the field for 20 yards. He’s 6’3 plus, 235 pounds, then runs a 4-4 or something. And so he’s been in that system for a while. He understands how to operate at a high level. Um, we’re gonna have to bring everything in our power, right, to be able to sustain him. We know there’s gonna be a play made here or there, but ultimately, we can’t allow that to dictate the game. How do you prepare in practice for a team that does tempo? We hear a lot about teams that play fast like that. What do you do at practice to get ready, because you can’t just like run more wind sprints in week 8 of practice. Yeah. Right. Especially this far in the season. It’s not about just going out there. And we are not a tempo offense. So ultimately, the scout team’s got to give a good look. We’ve done a variety of different things. We even do some crossover, where I’ll take, you know, 5 offensive linemen, the 5 stars, I’ll take the 5 backups, and we’ll line 2 huddles and just rapid fire, getting them ready for that. And then we do do some tempo, right? Hey, can we go 5 good plays? Uh, but ultimately, it’s really hard to meet and match, right? You know, some of these times, they’re sustaining drives more so than they have in the past. So Jeff, ultimately, right, how do you prepare? You gotta get it and you know, you do some things where you have the defense turn around, flip around, quick, see the formation, get the call, get their cleats on the ground. And then, oh, by the way, you gotta go there a team that’s got a lot of athletes line up and find a way to tackle them as well. Coach, you’re 27 and 6 over the last three years. You’ve beat Arkansas, Iowa State, Florida State, West Virginia as well. What makes your program so ready to execute and win these games? Well, look, we, we love the challenge, right? Ultimately, uh, like I mentioned earlier, I think this conference is a great one. So we love being able to play Powero teams, right? We love being able to play on a national stage versus these teams that are ranked, that are considered Blue Bloods. And for us, it’s the opportunity to come out swinging. Like, we want to play anyway. We are always looking to play. Uh, uh, the bigger name opponents, if you will. We want those type of games. We’ve been, we’ve made calls around the country begging teams in the SEC to play us ultimately, because I think it’s a great test, uh, to what we’re able to do here. And I think it’s a testament also to what we’ve been able to build this program. Uh, you know, you talk about that, we beat Mississippi State a few years prior to that, like. Just what can we do year in and year out to continue to put this program at a national level, and, and, you know, credit to the administration, credit to the coaches, and all the players because we’re not backing down from anybody. And the more we can play those type of teams, the greater, the better. And our guys have done a great job of facing those opponents and saying, OK, give us your best shot because we’re giving you ours. Well, Memphis obviously got a chance to play one of those big boys in the college football playoff the New Year 6 a few years ago, and I alluded to it earlier. It does look like the winner of the American is going to be the, the group of 5 group of 6 representative, uh, in the, in, in the playoff this year. You’ve alluded to the, the, the conference and its depth like. Kind of state your your campaign. Why is, what is it about the top of the AEC and even the middle of the AEC that people really don’t realize that you always hear about all the depth of the SEC or the top of this league, top of that league, but the the American, the top 4 or 5 teams in that league really have do have have done quite well this week and certainly against some of the bigger boys like, like you guys did with Arkansas earlier this year. Yeah, well, I think it, it starts with that, right? Again, I, I sing the praises of this conference. This is my 10th year here at Memphis, and I’ve seen how good this conference is. And then you see what other teams do. And. I don’t certainly don’t want to to other teams in our conferences, but like South Florida, what they did to Boise State, right? What they did to Florida, what Tulane did to Northwestern and Duke. I mean, so ultimately, you look at Army on the road versus Kansas State. Um, and so you sit there, it’s very hard to sit here, in my opinion, to argue against this conference, certainly being the best non-power for conference out there. It, it, it certainly is. And you look at the coaches that come through here, the, the, the style of play, and ultimately, um, yeah, the winner of this conference will go to the playoffs, but ultimately, Like we all talked about, it’s, uh, the goal is to get to the conference championship and win that, and then ultimately, that’s up to the decision makers to decide that. When you hear 18 team playoff, 24 team playoff, 36 team playoff, I, I think we all cringe on the inside. I’ll speak for myself, but when you hear 1824, what’s your reaction to that? Uh, look, I, I, there’s so many different things that are occurring, right? Whether it’s, you know, transfer portal rules, are we allowed to bet on sports. I mean, it’s all the different thing. I, I, I, certainly during the season, the capacity to even consider that stuff, uh, let it be, because ultimately, I don’t think anybody’s gonna knock on my door and say, hey, Ryan Surer, what’s your opinion? And we’re gonna go with that because I can promise you, ask all 136 Division One coaches. It doesn’t matter, right? Ultimately, um, I, I like where it’s at right now. I truly do. Uh, you know, it’s like when people say, the NCA basketball tournament go to 120 teams. I’m a traditionalist, right? and uh. Be wants more games to bet on, Coach. That’s all. He just wants more games. Oh no. Well, yeah, that’s not my thought on the whole thing. That’s cool. Uh, but ultimately, look, I, I’m a traditionalist. I like it being at 12 teams, and I like the fact that I can go into a home of recruit and say, listen, if we win our conference, we legitly have a chance to go to the college football playoffs every single year. And we know there’s teams in college football that, uh, the, the head coach really can’t say that. So I, I think that’s a great spot. All right, now that we’ve done all this, let’s get to the real, the real meat potato. Unbalanced pimple concepts, coach. What, what are we calling them? What, what are we doing? Let’s get to the real importance. My pen, let me get my pen and paper out here. That’s right. So this podcast has now turned into a 6 hour and 37 minute. All right. I’ve got my illustrations. I’ll pull up behind me and, and, and let’s rock and roll. So, uh, yeah, we could talk scheme all all day long, Jeff, for sure. 11 thing though, on that, like, I think people in the past always, you heard of Memphis when you think Memphis, you think like high powered offense and some of the skilled players and, uh, coach Norvell always preached special teams to get his players into the league. What is, what’s one thing about your team that maybe the general public doesn’t know or one area that maybe things have changed in a, in a different or a better direction, uh, in the last couple of years? Yeah, that, that’s a great question. I think everybody sits there and looks back and Coach Norvelle and I have a tremendous relationship. I was certainly, um, hopefully, I had a little bit of part of, of the success there, you know, for 4 years. Yeah. And so, ultimately, right, you, you talked about the, the Cotton Bowl game, right? That was my first game as the head coach for Penn State, and we scored more points than any team did against Penn State in a two-year history. And then over the years, you know, we’re at 40+, 45+ games of scoring 20 points or more. And so the consecutive success every time they take the field and the efficiency of our offense, I think that’s huge. Because you always see these teams and go out there and score 60 points in the game, and the next, the next week they go out and lay an egg and score 3. And so, look, we take quarterbacks from Brady White, the longtime starter, to Seth Hennigan, who we started as a 17-year-old, uh, who went on to write at the end of his career, won 10 games and 11 games and beat the Iowa State and And beat the West Virginias and the Florida states. And then ultimately, now, we’re taking a quarterback and Brandon Lewis, who I think won 5 games the last 3 years, and, and, you know, he wins his 1st 6 years. So ultimately, we’re putting guys in the right position to have success. And, and I think what people also realize is we’re a pretty darn gritty football team. I’m sold. I’m in. Well, we certainly appreciate you joining us and, uh, wish you the best of luck, not only Saturday, but the rest of the season. Uh, Ryan Sulfield, Memphis head coach, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, bud. Appreciate you guys having me on. Take care and go Tigers.