Hardaway visits Tigers’ football scrimmage

Much of the curiosity heading into Saturday’s scrimmage for Memphis centered around how the quarterbacks would fare in their first extended run.

But a special visitor helped steal some of the buzz surrounding the team. New Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway briefly visited practice and observed some of the scrimmage before leaving.

It was perhaps returning the favor after coach Mike Norvell wore Hardaway’s shoes at Tuesday’s practice following Hardaway’s introduction. Norvell didn’t say Saturday if he saw him but he made clear Tuesday that the football team is behind him.

“I want (Penny) to know we’re fully supportive of what he’s going to do,” Norvell said Tuesday.

Defense sets the tone in scrimmage

Despite the focus on the quarterbacks, the Tigers’ defense made the biggest impression during the scrimmage, which was closed to the media. Josh Perry and TJ Carter each had interceptions to get the Tigers defense off to a good start.

“We always want to start fast and get a pick or a forced fumble that gets us the ball back and gets the confidence going,” Perry said.

Norvell lauded his defense but also said the quarterbacks were able to show flashes as the scrimmage went on. He didn’t single any quarterback out but after calling Saturday “a really good teaching day” with plenty to build on, Norvell said all of them showed flashes at different points.

“The guys were able to show that they have a pretty good understanding of what we’re asking them to do,” Norvell said. “Some of the decision-making, we weren’t 100 percent obviously but you don’t expect to be right now.”

Junior Brady Davis said the quarterback competition has been helped facing an experienced secondary that

has prided itself on forcing turnovers the past two seasons. It took time for him, Brady White and David Moore to get into a rhythm Saturday, and he credited the secondary for making things difficult and pushing them to be more consistent.

“We got some good defensive backs that have played a lot of reps so it’s doing

Pollard sits out scrimmage

Junior Tony Pollard did not participate in Saturday’s scrimmage and remained on the sideline for the second consecutive practice.

Norvell said that Pollard suffered slight bumps and bruises during the week but should be able to return next week.