University of Memphis coach Justin Fuente wants bowl-eligible Tigers to “continue to focus.”
Fuente wants steady focus
NEW ORLEANS — For the first time in seven years, the University of Memphis will play a regular-season football game having already become bowl eligible.
When the Tigers (6-3) play Tulane (3- 6) in an American Athletic Conference game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Yulman Stadium — the school’s new 30,000-seat on-campus facility — they’ll be seeking other measures of success in coach Justin Fuente’s third season.
A seventh win would represent a first since 2007.
A fourth straight win would be a first since 2003, the year the U of M broke a 32-year bowl drought.
And a road win would make the Tigers 4- 0 in league games away from Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. That has never happened in the 19 seasons the U of M has been a member of either Conference USA or the AAC.
So as the Tigers prepare to meet the Green Wave in their homecoming at a sold-out stadium, how will they handle this newfound success?
“We need to have the same mind-set (as) when we were struggling,” Fuente said. “We have to continue to focus, continue to do the right thing, continue to prepare and know things are going to work out so keep pounding the rock.”
It may not be particularly easy considering the players on the roster are newcomers to winning.
The U of M entered the season having endured six straight losing seasons, including a one-win season in 2010 and two-win campaigns in 2009 and ’11. Last year’s team finished 3-9.
Fuente has reminded his team to be strong mentally as it prepares for a final three-game push that ends
with home games against South Florida (3- 6) and UConn (2-7). If the Tigers were to win out, they would have their first nine-win regular season since 1963.
“I’ve told our players don’t do things that aren’t you, don’t listen to things you wouldn’t listen to before,” Fuente said. “And keep doing things that have given us a chance to have success.”
Tiger linebacker Charles Harris, in his fourth season, said the key is to guard against complacency and to recall the struggle and hard work it required to reach this point.
“We have to continue to raise the bar game after game after game,” Harris said. “Coach Fuente said we haven’t played our best brand of football yet.”
Senior defensive back Bobby McCain, also in his fourth year, said the team has worked too hard to “not play ball like we’ve been doing ... so why not just keep pushing on.”
McCain said he faced a dilemma when kicker Jake Elliott’s 31-yard field goal as time expired last week lifted the Tigers to a 16-13 win at Temple and made them bowl eligible.
“I didn’t know whether to be happy, sad, calm or complacent,” McCain said. “I was full of joy, though.”
U of M offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey led a similar turnaround at the University of North Texas, where he served as head coach from 1998 to 2006. In 2003, he directed the Mean Green to a ninewin season, the program’s first in 23 years. He also led UNT to four straight Sun Belt championships.
“You spend so much time when a program is down dealing with adversity and negativity,” Dickey said. “Then you get your head above water and people are patting you on the back. You start feeling good about yourself. You can’t feel so good about yourself that you forget what you had to go through to overcome adversity and be successful.”
Dickey said the Tigers will have to play at the same level they have throughout most of the season, one that has allowed it to overpower league favorite Cincinnati on the road, win a lastsecond game at Temple and nearly upend UCLA in Pasadena, California.
He said he has reminded his players about watching former NFL great Walter Payton, the All-Pro running back with the Chicago Bears.
“I went out to a practice and remember thinking he’ll probably show up late, sign a few autographs, run a few plays and be done,” Dickey said. “But it was darnedest thing I’d ever seen.
“He was the first to the practice. He was first in every sprint. He was already the NFL’s all-time leading rusher and yet he was at a spring minicamp practicing like he was trying to make the team. I had a friend on the (Bears’) staff, and he said it’s like this every day.”