Silverfield says no plans to resume Memphis-ut rivalry
Don’t expect Memphis to face Tennessee in football anytime soon.
That was the sentiment when Tigers coach Ryan Silverfield was asked about it Tuesday during a Zoom meeting with the Rotary Club of Memphis. It’s been 10 years since the schools last met, a game Tennessee won 50-14 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
“There’s a lot more into it than just hey, we would like to play them,” Silverfield said. “I can say this with complete confidence, (Athletic director) Laird Veatch,(deputy athletic director) Jeff Crane and I meet often to discuss our scheduling. Hopefully in the near future, we’re going to have some exciting scheduling news that we look forward when the time is right and the contracts are signed that we’ll be able to share with everybody.”
Tennessee hasn’t shown much interest in resuming the series. Athletic director Phillip Fulmer said last June that while he’s interested in playing games in Memphis, facing the Tigers aren’t part of the discussion.
“We’d have to talk through actually playing the University of Memphis, I guess, with my coaches,” Fulmer said at the time. “We really haven’t talked about
it.”
The teams have met 23 times with Tennessee winning 22 games. Memphis’ lone win came in 1996 at the Liberty Bowl against a No. 6-ranked Vols team with Peyton Manning at quarterback.
The Tigers’ non-conference schedule is set through 2022 and three nonconference games are set for 2023. Memphis also is scheduled to play three SEC teams through 2028.
The Tigers begin a home-and-home series with Mississippi State in 2021 and 2022, host Missouri in 2023, and host Arkansas in 2025 before facing the Razorbacks on the road in 2026 and 2028.
The challenge for Silverfield and Veatch in their first year working together will be building on the Tigers’ success to continue strengthening the
nonconference schedule. During Tuesday’s meeting, Silverfield reminded that the AAC had four 10-win teams last season, including Memphis, and the Tigers will face the remaining three — Cincinnati, Navy and UCF — in 2020.
Most SEC teams have announced two-for-one series with Group of Five schools, meaning the SEC schools will host two games in exchange for a road game. That’s what Memphis and Arkansas agreed to and around the AAC, South Florida entered a similar agreement with Alabama for a three-game series beginning in 2023.
But as far as restarting a series with Tennessee, it doesn’t seem likely to happen soon
“We’re going to constantly play a wonderful schedule,” Silverfield said. “The powers that be will continue searching the country for the right opponent if that’s what we want to do.”
You can reach Evan Barnes on Twitter (@Evan_b) or by email at evan.barnes@commercialappeal.com