On Friday, I will be heading down to the RL Carriers New Orleans Bowl to watch the Memphis Tigers take on FIU.
Granted, it isn't one of the best bowls, but I will take it. People also use the argument of how weak Conference USA is, but still, it is the conference Memphis plays in—so unless they change conferences, we will keep taking bowls like this.
Who would have thought six years ago that Memphis would be heading into it's fourth bowl game in five years? Not I, said the fat kid. I would have never dreamed of that many bowl games in my lifetime.
It really comes back to what Tommy West has done with the program as a whole. Tommy has positioned the program to recruit better talent from the local area. A perfect example of the talent that has come to Memphis is displayed in our receivers; it is literally a FREAK SHOW!
In my opinion, Carlos Singleton is the best receiver on the team. Standing 6'8'', having sub 4.5 speed, and obviously making an effort on bulking up to be more physical (it almost seemed like Maurice Avery came down and showed him how to fight for the ball), 'Los has the tools and the talent to make a big splash for years to come.
If Florida International doubles up on the Freak, you always have the Duke, Duke Calhoun.
Duke is a product of Memphis—and although he looks short when standing next to Singleton, he still is 6'5''. Add the talents of Steven Black, Maurice Jones, and Earnest Williams, and you've got a five deep set where any one person has the ability to catch the ball and take it to the house.
The only issues I have had with Tommy's style of coaching is that he is too conservative. During the first half, it seems like no adjustments are made. The first 20 or so plays on offense are scripted, and even if something isn't working, he sticks with it. Until the last couple of games, it seemed like Helton was following the playbook left by Fichtner that consisted of "run DeAngelo then pass."
I can't count how many times Tommy said: "You have to establish the run first. Then you have to stop the run." That was simply hard to do until our offensive found it's stride.
I could go on for hours but I will leave it at this: GO TIGERS! Big Easy Bound!
And if you are one of those so called Tiger fans who isn't making the trip to New Orleans because of the basketball game on Saturday, you should be ashamed of yourself. That trip is totally makable, even by driving the speed limit.
I guess I am one of the few that ranks Tiger Football first, then Tiger Basketball second...
1 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Anonymous about 1 year ago
Actually, Memphis is facing Florida ATLANTIC (FAU), the record-setting Sun Belt Champions, NOT Florida INTERNATIONAL (FIU), the second worst team in college football.
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