Memphis Has Chance for First 10-Win Season in School History

On Saturday, the Memphis Tigers improved to 7-3 (5-1) defeating the Tulane Green Wave—who fell to 3-7 (2-4)—38-7 in the team’s final road game of the season. The Tigers were, surprisingly, out-gained by 17 yards, but Tulane turned the ball over five times which resulted in 21 Memphis points.

Memphis is set to take on South Florida and Connecticut—which have a combined record of 6-13—in its final two games of the regular season. Both teams will have to come to Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, where the Tigers have lost just once all season, and the latter will be heavily favored. Barring some sort of catastrophic letdown, Memphis will finish the regular season with nine wins.

There have been only two instances throughout program history in which the Tigers won nine games: in 2003 after finishing 8-4 in the regular season and getting a win in the New Orleans Bowl and in 1963 when the Bill Murphy lead Tigers finished the regular season 9-0-1. In other words, this is pretty unprecedented territory for Memphis football.

But beyond all of that, if the Tigers won their final two regular season games, they would have the opportunity to get their 10th win in a bowl game. Now that would be truly special.

Memphis has come a very long was under head coach Justin Fuente. The program won a combined 10 games from 2010-2013 while losing 38 during that span. But now the Tigers are bowl eligible for the first time since 2008, and with Saturday’s win, they have guaranteed themselves a winning season for the first time since 2007.

However, getting to 10 wins will not be easy, and it is certainly far from a foregone conclusion. While it would be surprising to lose either of the final two remaining regular season games, it is not out of the realm of possibility. Memphis lost at home to the Houston Cougars 28-24 back on October 11 just one week after going on the road and defeating the Cincinnati Bearcats by nearly four touchdowns in what stands as the Tigers worst loss of the season. And while Houston is a more formidable opponent than either USF or UConn, Memphis still needs to approach both of those games as if they were the AAC title games because to the Tigers, well, they kind of are. For Memphis, just win out, and you’re (at least) co-champions.

Assuming, though, that Memphis does finish the regular season with nine wins, one would have to turn their attention to possible bowl opponents. The most common bowl opponent when looking at projections seems to be a lower tier SEC team like Tennessee, Arkansas, or South Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl on January 3.

Memphis fans would love the opportunity to play against an SEC team because they feel like this Memphis team is good enough to not only compete but beat a team from the country’s most revered conference. But I think all Memphis fans, above all other scenarios, would love a shot at the Tennessee Volunteers.

How sweet would it be to beat your in-state rival in a de facto state championship game to achieve your first 10-win season in school history? But regardless of who the opponent is, Memphis is sure to get a shot at a big-name program come bowl season.

While it will be difficult to achieve, a 10-win season would do wonders for Memphis. During the process, it would win its fourth conference championship in only Fuente’s third season at the helm. The results of this season have already bolstered the Tigers’ recruiting (Memphis currently has 14 known commitments for the 2015 class; this time last year, they only had 6 known commitments for the 2014 class) immensely, which will help in sustaining program success in the years to come.

It is difficult to quantify just how truly remarkable this season has already been, but if the team is able to win out, 2014 will go down as the single greatest football season in Memphis Tigers history to date.