Memphis football finally has some momentum under Ryan Silverfield | Giannotto

The victory cigar smoke wafted through the air, and Ryan Silverfield’s hat was stained with blood. The Gatorade bath after Memphis football’s 36-26 win over Iowa State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Friday had gone awry, leaving the Tigers’ coach with a gash on his forehead. But the tears he wiped from his eyes weren’t from a wound, or at least a physical one.

They were triggered by the emotions of this moment, by all the moments that led to this one, by a walk off the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium field that Silverfield had wanted to take for so long.

There were handshakes and hugs and selfie requests – from family, from fans, from players. From practically everyone. There was unencumbered joy, the kind this program hadn’t experienced in the four years since Silverfield became coach. There was a feeling – finally – that Memphis has momentum under his watch.

“That’s a statement the entire country got to watch on ESPN,” Silverfield said.

It was, more than that, a statement on a frigid Memphis afternoon to all those who have been critical of the roundabout manner in which Silverfield got the Tigers to this point (this columnist raises his hand).

A year that began with him on every national hot seat list is officially the fifth season in the 108 in Memphis football history to end with 10 wins.

It ended with the most important and impressive win of them all because it’s the first one the Tigers weren’t supposed to win. It ended with quarterback Seth Henigan becoming the all-time leading passer in school history after a sublime performance. It ended with the much-maligned defense giving up zero rushing yards while playing a new scheme under interim coordinator Jordon Hankins. It ended with no turnovers, no penalties and a victory Silverfield declared “the absolute very best” of his coaching career.

It ended with Memphis (10-3) looking bigger, stronger and faster than the Big 12 team it lined up against – an early New Year’s reminder of the Memphis product the powers that be in conference realignment have passed over time and time again.

“I definitely took it personal seeing we were a 10.5-point dog in this game,” said Henigan, named the Liberty Bowl MVP after throwing for 364 yards and accounting for five touchdowns.

It was an ending that seemed almost like a new beginning, like a precursor to more.

Henigan, offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey and most of their weapons elected to come back for another year. The transfer portal has already yielded a potential starting running back in South Carolina’s Mario Anderson.  A new defensive coordinator is on the way (and maybe it should be Hankins after what he pulled off in Friday’s bowl game).

And Silverfield will be back, too. For the foreseeable future, it appears.

Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch confirmed to The Commercial Appeal before Friday’s bowl game that the university and Silverfield are engaged in discussions about a contract extension. Silverfield has two seasons left on his current deal, which was previously extended by one year following the COVID-marred 2020 campaign.

“We made a big jump. Now, we’ve got to keep that going,” Veatch said. “It can’t just be a one-year thing. We’ve got to keep building and keep progressing, and I do feel like we are really well-positioned now for that next step, competitively within our conference and what he’s done with the core of this team, staff having more continuity. There’s just a lot of things now where you’re really getting momentum and he’s building it the right way.”

There’s that word again. Momentum. Memphis missed chances to generate more of it this year with those losses to Tulane and SMU.

But you could even sense a change in the air, looking around at the bleachers before those long overdue renovations will completely change what this 58-year-old stadium looks like for every Liberty Bowl and Memphis football game moving forward.

Veatch and Silverfield understand more will be expected next season – after what these Tigers accomplished this year and what’s happening with the expanded College Football Playoff. There’s an opportunity for Memphis that wasn’t there when Justin Fuente and Mike Norvell resurrected this program.

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“Over the years, being at different places, you realize when you get continuity in leadership in positions like head coach and you have opportunities like what’s happening with the stadium, all that momentum feeds on each other,” Veatch said. “We’ve got a chance to really take off to a level we haven’t been able to get to before. It’s all right there.”

Or, as Silverfield put it: “I think we all know we’ve got to go swing at this championship and see what else is out there for us.”

In other words, this can’t be a fourth-place team in the AAC again.

This needs to be a program playing for a league title and the chance to be the Group of Five representative in the playoff next December.

For the first time, it looks possible with Silverfield as coach.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis, with Liberty Bowl win, finally has momentum under Ryan Silverfield