Spider-Man and Brock Purdy: How Joe Scates was ready in Memphis football's critical moment

Joe Scates, Memphis football's proverbial man of the hour, has something he doesn't think everyone knows.

He loves superhero movies.

Scates, who caught the go-ahead touchdown to earn the Tigers a come-from-behind win over North Texas on Saturday, has been the subject of lots of Memphis-related social media posts. Especially ones from the Tigers' official account on X, formerly Twitter, touting his affinity for Spider-Man.

Scates had been a Spider-Man fan his whole life, but he took his son and younger brother to see "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and loved the scene where Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire return as previous versions of the titular character. So he decided he wanted to be known as Peter Parker moving forward and planned a Spider-Man themed touchdown celebration for this season.

"I did the celebration when we played against Missouri," Scates said. "I basically sent them to the multiverse, sent them to the portal. That's just kind of my thing: When I make a play on somebody, just sent them to the multiverse. Doctor Strange, multiverse."

So real quick, before we go any further: Here are Scates' thoughts on superheroes.

• Spider-Man: No Way Home: "One of the littest movies I ever watched."

• The Amazing Spider-Man movies (with Garfield): "I don't like them. They got too much powers."

• Spider-Man 2 (with Maguire): "That was hard."

• Favorite Marvel movie: "All the Avengers, because they all together."

• Favorite Avengers movie: Age of Ultron

• Avengers: Endgame: "I feel like the last one was the hardest one, just because Thanos, he so crazy."

• Favorite Spider-Man movie: "The first one, with Green Goblin, and then No Way Home."

• Deadpool: "I mess with Deadpool too, though. That's not a real superhero, though. They made him in a lab."

• Wolverine: "When I used to get hurt, I used to tell people 'I got Wolverine blood, bro.'"

How Scates became Memphis' go-to player down the stretch

For all the talk of superhero movies, Scates had a Hollywood-like story on Saturday in Denton, Texas. In the third quarter of what at that point looked like a blowout win for Memphis, quarterback Seth Henigan found Scates wide open in the middle of the field. But Scates dropped it.

In the past, as recently as last year, he thinks that would've sunk him. He wouldn't have been able to recover. But offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey called down to him on the sideline, and he was convinced by what Scates said on the headset.

"It was a tone of confidence," Cramsey said. "A tone of, 'Give me another chance.'"

Scates transferred to Memphis after three seasons at Iowa State. He had always been a natural talent, a four-star recruit who didn't even start playing receiver until his sophomore year of high school. Before that, he was an undersized nose tackle, but he's at the ready with peewee game film to show anyone who'll listen that no one could block him.

He wanted to play basketball.

"I thought I was about to be Kevin Durant," he said. "I could do everything he could do. I just couldn't shoot like him."

But he remembers Darran Powell, then the football coach at Dunbar High School, in Dayton, Ohio, coming to summer basketball practice and bringing him to football practice. He became a four-star recruit, choosing Iowa State over Alabama, Oklahoma and LSU.

More: Ryan Silverfield says 'I love the fact that our fans want more' after 6-2 start for Memphis football

In Ames, he played with 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy ("That was my dog. I always knew Brock Purdy was that good"); Jets running back Breece Hall; and others. But he was looking for a change after three seasons, and he remembers stepping off the plane during his visit to Memphis and knowing immediately this was where he wanted to be.

He was a key deep threat in 2022, catching 17 passes for 370 yards and four touchdowns.

But he wanted to work on the mental side of his game. Not just for football, but for bettering himself as a father to his two sons, Ayden and Joseph, the names he has tattooed on his left hand. During the summer, he started seeing a mental health counselor every week.

As he sat there on Saturday, having dropped a sure-fire touchdown, his mind went back to those conversations, how he's not a superhero, his Peter Parker nickname be damned.

"I got a bad, bad problem with that," he said. "Worried about things that's out of my control or out of my reach. And understanding I'm not no superhero, I can't save or control everything around me. I think as I continue to grow and understand that, things just continue to get better for me. In the game, after the drop I was telling myself don't get out of it. I felt myself going down, like (expletive), you just lost this game, all types of crazy stuff. No. Bounce back, you're alright. Next play."

It wasn't exactly the next play, but after Memphis had lost a 24-point lead, the Tigers got the ball back with a chance to go win the game. Cramsey, convinced by his headset conversation with Scates, called the same play.

Scates caught it and won the game. But in the chaos of the moment, he forgot to do his Spider-Man celebration.

"I was in shock," he said. "I couldn't even believe that I scored a touchdown. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about a celebration there. But I got you though, Saturday."

If Scates finds the end zone when Memphis hosts South Florida on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+), well, you know what to look for.

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Why Joe Scates' Memphis football moment was sans Spider-Man celebration