Well, good evening, Bluff City. Otis Delaney-Crum here, guitar on my knee, a plate of dry-rub ribs at my elbow and a bassline in my chest that has not been right since Friday night. Football and music are the same thing to me. A good drive has a backbeat. A good defense keeps time. And last Friday in New Orleans, friends, the whole band dropped its instruments.
So here's the set list. First, the blues, because Memphis invented the blues and we know how to sing them honest. Then, the comeback number: Thursday night at the Liberty Bowl against East Carolina. Go Tigers Go.
Part 1: The Blues in B-Flat, Tulane 31, Memphis 17
Let me play it straight. Memphis turned the ball over six times at Tulane on Oct. 16 and lost 31-17. Six. AP pointed out that the Green Wave had forced one turnover in its first five games combined. Then we gave them six in one night. That's not a slump, friends. That's a donation.
And it started with a groove. Philippe Laforge hit a 44-yard field goal on our first possession, and early in the second quarter Marcus Stokes threw a short pass to Stonka Burnside, who turned it into a 76-yard touchdown. Memphis led 10-3. I hummed my riff. My neighbor asked me to stop. I did not stop.
Then the record skipped. Tulane's Cooper Helmke kicked field goals from 56, 40 and 29 yards, and the Green Wave recovered a fumble at midfield that set up Trace Johnson's 38-yard touchdown to Destyn Hill. On the final play of the first half, TJ Smith returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown. Tulane led 23-10 at halftime.
To their credit, the Tigers kept playing. Stokes found Jemyri Davis for a 6-yard touchdown with 3:34 left to cut it to 23-17, and the defense got the ball back. But Kevin Adams III intercepted Stokes again, and Johnnie Daniels ran 48 yards on fourth-and-1 to put it away.
The box score has some good notes in it. Stokes threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns. Burnside caught seven passes for 151 yards. Jaylin Carter ran 23 times for 135 yards. Mike Montgomery made 10 tackles. When you out-gain a team and lose by 14, the song isn't wrong. The tempo is. Hold the ball, and this band plays the hits.
We're 5-2 and 2-1 in the American, with wins at UNLV, over Arkansas State and UT Martin, a 59-8 win at Charlotte and a 38-13 win over UAB. The only other loss came 38-20 at Boise State, the No. 21 team in the country. Nobody's canceling the tour.
Part 2: The Comeback Number, East Carolina at Memphis
Thursday night, 7:30 p.m. Eastern, on ESPN2, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Short week. Home crowd. Friends, that's a revival meeting.
The Memphis Rhythm Section
When it holds the ball, this offense swings. Memphis averages 512.6 yards per game, sixth in FBS. It runs for 237.7 (eighth) and throws for 274.9 (25th). That's a full band, horns and drums. Stokes has 1,841 passing yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions. Carter has 780 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. Hunter Tipton has 22 catches for 380 yards and five touchdowns.
And the defense does its best work when it matters. Opponents convert only 31.5 percent of third downs against Memphis, 20th in FBS, and our red zone defense ranks sixth at 66.7 percent. The Tigers are disciplined, too, at 44.3 penalty yards a game, 22nd.
The Pirates' Sheet Music
I'll be fair to the visitors, because the blues teaches respect. East Carolina's defense is legit. It allows 326.5 yards per game (38th) and 187.5 passing yards per game (34th). Last Thursday it held UAB without a touchdown until 35 seconds were left in regulation.
But listen to the Pirate offense, and the tempo drags. ECU averages 339.5 yards per game, 112th in FBS, and 183.7 passing yards, 114th. It converts 31.3 percent of third downs, 125th, and scores on 73.7 percent of red zone trips, also 125th. It holds the ball 26:57 a game, 132nd. Friends, that's a band that shows up, plays two verses and goes home before the chorus.
And last week? ECU led UAB 17-9 with under 10 minutes to go, gave up a 93-yard drive in the final minute, then lost in overtime when Delvon Gulley returned an interception 80 yards. TJ Engleman Jr. is a real back, with 490 rushing yards on the season, and our run defense has to tighten its strings. But Emory Williams threw for 126 yards. On the soul scale, that's a hum, not a holler.
The Fight Song Soul Scale
I rank everything the visitors sing on my soul scale, one to ten. I'm told Pirate fans like to greet each other with "Arrr." That's not a song. That's the sound a man makes when he lifts a cooler. I'll give it a four for enthusiasm. Our "Go Tigers Go" has a backbeat you can feel in your shoes.
The Honest Verse
CollegeFootballData.com has East Carolina ahead 18-8 in this series, and the Pirates have won the last three: 30-29 here in 2021, 47-45 in Greenville in 2022 and 31-27 in Greenville last year. I don't hide a sour note. I play through it. Thursday, it's time to change the key.
Two Towns, One Jukebox: Memphis vs. Greenville
Memphis. We sit on the Chickasaw Bluffs above the Mississippi River, 633,104 strong at the 2020 census. Beale Street is a national historic landmark and the heart of the Memphis blues. Sam Phillips's Sun Studio still stands and is open for tours. Stax Records built a 1960s soul sound that Wikipedia calls much grittier and more horn-based than Detroit's Motown. Graceland is here. And every May we host the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, which Guinness lists as the largest pork barbecue contest on the planet. Friends, when Memphis cooks, the whole world brings a plate.
Our stadium opened in 1965 as Memphis Memorial Stadium, dedicated to Memphians who served their country. It hosts the Liberty Bowl and the Southern Heritage Classic. That's a stage with history.
Greenville. Now, Greenville, North Carolina, is a pleasant town of 87,521, on the Tar River. Wikipedia says that for more than a century it was known as "an important tobacco market and the home of a small state-supported college." That's the whole album, friends. One single and a B-side.
And that small college started as a teacher training school, and the teams were called the Teachers. Then they changed it to the Pirates. I respect a reinvention; Memphis musicians do it every decade. But I have never in my life seen a pirate ship on the Tar River. I've seen plenty of steamboats on the Mississippi. On the Tar River, I believe the pirates take a canoe.
The Last Verse
Here's the arrangement. Hold the football. That's the whole song. If Memphis protects the ball, its offense ranks sixth in the country, and ECU's offense can't keep up with a full band. Run Carter, find Burnside and Tipton, and let the defense handle third down the way it has all year.
Get to the Liberty Bowl early, fire up the smoker and bring your loudest Go Tigers Go. That drive is going to have a backbeat.
My call: Memphis Tigers 33, East Carolina Pirates 21.