The Kansas Jayhawks, Memphis’ opponent this week, is a basketball powerhouse with a struggling football program.
If that sounds familiar, it is. Just two seasons ago, both Memphis and Kansas were among the worst teams in the FBS. Kansas has won just 12 games over the past five seasons. The Tigers between 2009-13 – spanning the Larry Potter era and the first two years under Justin Fuente – won exactly 12 games.
Unsurprisingly, fan attendance dropped significantly for both teams. At its’ lowest point, Memphis averaged only 20,078 fans per game during the 2011 season – a year in which they won only once. Kansas averaged a little more than 34,000 fans per game, a 10 percent drop from 2013. Only 30,144 fans showed up to see them suffer an embarrassing loss to South Dakota State last weekend.
Fortunately for Memphis last season, the light finally showed at the end of a deep, long tunnel. The Tigers won 10 games for the first time since 1938 and won the American Athletic Conference and the Miami Beach Bowl. The same cannot be said for Kansas. The Jayhawks have a new coach, David Beaty, and after last week’s debacle against South Dakota State seem they are at the beginning of another rebuild.
Fuente admitted there is a different air around the team following the success in 2014, but he hopes that’s from the “inside” as opposed to the media attention.
“There are some groups that have some real self-confidence,” said Fuente at his weekly media luncheon Monday. “When I say real self-confidence, not bravado but when things go bad they don’t freak out. They just continue to do their work and we have some of that.”
Some Memphis fans will point out – and it is fair to some degree – that the Tigers’ recent football success may have come at the expense of basketball success. Memphis men’s basketball missed the postseason for the first time since 2000 after posting a disappointing 18-14 record. However, most NCAA Division I athletic programs are rarely elite at football and basketball at the same time. Tiger fans would be the first to know that.
One huge advantage Memphis had in their attempt to return to college football relevancy was the Tigers play in the AAC while Kansas plays in the Big 12. Though Memphis wants to eventually play in a Power Five conference, last year’s turnaround would’ve been a lot harder to accomplish if they had faced off against Baylor, TCU, Kansas State, etc. and not Cincinnati, UCF and Houston. That’s not to diminish the AAC as a viable football conference, but it’s not the Big 12.
Despite all of the negative things I’ve said about Kansas in this story – there is some irony to this – it would be another significant moment for Memphis football if they win at Lawrence Saturday.
Apart from the need to beat a bad team to avoid embarrassment, Memphis hasn’t beaten a Power Five team since they defeated Ole Miss 20-13 in their season opener in 2004. Commercial Appeal reporter Tom Schad tweeted Monday Memphis’ record against the Power Five since 1995 and it’s not pretty. The Tigers are 4-41 in their last 45 games against the Power Five.
Any chance for the Tigers to beat a Power Five team – especially for a program who aspires to play in a Power Five conference one day – must be taken. And Memphis is widely expected to beat Kansas (they are a double-digit favorite). When the two teams face off this weekend, it’ll be two programs heading in different directions, but with Memphis well aware they were once with Kansas.
