“We plan to put as many points on the board as possible.”
Those would probably be the words of any coach who wants to win, but those words hold special meaning when coming from the mouth of The University of Memphis’ new offensive coordinator, Randy Fichtner.
It would be an understatement to say the Tigers struggled on offense last year. The team averaged 16 points per game and was held under 10 points on three occasions. But Fichtner, who served as U of M quarterbacks coach from 1990-93, said he has plans to rectify the situation.
“We have a different style and we’re putting different people in different spots,” Fichtner said.
Fichtner said No. 1 spot, quarterback, belongs to junior Travis Anglin, who is nota stranger to the starting role. Anglin started the team’s first three games last season, leading the Tigers to a 2-1 record after three games before being sidelined by a severe ankle injury that kept him out of the loop for the rest of the season.
Fichtner said the offense Anglin will command in 2001 is much different than offenses of previous Tiger football teams.
The Tigers’ newly implemented “spread” offense will showcase a variation of formations and even some no-huddle, kind of like Warren Moon and the old Houston Oiler Run-and-Shoot offense.
“We’ll be in the shotgun a little bit,” Fichtner said. “You’ll see us taking snaps from under center, you may see one back or two. We’re gonna take it game by game.”
Outside of the fact that this new scheme may take C-USA opponents by surprise, the Tigers have another advantage heading into this season - the luxury of practicing against the Tiger defense, which ranked fifth overall in the nation last year.
“Everyday there’s competition. It’s always a challenge,” Fichtner said on how hard it is to gain yards on a Tiger defensive unit that seems to be as intense and psyched up as they were last year when they boasted the 13th-ranked defense in pass efficiency and the No. 1 run defense in the nation.
The most apparent difference in the Tiger “D” will be the move of Tommy West from defensive coordinator last season to head coach for this season.
“It’s the same system we had last year,” West said. “I’m not concerned about my moving as much as I am about us losing five All-Conference guys.”
Though West concentrated most of his efforts on the defense last year, he said he’s noticed a change from last year’s offense already.
“It looks good finally,”West said.
Fichtner also said the offense has improved, but has some work to do still before they meet his total approval.
“We have to eliminate turnovers, make big plays and find someone to score. In our scrimmage (Wednesday) we moved the ball well, but we didn’t finish.”
Fichtner said some adjustments and offense tweaking will go on throughout the week.
“I want them to take a step everyday,” Fichtner said. “Right now, we’re making sure the guy that’s in the game is the right guy for the job.”
The Tigers’ first official job of the season will be on Sept. 3 when they travel to Mississippi State for their television debut on ESPN. The first home game will be against UT-Chattanooga on Sept. 8.
