A philosopher might say that there is no such thing as reality, only perception. That means each person decides for him/herself what is real.
Someone who watched the first four Tiger football games might say the same thing about what Memphis is really made of.
Head coach Tommy West said he didn’t guess which games his team would win or lose when he looked at the schedule at the beginning of the year.
Since West wouldn’t make a conjecture as to what his team’s record would be, where does Memphis football stand now that four games have been played?
If you’re reality is decided by the bottom line, everything is simple. The Tigers are average. They’ve won twice and lost twice.
The problem with that argument is that there is no room for the determining factors like where the games are played, injury status, the quality of the teams Memphis has played, etc.
If you like the Liberty Bowl atmosphere and only watch the home games you might think the Tigers were ready for Florida State.
The team beat Division 1AA Murray State to a pulp 52-6 in front of the home fans. When Tulane came to town Saturday the defense enforced a zero tolerance policy and the offense was sharp in the 38-10 victory.
But then there’s the road.
The Tigers traveled to Mississippi to lose badly to Ole Miss 38-16, then went back for further torture the next weekend and lost to Southern Miss. 33-14.
So what’s real?
The fact that multitudes of Tiger football fans would be happy with a winning season and would view any bowl game as the Rose Bowl is real.
That being the case, Memphis is in good shape. The team has played two of the five games that many viewed as “might-lose games.” Louisville, Mississippi St. and Cincinnati remain. So if the Tigers win the other five games, they finish with a 7-5 record.
But how good is the team if it doesn’t win big games?
What’s real is that it’s still really early. And most perceptions are that the team is doing as well as expected.
