If the Memphis football program were a summer movie, many fans would expect this season to be another bad sequel with the same plot year after year.
Plenty of optimism in the preseason followed by a win or two early and then the other shoe drops and so do hopes for a bowl game, a winning season or just maintaining respectability.
Coach Tommy West is in charge of directing a new ending to this B-movie horror film and he is telling anyone who will listen that his team might surprise some people.
The thing is, when West explains why his team has a chance it doesn't sound like an empty hope.
Offense wasn't a problem last year and defense wasn't a problem three years ago, but the two squads have never been on the same page until now, West said.
With last year's offensive powers Danny Wimprine and DeAngelo Williams returning, at quarterback and halfback, and established defensive guru Joe Lee Dun now on the coaching staff all the players seem rejuvenated and upbeat, West said.
"This team will come closer to reaching its potential than any team we've had in (my) three years," West said. "This is a team that I really believe will be as good as it can be, where last year's team, I thought, underachieved. The reason I think (we will reach our potential) is that this team will be accountable."
The person most excited by the apparent resurgence on defense might be Wimprine, who, in the past, has known he would probably have to score 30 or more points for his team to win.
"It makes me feel great (to see the defense turning around)," Wimprine said. "My first year we had a super defense that was second or third in the country every week and we couldn't score 14 points."
Dunn's arrival has sparked a renewed interest in what used to be the pride of Memphis football -- defense.
"I have a lot of confidence that coach Dunn is going to do well and I think we have a lot of studs, a lot of horses on defense.
This year's x-factor is Williams. The shifty back racked up yards by the bucket-full in his limited role splitting time with Dante Brown.
With Brown gone Williams figures to have a breakout season after finishing first in C-USA in yards per carry and eighth in the country as a freshman a season that included the fourth longest run from scrimmage in the nation with an 86-yard touchdown against Tulane.
Following a 3-9 season, Wimprine is not surprised Memphis was picked to finish ninth in Conference USA this year, but said it won't dampen his spirits.
"I don't really care if anyone picks us first or ninth," Wimprine said. "It's not going to make me play any better or any worse. I'm still going to work as hard as I can everyday trying to get better, so as far as where they pick us it doesn't really matter for me and probably doesn't matter for most of the other guys."
Something that does matter to the junior quarterback and most of the other guys is the loss of Tavares Gideon at wide receiver.
Gideon was to be the big play guy on offense but went down with an injury this summer and will miss the entire season.
"He's a big play guy," West said. "He's the guy going in on the goal line that we can just throw it up to."
Wimprine knows the loss of Gideon will make life especially difficult for him.
"He was definitely the best of the bunch last year," Wimprine said. "He was just a go-to-guy that could make plays for you anytime we needed to."
As stellar as Wimprine has been in his first season and a half at the controls of the Tiger offense, he has things to work on if he wants to become a complete player.
The quarterback was intercepted 18 times last season, five of which were in a tight game against Mississippi State.
"I definitely want to cut down on the number of interceptions I had," Wimprine said. "No matter whose fault they were, it doesn't help the team when you turn the ball over so many times."
Wimprine knows it will take maturing as a quarterback and a decision-maker if he hopes to cut down his interceptions, but taking on the role as a leader is just as important for team success.
"Now going into my junior year I'm pretty much an established leader," Wimprine said. "Guys look to me to lead the team and when it's time to make a play people look towards you."
The 6-foot-1-inch passer seems to relish the role as field general and has the mind-set to go along.
"When it's time to play and you have to pick one guy and they say I want that guy on my team -- that's the type of guy I want to be."
