The University of Memphis football team held a luncheon on Monday in advance of spring practice beginning Tuesday which concludes with Friday Night Stripes, the spring game, April 22 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
New coach Mike Norvell met with the media and expressed his excitement about finally putting on pads and beginning football activities.
“We’re all chomping at the bit,” Norvell said. “This is something we’ve been looking forward to since we got back in January. We got through recruiting and had the opportunity to be around the guys in morning workouts. But we haven’t had helmets. We haven’t had footballs. So to put it all together, we’re excited about getting out there and working with each other.”
Memphis football hits the field again on the heels of a 9-4 season and a birth to the Birmingham Bowl, a coaching change and the highest rated recruiting class in program history.
Typically, when a new coach takes over a program, it is because the previous staff was terminated. But that’s not the case for Norvell and his staff.
Justin Fuente left Memphis for Virginia Tech as a result of the unprecedented success he had with the Tigers; meaning, Norvell is taking over about as good of a situation as a new coach could hope for.
“There’s been a culture of winning that’s been established (at Memphis),” Norvell said. “Our goal is to continue to grow and build off that. We want to take the next step as a program, and it’s going to take everybody involved. It’s going to take all the coaches, all the players – we all have to get on the same page of what the expectations are.”
“Last year, this football team got a glimpse of greatness,” Norvell continued. “You saw the excitement and what it meant to this community, to this university. Everybody’s excited about Memphis football.”
One major issue Norvell, offensive coordinator Chip Long and assistant coach Darrell Dickey will have to sort out is the quarterback position.
Three-year starter Paxton Lynch elected to forgo his final year of eligibility and enter the 2016 NFL Draft, where he is projected to be a first-round pick.
Junior college transfer Riley Ferguson and redshirt freshman Brady Davis are expected to be the two battling for the starting job. Lynch’s backup last season, Clay Holgorsen, was expected to compete with Ferguson and Davis, but he is not listed on the 2016 spring roster.
Memphis also has redshirt senior Jason Stewart and true freshman David Moore, who has not yet enrolled but should do so in the summer, as options at quarterback.
“The guy that we had leading this football team for the last three years is a special player, and he’s going to hear his name called very early in the NFL Draft,” Norvell said. “We know we’ve got some big shoes to fill. The guys we have competing, I’ve been really please what I’ve seen from them here so far this spring. Unless somebody does something pretty remarkable and takes the job this spring, we know this competition is going to go probably through the summer and into fall camp.”
Spring practice will be the time where Norvell can implement the schemes that he plans on running on both sides of the ball.
Players have been studying playbooks on paper, but this will be the first opportunity the players and coaches have had to see what everything looks like on the field.
“We want to start to establish our identity,” Norvell said. “We know there’s going to be some mistakes. There’s probably going to be some uncertainty there early. But we’re going to go out there and establish the way we’re going to practice. We’re looking to introduce our schemes.”
Former quarterback Paxton Lynch’s departure will lead to an open competition at quarterback this spring at the University of Memphis. Spring practice begins Tuesday.
