Mild rant...I graduated from Memphis in 1989 and spent the first 50 years of my life in the city. Even though I now live in the middle of Razorback country, I will love the city of Memphis and my Tigers til the day I die.

I have been to games in Neyland in my college and young adult days when it was raining as it was in the days of Noah, and that stadium was FILLED. You might say, well, the Vols were decent in the 80's and 90's, but I now have a daughter who is a senior at UT (I know, I know -- I tried to talk her out of it) and even though they suck, there are still close to 100K fans at the games. In bad weather, it might drop to 80K. I was at the UMass game 2 years ago when it was broiling hot and there were very few empty seats.

I wish we could fill the Liberty Bowl, or at least have 45K every game, regardless of opponent, weather, who's on TV, etc.

Rant over.

^^
We need to lay off the CUPCAKES to hit those numbers

Sometimes I don't understand why we must always compare ourselves to UT. They are the land grant university with the support of the entire state. The are members of the SEC, the strongest and most profitable athletic conference in America, so what they earn monthly is about what we get annually. They have all the advantages. The state of Tennessee has 6.7 million people and Memphis has 700,000. At least half of the residents of Tennessee consider UT as the most important university in the state.

I have been following the Tigers since 1965. I followed UT as a child but learned there was little class associated with the average UT student or fan and I turned away from the dark side. They believe they are superior because they are UT. I graduated from Memphis State and I am very proud of it, mostly because I believe we are overachievers. Nothing was ever given to us. We had to earn it.

We drew 34K to our last game with Southern University. They had 92K, three times as many. I have lived in Knoxville and there is little else than UT there. East Tennesseans live to go to games in Neyland Stadium because there is nothing else to do. This also explains their lack of touch with reality. As a group they are unbalanced, ignorant and arrogant to a fault. If you have been to Neyland stadium and observed their fans you know what I am talking about.

With all this said and all they have over us consider this. We are now the best football program in the state. We are and have been since the 1970's the best basketball program in the state. We have the best football coach, the best basketball coach and I dare say, with no reluctance, the best university president.

Tennessee has probably 2 million fans statewide. Memphis probably at best 300,000. Close to 15% of our fans had there Butts in the seats this past Saturday to see Memphis play an FCS school. UT had approximately 5% of their fans to see a very good FBS play the Vols. And for now and probably the foreseeable future, we will not be playing UT as they know they would LOSE.

Our fans sometimes rant and rave about things we can do little about such as being on the outside Group of 5 rather than Power 5. Most SEC schools fans believe are entitled or are better than us just because they had more money or mommy and daddy could afford to send them off to school. Most of our graduates worked their way through school and have succeeded as well or better than the average SEC grad.

Thank god we are not Ole Miss, with their old south stereotypes or Tennessee with that hillbilly tradition. I will take the Memphis tradition of earning every bit of respect we get in the real world and on the fields of play. Hell, WE ARE MEMPHIS and we are better. Just not as many.

Well said!

What do you call a program that hasn't been to a BCS bowl game in 20 years, has a LOSING record over the last 10 years, has been through 4 coaches over that 10 year period and had an epic disaster of a coaching search during their last go at it?

Irrelevant.

(09-10-2019 01:19 PM)memtigbb Wrote:  I always find it funny how Memphis fans are so quick to sound exactly like national people who trash Memphis...


Memphis was all Calipari, without Calipari Memphis is just a low level school. Wait and see, without Cal, Memphis won't do anything, they are no longer relevant...

Then we go out and hire crap coaches like Pastner and Tub, and everyone around the country... See, no one can win at Memphis, we told you... Memphis is crap.... we were right....



UTk has all the potential anyone worth a damn could ask for. If you can't win big at UTk, you can't win big anywhere. Just because their admin is crap and the coaches they have hired are crap, doesn't mean they can't be really good.

Fuente was able to win at Memphis.... Norvell is winning at Memphis...

You want to tell me Norvell can win at a place like Memphis but he would be crap at UTk?

I think you are overstating the post Cal reputation a bit.

Just a vent. Why the f can't Gionnotto and others get their da$% sound set up right for their podcasts?!? They all sound like they swallowed the microphones. So annoying and hard to listen to.

I don't know about TN's head coach and really could care less but I think this is a rush to judgment. I can remember Fuente losing to Tennessee-Martin, Arkansas State, and Middle Tennessee State to start 0-3 and TN was laughing at Memphis. Thank God, we didn't panic. Losing to Tennessee-Martin is way worse.

(09-11-2019 09:56 AM)hartlessnhere Wrote:  I don't know about TN's head coach and really could care less but I think this is a rush to judgment. I can remember Fuente losing to Tennessee-Martin, Arkansas State, and Middle Tennessee State to start 0-3 and TN was laughing at Memphis. Thank God, we didn't panic. Losing to Tennessee-Martin is way worse.

Relative to resources and support, the GA St loss was worse than the Tiger defeat to UT-Martin. The UTK debacle is considered one of the most awful losses in recent history by the pundits.

Like someone stated earlier, it's going to be hard to win at Tennessee with Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn dominating. That's their recruiting base. We are even beating UT for some recruits in Tennessee now. UTK could be back on top if they hire a coach that's willing to take risk like Hugh Freeze though.

(09-11-2019 10:07 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 09:56 AM)hartlessnhere Wrote:  I don't know about TN's head coach and really could care less but I think this is a rush to judgment. I can remember Fuente losing to Tennessee-Martin, Arkansas State, and Middle Tennessee State to start 0-3 and TN was laughing at Memphis. Thank God, we didn't panic. Losing to Tennessee-Martin is way worse.

Relative to resources and support, the GA St loss was worse than the Tiger defeat to UT-Martin. The UTK debacle is considered one of the most awful losses in recent history by the pundits.

True. We already had the perception of being one the worst teams in the country at the time.

b - with an assist from Mark G - had a successful fishing expedition here.
So many closet UTK guys coming out in this thread.