Ti20 Off the Boards: Head Coach Ryan Silverfield

Tigers in 20: A Memphis Tigers Athletics podcast

In this episode of Off the Boards, we are joined by Memphis Tiger head football coach, Ryan Silverfield. Ryan is entering into his third full year of leading the Tigers and is coming off a disappointing 6-6 record in 2021.

Ryan shares his reaction and thoughts about spring football and the goals he established for the team during spring football. He spoke about how proud he was of the way the team has gelled during the offseason and the emphasis that the staff puts on conditioning during summer workouts.

Ryan then discusses the quarterback competition during the spring between Grant Gunnell and incumbent starter, Seth Henigan. He speaks glowingly about the maturation of Seth and the step he's seen in Seth since stepping on campus as a skinny, 17-year old kid. Ryan talks about the "swag" that Seth possesses and how he has demanded and earned the respect of veteran players on the Tiger roster. He goes in depth about the comparisons between Seth Henigan and former Tiger great, Brady White, in terms of the mental side of playing the game. Ryan highlights how the staff purposefully recruits high character guys and the way they go about weeding out kids that might not fit the "character" of the team. To end the first segment, Ryan talks about the rest of the quarterback room and which of the guys in that room have the potential to back Seth up to start the year.

In the second segment, Ryan shares how his recruiting staff doesn't necessarily look at film first to determine whether or not to offer a kid in high school a scholarship. He shares how his team has a checklist of character questions that help them understand if a kid will fit into the culture he is creating at Memphis. Ryan breaks down the 2023 recruiting class and the needs that the Tiger staff has identified for the team.

Kenny asks Ryan how he feels about the impact that the transfer portal has had on high school recruiting and Ryan's own personal conviction about finding the balance between plugging and playing players through the portal and recruiting and developing young high school talent. Kenny and Ryan then discuss the Memphis Rising Initiative and the unveiling of the proposed mock ups to renovations to the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Ryan shares how excited he is to see the changes and is proud of the community investment into the football program. He states that he believes that his staff is building the culture at Memphis the right way and is excited to see the community investment as recognition of that fact.

To close out the interview, Kenny asks Ryan about the Big 12 expansion plans and if he thinks Memphis not being added to those plans will negatively recruiting for the Tigers. Then they transition to discuss NIL and the ever changing conversation around NIL and recruiting and how he views recruiting in the NIL era.

About Off the Boards:

Off the Boards is a video/audio segment where GT247 sits down with local and national sports figures.

Typically, Off the Boards has been a video segment, but we are now turning it into an audio podcast as well to better meet the needs of all of our followers. This new format will allow all of GT247's content to be more accessible to listeners.

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