Memphis Tigers: 2011 Football Season Preview

Larry Porter enters his second year as head coach coming off a year to forget at 1-11 (0-8 in C-USA play). Porter was a former running backs coach under Les Miles at both Oklahoma State and at LSU. Porter played running back at Memphis from '90-'93.

He finished his career with 2,194 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns, ranking seventh in school history in yards, and he tied for fifth in touchdowns.

However, Porter needs to recruit some talent at Memphis to get back in the bowl picture. The Tigers have gone 3-21 the past two years, which is not something the Tiger faithful is use to. 

Memphis has been to five bowls since '03 but is looking to become relevant in the landscape of college football again. 

A 1-11 season was tough to swallow, and with a total of only nine starters back how much better can the Tigers get? Well, improving upon a 1-11 season should not be impossible, especially with an extremely soft schedule.

That schedule starts out rough as they host a legit top 20 team in the Mississippi State Bulldogs. They then will get a few cupcake FCS teams in Arkansas State and Austin Peay before hosting SMU on homecoming.

Middle Tennessee and Rice in back-to-back road tilts will be tough, especially since they get ECU at home before they go back on the road for two more C-USA games against Tulane and the reigning C-USA champion Central Florida Knights.

They close out against UAB, Marshall and Southern Miss with the only road game being in Hattiesburg (my pick to win the East).  

Offensively there were offensive—they ranked fourth to dead last (117th), averaging just 285 yards per game! They lose quarterback Ryan Williams, who will sit out a year as he transfers to the Miami Hurricanes. The expected starter will be Andy Summerlin, an incoming junior college transfer recruit.

The top receiver is back in Marcus Rucker, who led the team by far in touchdowns with eight. This is still the worst offensive team in C-USA and among the worst in the nation because of its horrid offensive line and inexperience at quarterback. 

The defense has six back, and if there is one silver lining on this entire team it is the front four. Nose tackle Dontari Poe is a flat-out stud and is bigger than a truck at 6'5" and 350 pounds.

The other defensive tackle is their next best player.

Frank Trotter is large and in charge at 6’2" and 265 pounds, though he is more a speed rusher in the front four. He had zero sacks, but it was his 16.5 tackles for a loss that made an impact.

The back seven is atrocious (116th) and there better be improvements made if they want to challenge for a bowl game.

Predicted finish: 3-9, 1-7

Predicted bowl: None

Predicted order of finish in C-USA: Fifth in East, 11th in C-USA