Memphis Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 12/08/2019

COACH SILVERFIELD: Yeah, well, thank you guys, so much. The entire University of Memphis, the community, our football program, are so excited to be part of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. It’s an honor to play an opponent like Penn State. Coach [James] Franklin has done a fantastic job there.

Our players, our football program, are quite excited to get down to Dallas and show the country what the University of Memphis is all about.

COACH FRANKLIN: We actually have a group that are coming down tomorrow morning for the site visit. And I know our team’s excited. We had practice today, and we are about to get on the road to go recruiting. But it’s a tremendous opportunity. I’ve been fortunate in my career to play in almost every bowl game. I have not been to the Cotton Bowl, so I couldn’t be more excited to get down there, and learn more about the tradition and the history, and play an unbelievable opponent like University of Memphis.

Obviously what Coach [Mike] Norvell has been able to do there is fantastic, and we offer him a congratulations on his future and the next step in his career. And obviously what a great opportunity for Coach Silverfield. I look forward to visiting with him. We’ve known each other for years. Tremendous opportunity. I know our players, our coaches, our lettermen and alumni, as well as our administration, couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity. New Year’s Six bowl games are very, very difficult to get and challenging to get, and to be able to play a program like Memphis we couldn’t be more excited.

Hi, Coach Franklin. Congratulations on making it to the Cotton Bowl.

COACH FRANKLIN: Thank you very much.

Just talk about Penn State hasn’t played in Texas in a very long time. Do you guys have a lot of alumni down there in the Dallas area?

COACH FRANKLIN: Yeah, as you can imagine, first of all, we just found out about the bowl a little bit ago, so I haven’t done all my research and things like that. But we have one of the largest alumni bases in the world, over 700,000 living alumni. So we’re everywhere. And I know we’ll come out strong. We’ll come out strong and fill the Cotton Bowl. Should be a great experience for everybody. I haven’t had a chance to do a whole lot of research at this point. Obviously, I have watched Memphis on TV a lot this year. But just literally just started getting prepared for this opportunity.

Winning 11 games on the season, is that good for the program to move forward? Because I know a lot of programs don’t get an opportunity to win 11 games.

COACH FRANKLIN: I think whenever you get into that obviously that nine, ten, then 11 games, you start to put yourself in the situation where there’s very few teams in the country that could say that. And we’ve been fortunate in over the last four years to be one of the winningest programs in college football. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge against a very, very talented and confident football team like Memphis. But, yeah, that’s a big time goal. If you can win 11 games in a season, it’s something that you should be very, very proud of.

Happy holidays to you and your family.

COACH FRANKLIN: You, too, sir.

James, you’re in a New Year’s Six game. Certainly a great achievement. A large portion of your fan base thought this was going to be the Rose Bowl, James. What do you tell those people who may be out there that would be disappointed that you did not go to the Rose Bowl?

COACH FRANKLIN: We’re excited about the Cotton Bowl. I think it’s an unbelievable opportunity to be in a New Year’s Six game. Like I said, I have never been to the Cotton Bowl before. I’m looking forward to that opportunity. I’m looking forward to being in Dallas. I’m looking forward to being in Jerry’s World (AT&T Stadium). I’m looking forward to it all. I think it’s going to be a tremendous opportunity for our fans, not only in Dallas and Texas specifically, but also across the country. It’s going to be fantastic.

As you know, there’s always that percentage of fans that may be they’ll have different opinions on social media and they can be vocal. But I know the majority the great majority of our fans couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity. And I know our team feels the same way.

I was just curious, we learned about your contract extension the other day. Just your thoughts on getting that done and how important that is moving forward, both for you and the program as a whole.

COACH FRANKLIN: Well, I think it’s obviously really important. I mean, for us really what the contract is about is about consistency, and then it’s about obviously taking some areas that we think we need to take the next step in. So a lot of different discussions between myself and Sandy Barbour and President [Eric] Barron and also our board. Sit down and have some face to face, honest conversations about what we want to do and where we can be. And that’s academically. That’s athletically. That’s socially. That’s the whole package. That’s one of the things that I’m so excited about Penn State, is that we align with that.

Winning is really important, but it’s so much more than wins here. So to be able to get in a room and kind of talk through all these things and what can we do? What can we do to continue to make our community proud and the University proud and our lettermen proud? We keep chipping away at that. So we continue to make significant progress, and we want to continue to do that.

So that’s where the contract is important. I know it also helps, we have a bunch of recruits on campus today. I know that’s been a major point of conversation, is recruits knowing and understanding that I have a contract that’s going to last throughout their career. It’s a big part of it as well.

One of the things I thought was really cool, and my wife thought was really cool, is whenever we get a new commitment, I always tweet out “We Are Better” and it was really pretty cool to see a bunch of former players and players in the NFL, and also our current players all tweeting out “We Are Better” with a connection to my new contract announcement. I thought that was really cool. It meant a lot to me and my wife.

Can you describe what you know about Penn State? James, can you describe what you know about Memphis?

COACH SILVERFIELD: It’s traditionally a strong program. Obviously Coach Franklin has taken it to a whole other level. I’ve got great respect. They’re a national brand. Obviously, they have won a ton of football games. Congrats to Coach Franklin’s contract extension. We know they’re a great opponent. Got some familiarity with some of their staff. Coach Joe Lorig, their special teams coordinator, was with us here at Memphis previously. But, you know, they’re obviously a Big Ten program. They have had a lot of success. We know there will be a lot of challenges facing an opponent like them. But our team is excited and ready to face those challenges ahead in Dallas.

COACH FRANKLIN: Like Ryan [Silverfield] mentioned, we are fortunate. We have Joe Lorig on our staff that was at the University of Memphis for a number of years. Me and Joe have known each other for a long time. He’s going to be able to give us some perspective. But we’re just getting started in breaking down their personnel and schemes and things like that. Obviously just found out a few hours ago when we had practice.

But I have been lucky enough to be able to watch some of their games. Obviously, being a head football coach at Vanderbilt in the same state, I was familiar with Memphis, and then also played in a bowl game in their stadium. So I got some familiarity and have watched them on TV. From what I’ve seen, they’re a very, very athletic team. They’re a very confident team. They play with a tremendous amount of confidence. And they’re used to winning, and have been doing it now for a number of years. I know they’re going to come into this game expecting to do the same thing. So it’s going to be a tremendous challenge. And we’re looking forward to the opportunity.

But we’re just getting started on kind of figuring out who they are and how they operate.

This is for Coach Silverfield. Coach, congratulations. The past three years, Memphis hasn’t gotten over that bowl game hump. What do you think you guys need to do to come out victorious next month? I’m sorry, later this month.

COACH SILVERFIELD: Look, we know the challenges that we’ve had in December at bowl games. This is a whole new year, new team. And every year is a different season. We’ve got to continue to prepare. Kind of like Coach Franklin has just said, we’ve got we are just now delving into the opponent we’ll be facing. But like we say every week, it’s about focusing on ourselves, improving ourselves every day on and off the field. And if we do that, hopefully the result on the 28th will come in our favor. But that’s a long ways away, and we just got to take it one day at a time, focus on ourselves. We don’t look at the previous years, the mishaps we’ve had in the previous bowl games. We are focused on this one. It’s so exciting to get down to the Cotton Bowl.

Coach Silverfield, I know it’s been an emotional 24 hours for your guys winning a championship and with Coach [Mike] Norvell obviously getting an opportunity at Florida State. Two questions, when will you guys know if he is going to coach in the bowl game? And what do you expect your team’s preparation, and how do you expect them to respond to all this?

COACH SILVERFIELD: Well, we had a Coach Norvell met with the team this morning at 8:00 a.m. Obviously a lot of them had an understanding of what was occurring. We are happy for Coach Norvell and the success he brought us here, and wish him nothing but the best at Florida State, and he certainly deserves all the success that will come his way. We are moving forward, and we are just focused on myself and the staff that’s in place right now, coaching this bowl game. And chips will fall where they may. At the end of the day, that’s entirely the focus is the people. We went back with the team at 1:00 this afternoon where I was able to speak with them, and our athletic director, Laird Veatch, met with them as well. And there seemed to be at least a little bit of a sense of excitement to go to the Cotton Bowl, to move in that right direction. And so I think they’ll have the right mindset and the right focus needed to approach this game.

Coach Franklin, I want to ask about preparing for a game that’s kind of going through that. Obviously, there’s going to be a lot of emotion on their side for what they’re doing and for what they have accomplished this year.

COACH FRANKLIN: Yeah. Obviously this is a players’ game and they have a bunch of really good players. They have great staff. And they continue to put those guys in position to be successful and this is a little bit of the nature of our game. I mean, this time of year, these things happen. And it’s challenging. There’s no doubt about it. It’s challenging for the players. It’s challenging for the coaches. It’s challenging for everybody involved. But they have won a lot of football games this year for a reason and they will be ready and prepared to play. I know that for sure, and we’re going to need to be as well. Whether that’s Coach Silverfield, who I know is going to do a great job, or whether that is Coach Norvell. They will have that team ready to play and we better be ready to compete.

One of my good friends is a Penn State alum and he and his family already have their tickets. They are looking forward to you being here.

COACH FRANKLIN: Tell them to wear lots of blue and tell them to be loud as anything.

Coach Silverfield, this is for you. Two questions for you. What do you think this means for the city? What does this mean to you to be the new interim head coach? Also, Brady White yesterday was struggling yesterday in the first half? What was said to him or what was done mechanically to get him going in the second half there?

COACH SILVERFIELD: I will address the Brady White question first. Brady has had a wonderful season. Just like with any quarterback, there will be ups and downs to the game. Like every game, he’s righted the ship and it was handled the right way. I don’t think it was anything mechanically. I think it was adjustments we made. He’s an intelligent young man. He got any of the issues which I don’t think that he necessarily had, fixed, and led us to victory. We are very proud of Brady and excited to continue to watch and compete at a high level here in Memphis.

You asked about what this means for the City of Memphis and for us moving forward? Well, as guys well know, the 901 is quite a prideful city. This community bleeds blue. They care about their Tigers. So the sense of pride they have to reach a bowl with such tradition like the Cotton Bowl, it just brings so much excitement. It’s a wonderful opportunity for our program, for our University to represent the city and go down to Dallas and showcase our talents and represent the City of Memphis.

And for me, you know, look, I’m excited. This is all about the players. It’s an opportunity for me to hopefully provide some leadership and hold them accountable and continue to push them in the right direction.

This is about our players and couldn’t be more proud of them and the opportunities that lie ahead of us.

James, I was just hoping you could clarify one other point. When do you anticipate your basic contract terms being released? And should it be by the end of this coming week?

COACH FRANKLIN: Yeah, I’m not sure. I think they’re just waiting for the final contract to be signed. But I haven’t actually seen it. A lot of these things obviously I’m on the road recruiting while things are being finalized. I think we are just waiting for that document to be signed and then it will be announced right after that, from what I understand from my conversations with Sandy.