On Thanksgiving night the Memphis Tigers fell 28–17 to the Navy Midshipmen at home in front of more than 27,000 fans, ending hopes of a double-digit win season. The loss marked Memphis’ third straight defeat and ended the Tigers’ streak of scoring at least 20 points in consecutive games — a string that had reached 51 games.
For Silverfield, a coach coming off perhaps the most successful stretch in Memphis program history, the defeat lands with weight. Under his leadership, the Tigers recently posted a historic back-to-back ten-win campaign and looked poised to reach those heights again with a Navy win — a victory that would have sent them to 9–3 and set up a bowl bid with momentum. Instead, Navy’s second-half dominance exposed lapses and left Silverfield with a frank admission: “It pisses me off … I’m frustrated, I’m angry, it’s not good enough.”
Now comes the reckoning: can Silverfield steer Memphis back toward consistency and recapture the form that elevated the Tigers? The Thanksgiving loss—even if just one game—becomes a turning point for how the 2025 campaign and his future at Memphis might be evaluated.