J&J Show: ESPN's Barrie sees gold mine in Memphis Football

Jason Smith and John Martin interviewed ESPN's Matt Barrie on Wednesday's J&J Show. LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:

Matt Barrie sees a gold mine in Memphis football. Thursday is a chance for the Tigers to show why.

The most interesting thing ESPN’s Matt Barrie said about Memphis on Wednesday had nothing to do with a point spread. He put the Tigers and South Florida in the same category: two American Conference jobs he considers “absolute gold mines.”

Barrie, who will call Thursday’s Memphis–South Florida game with Chase Daniel, laid out his case on Jason & John on 92.9 FM ESPN. For USF, he pointed to the money around Tampa and the players a Florida program can bring back home for a second chance. For Memphis, he pointed to the proximity to SEC-caliber talent, the facilities and the buy-in around the program.

That case for Memphis matters because the Tigers have spent years answering the same question every time a successful coach leaves. How much of the winning goes with him?

Justin Fuente, Mike Norvell and Ryan Silverfield each won at Memphis and moved on to bigger jobs. Barrie’s argument is that the next coach inherits some of the same reasons those three could win in the first place. He recalled attending a Memphis walkthrough with then-broadcast partner Dan Mullen, who looked at the roster and came away impressed by the players he saw. Barrie sees a similar ability to assemble talent under Charles Huff, who brought in players he knew from Southern Miss and supplemented them through the portal. That takes work in a league where bigger programs are recruiting from your roster at the same time you’re trying to rebuild it.

There’s a difference between looking the part and playing four quarters like it. Barrie saw both versions of Memphis against East Carolina. The offense spent the first half, in his telling, taking a nap. It woke up after halftime and looked like the unit he expected to see. He also brought up Boise State as a missed opportunity that could have changed the national conversation around the Tigers. Thursday gives Memphis another chance to put a complete game on national television, this time on the road against a program with many of the same ambitions.

Barrie thinks a major realignment could eventually draw a line around 60 or 70 programs. He named Memphis, South Florida and Boise State among the schools he would consider bringing into that group. He still sees the Big 12 as Memphis’ best fit, pointing to the league’s footprint and its emphasis on basketball. The Tigers have already learned how little control they have over the membership decisions made in conference offices.

They have considerably more control over what happens in Tampa. Thursday puts Memphis in a window the American has made its own, with a conference race still in play and a national audience that can see the roster Barrie is talking about. The Tigers have spent years making their case to people in meeting rooms. This week they get to make it on the field.

Memphis at South Florida · Thursday, Nov. 12 · 7 p.m. CT · ESPN