University of Memphis Athletics
The Bright Side With Jeff Brightwell
Sep 29, 2011 | Football
Sept. 29, 2011
MEMPHIS, TENN. -
By: Jeff Brightwell, Learfield Sports
The Memphis Tigers will be back on the road this weekend when they travel to Murfreesboro to face Middle Tennessee at 6 p.m., Saturday night.
The Tigers are coming off a home loss to SMU while the Blue Raiders are looking for a win after falling to Troy last week.
Despite a 42-0 setback to SMU in the Tigers' conference opener, head coach Larry Porter is looking to the future.
"Obviously this past weekend was not good to us," said Porter at Monday's press luncheon. "We're not happy about it, but we've got to move on. We still have eight games left, and there were some things in this past game that I feel like we can build on defensively."
Porter says the focus of this week's game will be on his offense.
"Certainly our offensive line will be challenged to perform better," said Porter. "I think the skill guys that surround our quarterback need to step up and provide him an opportunity to be more productive."
One thing to note is that the Tigers are playing with a very young lineup this year. In fact, four true freshmen have made starts this season (two each on offense and defense); and eight true freshmen have seen significant action. All in all, 15 total freshmen have played at least one game this season.
Middle Tennessee is looking for their first win of the season and are playing their first home game since falling to Georgia Tech on Sept. 10. The Blue Raiders lost in a tight game last week, 38-35, at Troy. The loss to Troy was the second of the year by a field goal, the other coming on opening day at Purdue, 27-24.
"They practice hard; they play hard; and they compete hard, so you want them to see the rewards," said Middle Tennessee head coach Rick Stockstill. "I give our players credit. After the Purdue game, they bounced back and we played hard against Georgia Tech."
This will be the second in-state team the Tigers have faced and Middle Tennessee offensive lineman Brandon McLeroy is focused on what it means.
"It means a lot to play Memphis," said McLeroy. "There's a little battle between the Sun Belt and Conference USA, plus the in-state battle. To me it's not so much a rivalry, but it's personal."
The "Bright Side" for the Tigers is that after two weeks at home, a change of scenery could be good. This will be the last non-conference game of the season for Memphis before ending the year with seven straight Conference USA contests. Porter is convinced as ever that success is in the Tigers' future.
"I have a tremendous belief that this program does have unlimited potential," said Porter. "So when I stand in front of them, I do not waver in what I feel and how I feel. I stand in front of them encouraged, inspired and totally committed to making this program a winning program."
Jeff Brightwell is considered the "voice of Tiger baseball and women's basketball," and serves as the broadcast team captain handling the majority of the production and engineering duties for Tiger football games. A 1996 graduate of the University of Memphis, Brightwell came to Memphis in 2003 after spending six years in Missouri. He has done play-by-play for Southeast Missouri State, Central Methodist College, Truman State, Moberly Community College and the Memphis RiverKings. For the last eight years, the native Memphian has broadcast both home and away contests for Memphis baseball and women's basketball on WUMR FM. He also hosts a weekly Tiger Update web show that is streamed through Memphis Tiger Vision on the athletic department website.
Please see below for an interview with safety Cannon Smith.
