Tigers Football Preview: Connecticut

Friday, October 6

East Hartford, Conn.

6:00 p.m. CT

University of Memphis

UConn

Photo by: Matthew Smith

Oct 05, 2017 | Football

2017 Memphis FB Notes 10 06 UCONN UConn FB Notes 10-3-2017 2017 American FB release 6b

Memphis looking to remain perfect in non-Saturday games since 2014.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Tiger Nation, need a positive nugget heading into Friday's University of Memphis football game? Need a "pick-me-up" statistic?

Here you go: since 2014, the Tigers are a perfect 10-0 in games not played on a Saturday. And, half of those 10 non-Saturday game victories came on the road.

The first non-Saturday road win in the streak came in 2014 when the Tigers secured bowl eligibility for the first time since 2008 with a 16-13 victory at Temple. A year later, a 66-42 win on a Friday night in Tulsa continued to elevate Memphis higher in the national polls. And, in 2016, a Friday night 34-7 win at Cincinnati wrapped a winning campaign in head coach Mike Norvell's first year.

Quick Game Facts

Opponent	Connecticut
Day/Date	Friday, Oct. 6
Time	6 p.m. (CT)
Site	East Hartford, Conn./Pratt & Whitney Stadium
Television	ESPN
Radio (Flagship)	600 WREC AM/Rock 103 (102.7 FM)

Memphis Head Coach Mike Norvell
"Coming off last game and watching the film, pretty much what I said after the game held true. Every area that we needed to be successful in, we didn't achieve last Saturday night. I was kind of embarrassed for how we played. I'm embarrassed as a coach for how we prepared them to play. We're going to respond. Talk is cheap. What you see is who you are. Come Friday night, we have to show something much better if we have any intentions of winning this game."

(On Connecticut)
"You look at both sides of the ball, and they're very multiple. Offensively, they're leading our league in passing. They've been able to throw the ball around. They've got a great screen game, and they can push the ball vertically down the field. Their quarterback is playing with a lot of confidence, and he continues to grow. They went to SMU last week, and it was 28-all going into the fourth quarter. They had a couple mistakes that allowed the game to finish the way it did. This is a team that's growing and getting better every week. They're starting to get adjusted to the new coaches, to what they're being asked to do. Defensively, it's an odd-stack presentation, which is a unique look. They're going to change up their coverage and bring a lot of pressure to disrupt the offense. We've got to do a great job making sure we own the football."

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know

Friday's game is only the third all-time match-up between Memphis and Connecticut. Each protected its home field in the first two meetings, with the Huskies winning 45-10 in East Hartford, Conn., in 2013 and the Tigers 41-10 in Memphis in 2014.
Speaking of that 2014 encounter, Memphis posted a 41-10 win over Connecticut in the regular-season finale, and it doing so, the Tigers wrapped up a share of the American Athletic Conference championship. It was the program's first conference crown in over 40 seasons.
With Friday's game at Connecticut, it is the first time that Memphis opened a conference schedule with consecutive road games since 2010. That season, the Tigers started Conference USA action with contests at East Carolina and UTEP.
To take the consecutive-road-games-to-start-league-play further, Memphis is the only team in The American that plays its first two conference encounters on the road. The Tigers played at UCF Sept. 30 (rescheduled from Sept. 9) and faces Connecticut in East Hartford, Friday. Even if the schedule change for UCF would not have happened, the Tigers would have still played their first two league contests away from the Liberty Bowl. Also, Memphis is the only team in the league that is scheduled to play three of its first four conference games on the road to start conference action.
Friday's game at Connecticut is the Tigers' second trip to play a game in the New England region (first was at Connecticut in 2013) and Memphis' sixth trek for an encounter in the Northeast in program history. East Hartford, Conn. (latitude: 41.7614 degrees), is the second northern-most site for a Memphis game in program history. The most-northern site for a Tigers game came in 2005 at the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, Mich. (latitude: 42.3314 degrees).

Know Your Foe/Connecticut Facts-Stats Leaders

Quick Facts	2017 Statistical Leaders (4 games)
2017 Record: 1-3/0-2 The American	Rushing: Nate Hopkins (47 carries/223 yds)
Head Coach/Yrs: Randy Edsall/13^th in 2017	Passing: Bryant Shirreffs (1,165 yds/8 TD)
Starters Returning: 12 (6 Off/6 Def)	Receiving: Arkeel Newsome (15 rec/311 yds/TD)
Letterwinners Returning: 57	Tackles: Junior Joseph (33 total/19 solo/2.5 TFL)