Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1193094
C O T T O N B O W L P R E V I E W
fired Willie Taggart late in the season. On
Dec. 8, the Seminoles made their choice
official, announcing Norvell as the pro-
gram's new head coach. Two days later,
he revealed that he would not be coaching
the Tigers against Penn State.
That left Memphis with some big deci-
sions to make and very little time in
which to make them. For a while, the
school was thought to be looking at Barry
Odom, who was recently fired by Mis-
souri after going 25-25 in four seasons.
Before heading to Mizzou, Odom was de-
fensive coordinator at Memphis under
Fuente. A handful of offensive and defen-
sive coordinators from various Power Five
schools had also been mentioned, as had
Hugh Freeze, the former Mississippi
coach who recently wrapped up his first
season at Liberty.
But on Dec. 13, Memphis announced
that Silverfield had been chosen as
Norvell's full-time successor after taking
over initially on an interim basis. The
Jacksonville, Fla., native has coached at
the high school, college and NFL levels
and had made no secret of his interest in
the position. "This is the job I've wanted,"
he told reporters at a Dec. 8 news confer-
ence. "This is not one of those [situa-
tions] where I take the job and I'm looking
at other jobs. This is not a stepping-stone
for me. Twenty years from now, we'll be
having a press conference and I'll be
heading off into retirement and some of
you younger folks in the room will still be
around and I'll say, 'It's been a fun ride.
I'm off to the boat.' "
Before he can set sail, there's a Cotton
Bowl matchup vs. Penn State to prepare
for. Memphis has gone 5-7 in bowl games
over the years, including an 0-4 showing
the past four seasons.
This year's matchup against the Nittany
Lions may be the biggest postseason
challenge the program has yet faced, but
Silverfield is undaunted. The recent
coaching upheaval is likely to be far from
everyone's mind when the game kicks off
on Dec. 28 in Arlington, Texas. At that
point, everyone on the Memphis sideline
is expected to be locked in. Said Silver-
field, "Our main objective is to go out
there and get that win."
■
KEY MATCHUPS
PENN STATE RUN GAME 173.5 YPG, 4.5 YPC
MEMPHIS RUN DEFENSE 171.6 YPG, 4.2 YPC
THE LOWDOWN
Even though freshman RB Noah Cain barely
played in the last