Memphis Football – Who Are The Opponents? – North Alabama
As the Memphis Tigers begin their 2024 slate of games we look at opponent number one in the North Alabama Lions this Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 6 pm.. In this piece, we will take a deep dive approach to find out how the Lions ended up here in week one of the season, their coach and some history on him, players to watch, and, finally, the history with Memphis.
How Did They Get Here?
North Alabama would get their season started last Saturday, against Southeast Missouri. The Lions would take a 15-13 lead into halftime. In the second half, SEMO would cause 4 turnovers and score 24 unanswered points. In the end, UNA would fall, 37-15, and start the 2024 slate 0-1. The Lions would be outgained, 372 to 320, in the loss while averaging a higher yardage per play with 5.3 compared to 4.9 on the night. As mentioned the turnovers would be a deciding factor as the Lions would fumble three times with two resulting in a loss of possession.
We will now look at the head Lion.
Who Is The Coach?
Second-year head coach Brent Dearmon leads the Lions. Dearmon,39, comes to the Lions after spending the last three seasons as offensive coordinator for Kansas, in 2019-20, MTSU, in 2021, and Florida Atlantic, in 2022. The former Bethel quarterback turned head coach, in 2018, would lead his alma mater to a 10-win season and number three rank as their offense would average 540 yards per game and 55 points per game.
Beeardon would also cut his teeth at Arkansas Tech as he worked under Raymond Monica, former UNA assistant, as his offensive coordinator. While there, the Wonder Boys’ offense would average 36 and 31 points in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. In the Lions offense, we see the primary focus of Beardon is the quarterbacks.
The scheme is the RPO style and the former Bethel star knows this offense. To further this point, the mathematics degree holder wrote a book on the offense. The book, “The Evolution of the RPO”, dissects the offensive strategy of the offense in a multitude of ways.
Offensively in 2023, the Lions were effective. The Lions would average 390 yards per game with 4.291 total yards with an average of 5.2 yards per play. The highest percentage of offensive attack was through the air as the Lions would throw for 2.505 yards with 23 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and an average of 277 yards per game. With this, the passing attack would have an average of 6.1 yards per pass with an average catch of 10.4 yards.
On the ground, the Lions would rush for 1,786 yards with 11 touchdowns last season on 415 rushing attempts. In these attempts, UNA would average 4.3 yards per rush with a 162-yard average per game. This is a full position room as there are 11 Lions on the roster including returners{We will discuss next} and transfers. Position coach, Morgan Cruze, who enters his second season in this position, has a plethora of talent to compete in the newly formed United Athletic League. Some Memphis fans may recognize the name as Cruze came from Brighton High School in Tennessee before North Alabama.
Players To Watch
We spoke on the potency of this offense and now we will look at some players to watch on offense, defense, and special teams for the Lions.
We mentioned the returners and we start there as running back, Jalyn Daniels, Lion’s leading rusher in 2023, is back and looking to make the 2023 season even stronger in 2024. Daniels who rushed for 233 yards on 16 carries and 3 touchdowns in three games, averaged 13.9 yards per carry. In the week one loss, Daniles would rush 13 times for 100 yards and a touchdown.
In today’s world of college football, everyone utilizes the portal. In the case of the Lions, they would bring in graduate, Ari Patu, from Stanford to man their high-potency offense. Patu, who would start for UNA in games one, and two as he is the listed starter for the Memphis game, joins former transfer, Tj Smith, who would come to the Lions from Florida Atlantic last season. Patu would finish game one 12-24 passing for 104 yards and 2 interceptions. In addition to thorough the air, Patu would have 13 rushes for 56 yards as he would finish the game the Lion’s 3rd leading rusher for the game. The dual-threat weapon will cause issues for many defensive coordinators as he has very impressive intangibles in his arsenal to keep them awake late at night.
We couldn’t leave out the old man. Ok, he isn’t that old but he has been on the roster since the 2018 season. We are referring to Lions wide receiver, Takairee Kenebrew, who enters his 7th season in college football. Kenebrew brings many talents to this offense as he holds all-time program records, season touchdowns, with 10, and career touchdowns, with 26, in his career. Ant defense will need to watch him closely as he has shown in his tenure to be a weapon in this offense. To further this, Kenebrew has scored the first touchdown in 6 of 11 games last season including four of the five home games for the Lions.
The defense of the Lions also has talented returners and new additions. Two of these are linebackers, Shaun Myers, who returns, as well as transfer linebacker, Jackson Bratton, as they both will be vital pieces in 2024.
Myers, who was the third leading tackler from last season returns to anchor this Lion’s defense. Myers would finish 2023 with 58 tackles with 4.5 tackles for loss. In the Lion’s opening loss, we would see Myers with 1 solo tackle and 2 assists to finish with three in the game. Bratton would finish the second tackler on the night as he would finish with 5 solos and assist for 10 total tackles. In addition, he would also have 3 tackles for loss and a half sack.
How have the Lions fared against the Tigers?
History vs Memphis
The two programs have met just one time in their history. We go back to an emotional day, in Memphis, for the last meeting in 2022. On the day when the Tigers would honor, and retire the #59 for Danton Barto we would see a defensive clinic in the 59-0 win. Did you notice the wild coincidence on that day?
Memphis enters this game a perfect 10-0 against the FCS since the 2013 season. In addition to this, the Tigers enter this game 26-1 in the team’s last 27 home games against non-conference opponents. Can Memphis also make it a perfect 8-0 in “901” games as the Tigers are currently 7-0 in these themed games?
We will have all these answers on Saturday following the completion of the game. We expect a Memphis win, quite handily to be honest, in their home and season opener. We expect Memphis to increase the winning record of 20-6 which is their current win and loss record at home under Ryan Silverfield. We now hope your knowledge of opponent number one has increased before kickoff.
