Tennessee football: Vols should begin rivalry with Memphis Tigers

Tennessee football has dominated the Memphis Tigers historically. But now is the perfect time for the Volunteers to renew the series and start a rivalry.

Historically, it always made more sense for Tennessee basketball to have a rivalry with the Memphis Tigers than Tennessee football. After all, the Vols and Tigers were on similar playing levels on the court, and there’s been a reasonable amount of competitiveness in the series.

However, in football, it’s a different story. Memphis has traditionally been awful with a program that never invested in the program, while Tennessee has a deep history. We know all this, and it’s why the Vols lead the all-time series against the Tigers 20-1, with the one loss being a fluke one by Peyton Manning in 1996.

This is why the two programs haven’t played since 2010. It just made no sense for either team given what their goals were. Meanwhile, Tennessee Vols Athletic Director Phillip Fulmer, who was head coach during that sole loss, said Tuesday in Memphis according to reports that there are no plans to resume the series.

That’s a mistake. The Tennessee-Memphis series has a chance to be much more competitive in the future thanks to the way the Tigers are up and coming. This could become indicative of Kentucky-Louisville, Georgia-Georgia Tech, and South Carolina-Clemson.

Even if the Vols return to their glory days, the series could be competitive on that nature. It’s all because of how the Tigers have arrived as a program.

Last year, they were one play away from being the Group of Five representative in the New Years Six bowl games. Nobody came closer to beating the undefeated UCF Knights, even the Auburn Tigers.

But believe it or not, that wasn’t a one-off. Memphis, if you’ve followed the program, has been dedicating significant resources to the football program. In 2012, they brought in Tom Bowen as their new athletic director. A Notre Dame graduate, Bowen became the first AD in Memphis ever to prioritize football.

That’s why the program has seen four straight winning seasons and has had its most successful four-year run in history. And it wasn’t all with one coach. Bowen was prepared for Justin Fuente to leave in 2015, so he did his homework and immediately found Mike Norvell. If Norvell leaves, you can bet he’ll do the same thing.

With such prepared athletic director, the Tigers aren’t going anywhere. Add in the explosion of recruiting talent in the state of Tennessee, and they have more players to pick from. Simply put, even as a Group of Five team, this is a program on the rise.

As a result, Tennessee football needs to bring back this series. Memphis is the only place in the state where the Vols can go and have to compete for fan support with another program. Having a yearly rivalry like this will be great for the fans everywhere and elevate both programs. And it establishes a yearly presence in West Tennessee and the North Mississippi area to get more recruits. How could you pass that up?

We’ve seen in the past how the basketball rivalry elevated both programs on a national stage. Well, football could do the same now. Of course, the Vols will always be the more dominant and powerful program. But the Tigers are at a level now to make this an interesting rivalry.

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So Tennessee football should take this on. A cross-state rivalry that generates fan interest, creates multiple chances for games on the national map and also opens more recruiting doors is huge. This is not the Memphis Tigers of 10 years ago.

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