Memphis football kicker quotes Jelly Roll; Tigers' AAC title hopes alive
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tanner Gillis, Memphis football's kicker, walked up to his coach before Saturday's game at Charlotte.
"How beautiful is today, that we get to go out there and play football?" he said to Ryan Silverfield. And Silverfield, recounting it postgame, just beamed.
Pregame rain and overcast sky be damned, it's easy to see why he said it. Gillis started this season as a backup punter, an afterthought walk-on behind two other scholarship kickers brought in as transfers ahead of him. He was thrust into the starting job by injuries and had played well, but his job was about to get a lot harder.
A few hours later, Gillis stood in the center of the Jerry Richardson Stadium turf, with the weight of Memphis' season literally at his feet. He was about to attempt a 41-yard field goal with less than a minute remaining, with the Tigers trailing by three. Miss it, and Memphis' chances at reaching the American Athletic Conference title game would instantly be at zero. Make it, and extend the game.
And, oh, by the way, he'd already missed a 43-yard attempt in the quarter.
"The windshield's bigger than the rearview for a reason," Gillis said, quoting country music star Jelly Roll.
So he kicked it straight through the uprights, extending a wild shootout game that neither team probably deserved to win. His teammates took it from there, when the defense shut down the 49ers and running back Blake Watson rushed for an overtime touchdown to give Memphis (8-2, 5-1 AAC) an improbable 44-38 win and a four-game winning streak.
Seth Henigan rises to the occasion
Gillis' missed field goal was far from the only Memphis gaffe on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers — again playing an overmatched newcomer to the AAC — repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with turnovers, penalties and defensive miscues.
"That cardiologist bill is going to be a little higher for me in the offseason," Silverfield said.
Charlotte running back Hahsaun Wilson entered the game with one career carry for four yards. He rushed for 198 yards with three touchdowns Saturday, and the Memphis defense looked lost on basic runs up the middle of the field. Trexler Ivey threw four interceptions, but Memphis countered with four turnovers of its own, including a fumble by Watson just a few feet from the goal line.
The Tigers nearly threw the game away late because the ensuing squib kick off Gillis' field goal was returned across the 50-yard line. They nearly threw it away when Geoffrey Cantin-Arku intercepted Ivey a few plays later, then fumbled trying to lateral the ball on the return. They nearly threw it away when they went backward on a promising drive with a double pass that ended with quarterback Seth Henigan down on the turf, six yards behind the line of scrimmage.
And yet.
There were doubts about Henigan's health coming into the game after he suffered an apparent left arm injury last week. He was clearly playing through pain from the jump, but he left the game after landing on his shoulder during a scramble and went straight for the medical tent on the sideline.
"I figured it'd be best for our team if I was out there," Henigan said. "Just took some more medicine, and I was all right, pretty much."
He finished with 329 yards pass with two touchdowns and one interception, willing his team to a win over the upset-minded 49ers (3-7, 2-4).
"He knows what's on the line," Silverfield said. "And he wasn't going to let anything stop him. He gets hit by a damn train, he'll pop back up and say, 'You guys need me in there at quarterback?'"
He's the quarterback who was at the helm of last year's team, the one that went 0-4 in games decided by seven points or fewer. This year, Memphis is 4-1 in close games.
That includes Henigan's heroic last-minute comeback in his homecoming game at North Texas, the defense's last-minute hold against Navy and Saturday's overtime win.
"We're just a tough team," Henigan said. "People complain that all of our games are close, but we're sitting at 8-2. A lot of teams that would kill to be 8-2 right now. A lot of coaching staffs that would kill to be 8-2. Just proud of our guys, and just back to the drawing board for SMU."
