Jonah Dylan, Memphis Commercial AppealFri, November 28, 2025 at 7:35 PM UTC·3 min readTo say the 2025 Memphis football season has been a whirlwind would be an understatement.
Things have changed quickly. Fans were ready to show the entire coaching staff the door at halftime against Arkansas on Sept. 20. An hour and a half later, they were worried about power conference schools poaching everyone after the Tigers pulled off a wild fourth-quarter comeback.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMemphis got plenty of national media attention after the Arkansas win and in early November, when the Tigers rebounded from an upset loss to UAB and were positioned as the top team in the Group of Five. Memphis was in the projected field during the first CFP rankings release on Nov. 4.
But then things went south, with Memphis (8-4, 4-4 American Conference) losing three games in a row — including a 28-17 setback against Navy (9-2, 7-1) on Nov. 27 — to end the regular season 8-4.
"It's a results-driven business," Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield said. "8-4 is not good enough here."
On that, almost everyone can agree.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMemphis has not reached conference title game since 2019
The Tigers won 10 games in 2023 and 11 in 2024, but both those seasons included key conference losses that prevented Memphis from reaching the conference title game. The Tigers have not gotten there since Mike Norvell left in 2019 and was replaced by Silverfield.
Memphis has been one of the top programs in the country in terms of consistent success over those six years. But of the 18 Group of Five teams with the highest winning percentage since the start of 2020, Memphis is the only one that has not reached a conference title game.
In that time, seven different teams have made the American Conference title game. SMU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston are no longer in the conference. That group will grow by at least one this season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMemphis' season had moments, but not enough consistency
Memphis is positioned to be one of the top teams in the Group of Five every season. The Tigers receive more in conference distribution money than any other Group of Five program.
The Tigers did not enter the 2025 season as the favorite to win the conference. Memphis has as many new players as any team in the country, but the Tigers still went into most conference games with a talent advantage.
The season went the way it's gone over the past few years. The Tigers showed flashes, including wins over Arkansas and USF. They lost a game they shouldn't have against UAB in what was clearly the worst loss of Silverfield's tenure. Then they fell flat down the stretch.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMemphis' 2025 season, then, has become less about 2025 and more about the entire six-year period under Silverfield.
There's still a bowl game to come, but the regular season ended again with Silverfield answering questions about Memphis' inability to reach the title game.
That was a key difference from the last two seasons. In 2023, Memphis won its final regular season game and Silverfield defended the 9-3 season with a fiery postgame response to a question about how he viewed the season as a whole.
In 2024, Memphis upset Tulane in maybe its most complete performance of the past few years and looked like the team that had been picked to win the conference title before the season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn 2025, the regular season ended with three straight losses.
"Ultimately, we all, coaches, players, assistants, everybody that's involved with the program, we have to find ways to be better," Silverfield said. "The last few games haven't gone the way we're capable of or that we expected."
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at [email protected] or on X @thejonahdylan.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football 2025 season analysis: Great start, poor finish
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