Memphis football has reached the final bye week of the season, where they face a difficult path after falling to East Carolina last Saturday, all but ending their hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff and playing for the American Championship. Memphis came into the bye week licking the wounds of back-to-back losses to Tulane and East Carolina and seeing all hopes of making the first American Championship game since the 2019 season. The Tigers are now looking to salvage the season with a win over Navy and the chance to play in a higher-tier postseason event. 

As it has been since the dawn of time, the 2025 Memphis football season has been a series of extremes, from being named in the original College Football Playoff bracket to losing to UAB, Tulane, and now East Carolina. The brand itself is at a weird crossroads heading into the final regular-season game with Navy on Thanksgiving. It’s one of those things where Memphis keeps getting back to the postseason and having sustained success, but for whatever reason, the Tigers continue to fall short of the new age standard of reaching and winning at the American Conference Championship at the bare minimum. That’s where Memphis is, they win games, and make the postseason, which is better than anything Memphis football has done in the previous 90-plus years as a program, but the standards have changed, more money is involved, and the investment is there for Memphis football to not only be competing for Championships, but to be a constant fixture as the Group Of Six representive in the College Football Playoff, not losing games to programs like UAB and East Carolina with half the budgets for NIL than Memphis, so that’s where the difficult path forward comes into play as the Tigers prepare for their Thanksgiving showdown with Navy. 

As a program, if you compare Memphis prior to the 2014 season, then yes, the Tigers are in a better place because they have made the postseason 12 straight seasons, including the pending one from this season, but if you take the investments that have been made from all sides of this then Coach Silverfield and his staff have fallen short of those expecations and now with the bye week the Tigers face a tough mental game where they can postion themselves with a win over Navy to possibly play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl which is an improvement from last season, or even the other option of the Birmingham Bowl so there’s still a lot to play for if you’re Memphis, not to mention the chance for another 10-win season with another bowl victory. 

The solution to taking that next step might be unpopular among some of the Memphis fans, but you can’t fire a Head Coach that wins ballgames just because he doesn’t win a championship or two. Sure, he has the resources and has shown signs of taking that next step, but, as with this season, injuries to key players leave the Tigers just short. However, if you were to go back in time and tell the former generations that Memphis football would be in the postseason every year and compete for nine-to-ten-win seasons in most of those years, you would have taken that and run with it. With that being said, a win over Navy on Thanksgiving would deliver a decent postseason trip for Memphis against a likely Power Four opponent with another shot at a ten-win season to build off of for the 2026 season. A loss would place a warranted amount of negativity heading into the postseason after dropping the final three games of the regular season, after having the College Football Playoff teased, and then finishing in a way that would not be acceptable and that would likely turn the heat up from the fan pressure on Coach Silverfield and his staff to perform in 2026. Given the 2025 team was a completely brand new team with over seventy newcomers to the program, but the standard to not lose three straight to close out the regular season is a reasonable expectation from the fans to ask of the program, especially coming off a bye week where you had the time to fix what went wrong, and time to prepare for the Navy triple option. 

As a program, things could obviously be better for Memphis, but the bye week presents a chance for Coach Silverfield and his staff to get the guys back in a good mental headspace to deliver a strong finish to the 2025 season with a win over Navy on Thanksgiving before turning the focus to the postseason and building for 2026. Flip the script on the season, and the fan support would likely be back for a pivotal postseason appearance while building for the 2026 season. Without a question, next Thursday against Navy is the biggest game of the Coach Ryan Silverfield era, and the guys in blue and grey deserve for the Liberty Bowl to be filled to the brim with the city behind them as they look to close out the 2025 season on a high note. 

Memphis and Navy will get underway on Thanksgiving night with a kickoff slated for 6:30 on ESPN. 

Photo Credits- Memphis Football on X