explain the impressive recruiting class he slapped together in his brief two month tenure as head coach. How impressive? The three-star running back Patrick Taylor, Jr., flipped his commitment from Colorado to Memphis, becoming the first running back to join Mike’s inaugural recruiting class as head coach. Atascocita wide receiver Coye Fairman, who has also committed to Memphis, is his first cousin. But the draw to Memphis ran deeper than that to Taylor, with him stating, “I just felt like family, you know? Going on an official (visit) for like two days, I already felt like I was part of the family.” Do not be discouraged that Paxton Lynch has moved on from the University of Memphis. Get excited. Mike remarks that the splash Lynch made last year, along with many returning offensive lineman and a coach who understands offensive coordination, makes Memphis a hugely desirable place for young quarterbacks that want to prove themselves. Memphis football offers a unique opportunity for that, and therefore Tiger football has a talented pen of quarterbacks for the 2016 season, including Riley Ferguson, a junior-college transfer who has already enrolled at Memphis, and David Moore of Milton High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. Add them to the mix of two talented redshirts on the roster, and it will be interesting to see which standout takes the top spot this season.
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ike Norvell is from Dallas, TX, a place widely known to grow and cultivate the game of football. Like many Texan football fundamentalists, he has played and been obsessed with the sport since he was five. As a youngster, Mike gravitated to his coaches, reminiscing that the men who played for were “in the profession for the right reasons.” Many nights, Mike would spend dinners with his pee wee coaches talking schematics and other nuances of the game. In high school, Mike played under Mike Barber (Houston Oilers alum) at Arlington’s Grace Prep Academy, a high school renowned for winning records. “I knew by high school that I wanted to coach football, and to be a role model like my coaches were for me,” says Mike. He went on to play football for University of Central Arkansas, where he played wide receiver and set the school’s all-time reception record. However, even while playing in college, his ultimate goal was to coach and be the role model he felt destined to be. Mike got his golden opportunity as a graduate assistant, and he got to do it while staying in Conway, AR, at Central Arkansas. A year later, he went to Tulsa as a graduate assistant, where he worked his way up the ranks to a receiver coach and then passing coordinator. He then headed to Pittsburgh and then made his way to Arizona State as the Offensive Coordinator. However, it was when the University of Memphis made an offer to Mike to be the new head coach that the opportunity of his life came knocking. Now, as the new head coach for the University of Memphis, he draws on his ripened love of football logistics for his coaching techniques, and his earnest excitement is palpable. “Football has been the one constant in my life that really instilled my personal values. Many of the principles I have in life come from this game. That’s why I do what I do. And if you took relationships out of this game, I wouldn’t be doing it.” Mike’s love for the relationships, or “X’s and O’s” as he calls it, might 60 / 4Memphis
One of the most shocking (yet satisfying) surprises this year was signing Josh Perry, who committed to the University of Alabama only to sign a letter of intent at the last literal minute to the University of Memphis. Perry, a 6 foot 3 and 195 pounds safety, is the 45th-rated safety in the country and a consensus three star prospect. This valuable snag by Mike and his staff (beating out several Power Five programs) along with a handful of local Memphis standouts, has caused quite the buzz around Memphis. “I told Tim Hart (MUS linebacker committed to U of M) that he won’t experience a feeling like sacking his first quarterback in the Liberty Bowl. It will be electric. People will go crazy. This is his city. This is his support system. This is his home. There is such a huge pool of talent from around the Memphis area, and it excites me for them that these guys can look back 40 years from now and know they impacted their city. They have that achievement and weight on their backs.” Mike has expanded his team at his home as well. He and his wife Maria have a 22-month-old daughter Mila, and they bought a home in east Memphis “big enough to fit the whole team in,” a prerequisite he had during house hunting. A big fan of Memphis culture, Mike said the friendly nature of locals and the diversity in things to do made Memphis an emphatic “yes” for him and his family. Since then, they have fallen in love with Gus’ and Gibson’s, and he claims his figure needs adjusting to Memphis’ food scene. But it is mostly all about business at the Norvell homestead; Mike did not move here just for the barbeque. “When I sit and meet with the leaders and administrators of this school, it truly excites me, because I feel like we are completely on the same page,” beams Mike. This will come as a relief to Tiger fans and players alike that remember the program’s “dark ages,” playing the often-neglected stepchild to the basketball program. However, with new coaching and administration comes a new attitude, and that vitality has permeated through the city. Since the 2015 season, the expectation of what the University of Memphis football program should be has dramatically elevated. That higher bar is no threat to Mike Norvell. He is just excited to be here, and even more enthusiastic about the impression he can make. According to him, watching players graduate, become adults, and see their families grow is what impacts him and keeps him going. Of course, a few W’s would not hurt anything. “I believe that anything in life comes down to fit and family. You have to fit a place. There are great opportunities that just don’t fit. But everything about the University of Memphis and this program, where it’s headed and where we can go, is a perfect fit for me.”