Memphis Football: 3 takeaways from season-opening win over Arkansas State

1. Boy, that was a strange atmosphere

It was a moderately competitive game to end a day that felt like a soft opening to the first weekend of the college football season. If last week was Week 0, then this one felt something like Week 0.5. Usually, the first Saturday in September would be an extravaganza of college football from morning until night.

However, on a day in which the sport had to compete with Kentucky Derby and the NBA playoffs, the games lacked the celebration normally reserved for this time of the year.

Instead, the tone was set early with an ersatz College GameDay that, in fact, did not come to your cit-ay but was basically a season preview special complete with cardboard versions of the gang from Lee Corso’s backyard. This was followed by a pair of nationally televised blowouts in the early games that were over by halftime.

Finally, when it was time for the main event, it was perhaps appropriate that the crowd at the Liberty Bowl was reduced to that of a high school game. For a team that won 12 games last year, this was a throwback to the bad old days a decade ago.

Earlier in the week, I had actually tried to get tickets to this game, but they were all sold out. Memphis has one of the strictest safety policies in the country, requiring 12-foot spacing in the stands. As a result, most people on television appeared to be more than properly socially distanced unlike some other scenes in stadiums.

Memphis fans should get used to this since this policy applies throughout the season.

As for the rest of us, expect similar scenes as the college football season really starts to get going next week.