Ranking the 2022 Memphis football opponents by toughness

UCF is always an incredibly tough game for Memphis. The Tigers are 2-14 all-time against the Knights, with one win coming in 1990 and the other in 2020— an insane 30-year gap between wins.

This season will be no different with the Knights returning key skill position players on offense like RB Isiah Bowser and WR Ryan O’Keefe— both on preseason award watchlists.

QB Seth Henigan has never faced UCF football, having missed last year’s bout with an injured right hand.

The UCF football team is expected to be in contention for the AAC title game (along with Cincinnati and Houston). The Tigers can be spoilers if they take care of business at home, but it will be no easy task in the back half of the schedule.

The second toughest game of the season for the Tigers has a real case of being the No. 1 toughest game of the season. The main reason I’ve put this matchup against Houston second is that Memphis will be taking on the Cougars at home at the Liberty Bowl.

Houston has become a popular pre-season pick as the Group of 5 team to watch in 2022 and for good reason. QB Clayton Tune, a 6’3″ senior out of Carrollton, Texas, was playing like one of the top quarterbacks in all of college football last season.

Tune finished with 3,546 passing yards, 30 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions to propel the Houston football team to a record of 12-2 in 2021. Their two losses came against Texas Tech in Week 1 and No. 4 Cincinnati in the AAC Championship.

Houston is known for its outstanding defense, but Tune is the player that will take them to the next level.

The Tigers lost to the Cougars 31-13 last season but made life difficult for Tune in the matchup. The star QB was held to a completion percentage of 58.8 and threw 2 interceptions— one of his worst games of the season. Don’t think he’s forgotten about that when Houston heads to Memphis in October.

The toughest game on the schedule this year is going to be the very first game of the season for the Memphis Tigers— on the road against Mississippi State.

As mentioned above, I was tempted to put Houston here, but the fact that Memphis has to go on the road and into the raucous, cowbell-adorned crowd at Davis Wade Stadium will be the toughest environment Memphis will be in all season long by far.

The Bulldogs, while not in the upper tier of the SEC this season, still have an outstanding gunslinger in Will Rogers and air raid architect Mike Leach at the helm.

Rogers annihilated the Memphis football team in last season’s matchup, throwing for 419 yards on 50 of 67 passing attempts and 3 touchdowns. Yet, the Tigers were able to eek out the win 31-29 in front of a packed home crowd.

Mike Leach can not lose to Memphis two years in a row. This Bulldogs’ defense is going to come out guns blazing in this Week 1 matchup, and I’m not sure the Tigers will have enough firepower to keep up.