Tennessee Football: Memphis-Tennessee rivalry renewed, almost

Tennessee Athletic Director Phillip Fulmer said he would be open to returning to Memphis to play a football game, but not against Memphis.

The Tennessee-Memphis rivalry saw a reboot last year on the hardwood, but it might not be coming back to the gridiron for awhile.

Tennessee has struggled with recruiting in the Memphis area recently, and it seems like Fulmer wants to regain that area in recruiting and all together.

"“I think that’s an important place to play because that’s an important part of our state,” Fulmer said."

It sounds like Fulmer wants to recapture Memphis and make that entire area feel like they are apart of the state of Tennessee again. Ole Miss and Mississippi State have been taking advantage of the distance between Knoxville and Memphis.

Former Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze took used his Memphis ties to take over the city in recruiting and bring almost every top-rated athlete to Oxford.

So Tennessee wanting to get back into the Memphis area would be great for the program going down the road. I think even playing a home-and-home series against Memphis would be even better, but Fulmer is more on the fence about that.

"“We’d have to talk through actually playing the University of Memphis, I guess, with my coaches,” Fulmer said. “We really haven’t talked about it.”"

With football programs now scheduling games so far out if Tennessee wanted to play Memphis in the next few years it’s going to have to happen soon.

The next year that both programs have a date available is in 2023.

Memphis and the AAC are claiming they are the “Power 6 Conference” so this would be a good matchup to prove their worth to the SEC’s of the world.

Tennessee is 22-1 against Memphis in football with the last time playing in 2010. The Vols defeated the Tigers 50-14 in Memphis that year.

Memphis is a better football team now, so seeing this matchup again would be pretty exciting.

But when it comes down to signing up for a series in football, it can only hurt Tennessee unless Memphis becomes a football powerhouse in the next few years.

With the two programs facing off on the hardwood I think it’s only a matter of time before the two face off on the gridiron. I’d love to see it add some extra spice to the old in-state rivalry.

I guess we will just have to wait and see for now. With Fulmer wanting to play in Memphis that could mean anything from a neutral site game, a bowl game or facing the Tigers.

The bowl game might be what Fulmer means. The Liberty Bowl is one of the lower bowls that the SEC participates in, but if that’s what the Vols have to do to bring in more in-state recruits, then I don’t mind it at all.