There’s a strange dynamic related to Memphis football this week, and it’s between Marty Favret, the head football coach at Hampden-Sydney College, and his offensive coordinator, Lindell Stone.
It’s not because of anything Stone did. Favret is finishing up a few things around the office before he retires after 24 years as the Hampden-Sydney coach, and he wants Stone to replace him. That would make their rift this week even more pronounced, because, well, they’ve got opposite rooting interests on Saturday when Memphis faces SMU at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (11 a.m., ESPN2).
Favret has coached at Division-III Hampden-Sydney, located about 70 miles southwest of Richmond, Virginia, since the 2000 season. It means he was sitting in the head coach’s office when a 19-year-old college student named Ryan Silverfield poked his head through the door and asked if he could join the coaching staff.
Silverfield, now the Memphis coach, used that coaching experience at Hampden-Sydney to springboard his coaching career. He and Favret still talk regularly, and Favret tries to watch as many Memphis games as he can. He even wears a Memphis Tigers jacket Silverfield gifted him around the facility every once in a while.
More: Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield on SMU game: ‘There’s always something to prove’
Stone is definitely not a Memphis fan. He knows who Silverfield is and, as a young coach, he looks up to him and everything he’s done since leaving Hampden-Sydney. But when Memphis hosts SMU this weekend, Stone will be decidedly and unabashedly rooting against Silverfield.
He’s got a good reason — his brother is Preston Stone, the Mustangs’ star quarterback.
“That’s a unique one,” Silverfield said. “I had no idea.”
Hampden-Sydney’s season ended last week, so things have actually worked out for Stone and Favret to be able to watch…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-one-coach-ryan-silverfields-183829054.html
Author : The Commercial Appeal
Publish date : 2023-11-15 18:38:29
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
