Memphis, UTSA and Tulane aim to replace departed SMU as American Athletic champion

The American Athletic Conference has no defending football champion.

The 2023 title winner, SMU, left the league for the ACC.

Still, three other top AAC teams from last season — Memphis, Tulane and UTSA — are back and primed to contend. And South Florida looks like a dark horse after a strong finish last season, highlighted by its romp over Syracuse in the Boca Raton Bowl.

The AAC title game has been played at Tulane for two years running. But after last season’s loss to the Mustangs, then-Green Wave coach Willie Fritz left for his first power conference job, in the Big 12 with Houston, and all-time passing leader Michael Pratt left for the pros.

While Tulane is in transition, Memphis is not.

Many top players are back from last season’s 10-win Tigers squad that capped off one of the best seasons in program history with a bowl victory over Iowa State. It was gratifying for coach Ryan Silverfield as he enters his fifth season as head coach for a Memphis program he first joined as an assistant in 2016.

“Guys are coming back to be part of trying to take another step,” Silverfield said, listing players such as senior QB Seth Henigan; fourth-year junior linebacker Chandler Martin; and senior receivers Taylor and Koby Drake.

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The Tigers also are benefiting from corporate support in the Memphis area, bolstering NIL resources and helping fund renovations to historic Liberty Bowl stadium.

“All these things occurring this offseason puts a smile on you face,” said Silverfield, who then emphasized that Memphis has not won the AAC since 2019, the year before he took over the program. “Personally, as a head coach, I haven’t accomplished anything that I want to in this conference.”

Full speed ahead

After winning Conference USA titles in 2021 and 2022, UTSA moved to the AAC in 2023 and was in contention until dropping its regular season finale at Tulane.

The Roadrunners rebounded to beat Marshall in a bowl game — the final game for prolific QB Frank Harris, who passed for nearly 12,000 yards and rushed for more than 2,000 during six seasons at UTSA. A big subplot of August camp is the competition between Owen McCown and Eddie Lee Marburger to succeed Harris.

No one will ever “take the place of Frank Harris,” coach Jeff Traylor said. “We just got to figure out a way to do it with him being gone.”

The UTSA program is just 13 years old, but has won a lot during Traylor’s four seasons in charge, including a 23-3 record at home.

“The rise in UTSA is an amazing story,” Traylor said. “I believe we will continue to ascend.”

Wave of optimism

While Fritz – the most successful coach in Tulane history – has left, new coach Jon Sumrall expects to keep the Green Wave rolling.

Sumrall comes from Troy, a program he rebuilt into Sun Belt Conference champions in 2022 and 2023. He’s portrayed his transition to Tulane as a smooth one.

His time as a Green Wave assistant early in his coaching career familiarized him with the school and New Orleans, which he calls “one of the coolest cities in the world.”

The Green Wave roster is full of proven winners. It’s just not clear who the next QB will be. Kai Horton, who backed up Pratt the previous two seasons, is a top candidate, along with Oregon transfer Ty Thompson.

“Both those guys I think we can win games with and glad we got both on our football team,” Sumrall said.

Whoever wins the job will work with a receiver corps headlined by another of Sumrall’s early recruiting coups: USC transfer Mario Williams.

Protected rivalry

Army is a new football-only member this season, keeping the AAC at 14 teams.

The addition will not affect the annual Army-Navy game in December, even though both teams are now in the same league. The two military academies are not scheduled against one another during the regular season and their traditional matchup will continue to be played in mid-December — after the conference title game — and won’t count in the league standings.

However, should they be the top two teams in the league standings when the regular season ends, they would play each other on consecutive weekends – first for the league title and then in the traditional Army-Navy game.

Watch list players

A host of AAC players have been named to 2024 preseason watch lists for national awards.

They include: Memphis’ Henigan (Walter Camp, Maxwell); South Florida QB Byrum Bown (Walter Camp, Maxwell); Tulane RB Makhi Hughes (Maxwell); Tulane DT Patrick Jenkins (Bednarik, Nagurski, Outland); Memphis’ Martin (Bednarik, Nagurski); UTSA DE Joe Evans (Nagurski); Navy LB Colin Ramos (Bednarik, Nagurski); East Carolina CB Shavon Revel (Bednarik, Nagurski, Thorpe); Charlotte DB Dontae Balfour (Thorpe); Navy DB Rayuan Lane (Thorpe); Rice DB Gabriel Taylor (Thorpe). North Texas G Gabe Blair (Outland); UTSA DT Brandon Brown (Outland); South Florida G Zane Herring (Outland); Memphis G Xavier Hill (Outland).

Call it a date

Several matchups with power conference teams could influence whether this year’s AAC champ gets into the new 12-team College Football Playoff. They include: South Florida at Alabama on Sept. 7; Memphis at Florida State on Sept. 14; Tulane at Oklahoma on Sept. 14; UTSA at Texas on Sept. 14; and Miami at South Florida on Sept. 21.

The conference race could be influenced by a couple of key road tests for Memphis: at UTSA on Nov. 2 and at Tulane on Thanksgiving night.

The forecast

Results of the AAC’s official preseason poll, in order of projected finish: Memphis, UTSA, Tulane, South Florida, Army, Florida Atlantic, East Carolina, Rice, North Texas, UAB, Navy, Tulsa, Charlotte, and Temple.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll