Ryan Silverfield didn’t meet Seth Henigan in person until Henigan was enrolled at Memphis.
The Memphis football coach recruited Henigan during the COVID-19 pandemic, so everything happened over Zoom and FaceTime. Silverfield watched from afar as Henigan led Denton Ryan High School to a Texas state championship, but Henigan still had few FBS offers.
Still, the Memphis staff liked what it saw. The son of a high school coach, Henigan had the kind of leadership the Tigers needed as they prepared for the post Brady White era.
“Did anybody in our building sit here and say, ‘That kid’s going to be a Memphis legend?” Silverfield said this summer. “No.”
Four years later, it’s hard to argue against Henigan’s place in Memphis football history. He finished his career in 2024 with nearly all the major Memphis passing records, including career passing yards and career touchdowns. He led the Tigers to an 11-2 season and a win in the Frisco Bowl to cap off a remarkable college football career, and that’s why he’s the 2024 Commercial Appeal Sports Person of the Year.
“It’s meant the world to me,” Henigan said. “Just to be able to go out with a win, I feel like that’s a good way to cap off a pretty good career. And having stayed at the same university four years, I mean, I hope that’s a testament about who I am and about who the people around me are.”
Henigan will be the first to point out that he didn’t get Memphis to an AAC title game, and he knows that’ll be part of his legacy. The Tigers entered 2024 with College Football Playoff expectations, but they finished fourth in the conference because of upset losses to Navy and UTSA.
Still, the most striking part of Henigan’s legacy at Memphis might be the simplest thing: He stayed at a time when few players decide to go to a college and spend four years there, especially as a four-year starter.
“I think at some point he’s going to have the opportunity to reflect and see that he had an unbelievable career,” his dad, Dave Henigan, said. “I figured he would play in college. Never really envisioned that he’d be a four-year starter.”
He leaves with 14,278 yards and 104 touchdowns, both Memphis records. He’s the winningest quarterback in Memphis history, too. He’ll spend the next few months preparing for a shot at playing pro football, but he also said he plans to return to Memphis.
For now, though — the three-star QB with only a handful of offers out of high school has become an all-time Memphis Tiger.
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.
