"I was an economics major": Memphis HC Ryan Silverfield has hilarious reaction about managing NIL in changing landscape of college football

Ryan Silverfield joined the Memphis Tigers in 2016 as an assistant under then-head coach Mike Norvell. In 2019, he was named the program's 25th head coach. Over the past few years, Silverfield has helped the Tigers achieve some success on the field. Last season, they finished with an 11-2 record and a Frisco Bowl victory over West Virginia.

With the emergence of the NIL era in college sports, Ryan Silverfield has had to navigate the Memphis Tigers through this big change in the college sports landscape. He made an appearance on Friday's episode of the Next Up with Adam Breneman show. During the episode, the Memphis head coach was asked about his game plan for managing the team's budget in this new NIL era.

"Yeah, you know, I was an Economics major. I never thought I'd have to use it," Silverfield said. "And now I'm bringing out the old Excel spreadsheet. Now, mine's a little bit different. I got Microsoft Word 97 still on there."

"Yeah, I need some of those guys in IT to reboot me back into this day and age so I can use a normal computer," he added. "But no, you know, it is unique because you do have to manage it. You guys said that okay, here's the budget that we have for this team, very similar to the NFL."

"I was very fortunate to coach in the NFL for seven years. So a lot of that's going to come back to it ... It's going to be the same way (as the NFL) when looking at guys on the portal and try(ing) to get an understanding."

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Ryan Silverfield reflects on his coaching career with the Memphis Tigers

Since taking over as the head coach of the program, Ryan Silverfield has led the Tigers to six straight bowl games. He is on a three-game winning streak in the bowl games after their recent victory in the Frisco Bowl.

While interacting with Adam Breneman, Silverfield reflected on his time with the Memphis Tigers. He spoke about how he always resonated with the program and how the hard work and dedication paid off with time.

"Look, coming here, I understood what Memphis was," Silverfield said. "Two years prior to us getting here, there was an article about the University of Memphis dropping football...I always give credit to the guys that came before me."

"I kind of always said, even when other opportunities arised ... I said I'm going to stay loyal to a program, to a coach and it's all worked out and thrilled with it, obviously I give a lot of credit to those that came before me," the football coach added.

The Memphis Tigers won their last conference championship back in 2019. That was just after Mike Norvell left to take the Florida State job. It will be interesting to see if Ryan Silverfield can lead the program to another conference title this upcoming season.