Memphis football beats Arkansas State in home opener. Mission accomplished. Sort of. | Giannotto

MEMPHIS — Gut reactions from Memphis football's 44-32 win over Arkansas State in its home opener Saturday:

Memphis will take the win

This didn’t need to be a masterpiece. This didn’t need to be pretty. This didn’t even need to include two game-saving touchdowns by two new Memphis transfers (although it sure was nice wide receiver Joe Scates and tailback Jay Ducker came to the rescue in the fourth quarter).

This home opener just needed to be a win, no matter how dicey it got late.

It needed to keep Memphis on course, and keep the 32,620 fans who showed up invested in what could still be this season.

Mission accomplished. Sort of.

By the way, the mission won’t be any different the next two weeks, when North Texas and Temple come to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

Coach Ryan Silverfield and his bosses believe he has a foundation in place that can return this program to the heights it was at when Silverfield took over three years ago. The jury is still out.

But to get there, he has to generate some momentum, on the field and in the stands. Maybe that didn't happen Saturday when Memphis struggled to put away a team it was favored to beat by two touchdowns.

But the four-game homestand these Tigers began Saturday is an opportunity they can't squander. Nor should they.

It's entirely reasonable to expect Memphis to be 4-1 heading into a Friday night showdown with Houston on Oct. 7, and even that challenge looks less daunting now that Houston lost back-to-back games to Texas Tech and Kansas.

They're still on track to make that happen. It's all that matters for the time being.

To run or not to run

Quarterback Seth Henigan had a second straight fabulous performance, throwing for 360 yards and three touchdowns and running for another TD. Tight end Caden Prieskorn emerged as a valuable security blanket for Henigan, and never more so than that fourth down conversion on the go-ahead touchdown drive. Scates, meanwhile, continued to flash as a valuable downfield threat, this time barreling through Arkansas State defenders for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Tigers averaged 18.9 yards per completion against Arkansas State.

The issue, though, was this weird insistence on proving Memphis is a team that can run the ball when it has largely been inefficient running the ball since Silverfield became coach. It's a re-occurring theme, even if it didn't cost the Tigers in this one. When it mattered most, the run game rescued Memphis as Ducker scored the game-winning touchdown on a 39-yard jaunt.

Still, the play calling got borderline bizarre at times given Henigan's success in the air.

Henigan attempted just three passes on the opening two drives after halftime, resulting in two punts right when the defense was getting stops. Then came another conservative (and unsuccessful) run play on third-and-5 in the fourth quarter with Memphis clinging to a three-point lead. It settled for a 47-yard field goal that rang hollow just as soon as Arkansas State grabbed the lead with a touchdown on the ensuing possession.

Silverfield and company got a measure of redemption given how the Tigers escaped with a victory. They were able to win an offensive shootout by finishing it off on the ground.

But perhaps the Tigers could have put this one away earlier if that third quarter had been called differently, however strange that sounds on a night when they gained 547 yards. It's worth watching moving forward as Silverfield comes to grips with what this Memphis team is, not what he wants it to be.

The waiting game

Memphis football fans had to wait two weeks longer than usual for Saturday’s home opener. Then they had to wait some more.

When kickoff arrived, Memphis and technology collided.

The line at Gate 4 to get inside Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium wrapped around the outer fence longer than anyone could remember. The dawn of the digital ticket era did not go off without any glitches.

Some sarcastically cheered upon finally having their digital ticket scanned. Some started sprinting up the ramp, not wanting to miss any more of the action. A few expressed anger. Most were simply annoyed their routine had been thrown off.

“It took forever,” said season ticket holder Chris Yarbrough. “This disappointed me.”

“We used to come in 30 minutes before the game. Now, it’ll be an hour before,” added Joel Crupie. “That’s what I just learned.”

“I never miss kickoff,” superfan Brandon Bumgarner chimed in matter-of-factly after he had missed kickoff while waiting for his ticket to be scanned.

This didn’t happen without warning, of course. The Memphis athletic department attempted for weeks to get the word out about the changes being instituted starting this season. Nonetheless, the first experience with only digital tickets for entry into the stadium and parking was jarring compared to previous seasons.

A glance around the country suggests what happened Saturday in Memphis was to be expected. Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame, Purdue, Iowa, and Wisconsin were among the schools that had issues with new digital ticketing systems in their first home game the past two seasons.

Memphis deputy athletic director Jeff Crane directed traffic at the Southern Avenue parking entrance, and then later manned a ticket scanner to help ease the transition. Once the entire line of fans had been shuttled through Gate 4, right as Memphis scored its first touchdown midway through the first quarter, he admitted this had been “a learning process.”

“We need people to download their tickets before arriving and arrive a little earlier,” Crane said. “We’ve got to get more staff and scanners. We’ll get better.”

"We are aware of the issues fans experienced entering the stadium as game time approached," Memphis athletics said in a statement. "We will continue to work with our partners at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium to increase personnel at the gates as we implement two new processes in digital ticketing and additional security screening. We continue to strongly encourage fans to arrive early into the stadium and download their tickets prior to arriving at the gates. Instructions on how to use the ticketing pedestals will be communicated as people are in line.

If this is still happening at the end of the Tigers’ four-game homestand, the athletic department will deserve whatever criticism comes its way. But give Memphis at least another week to work through the kinks.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football beat Arkansas State Mission accomplished. Sort of.