Memphis 2018 football schedule announced

The Memphis football team will get its share of home cooking for the third consecutive year in 2018 but it comes with another tough Week 2 matchup and a challenging back-to-back slate in October.

The Tigers' schedule, released Tuesday morning, sees them hosting seven games, including three of their first four, and playing four games on Friday. The season begins on Saturday, Sept. 1 hosting Mercer at the Liberty Bowl but Week 2 sees the Tigers traveling to Navy to open American Athletic Conference play.

Memphis, the defending AAC West Division champions, beat Navy for the first time in three tries last year but this year, Navy returns nine starters on defense in addition to running its vaunted triple option attack on offense.

Memphis will host Georgia State on Sept. 14 and South Alabama on Sept. 22 before quickly turning around to resume conference play at Tulane on Sept. 28, another Friday game.

October will be a short but challenging month for the Tigers. After hosting UConn on Oct. 6, they host Central Florida on Oct. 13 and travel to face an SEC opponent in Missouri on Oct. 20. Memphis lost twice to Central Florida last year, including the AAC championship game.

More:Memphis Tigers fall to UCF, 62-55, in double overtime of thrilling AAC championship game

After that slate, the Tigers will have their first late October bye week since 2008. November will see end the regular season with consecutive Friday games at SMU on Nov. 16. and hosting Houston on Nov. 23.

The Tigers' non-conference schedule will all be first-time opponents except for Missouri, who the Tigers last faced in 1999. Mercer, Georgia State and South Alabama combined to go 16-19 last season and Missouri finished tied for third in the SEC East

For the second consecutive year, the Tigers will face UCF, UConn and ECU from the AAC East Division. Memphis will find out which games will be on television in June, per the AAC.

The full schedule is listed below, along with future non-conference games Memphis has scheduled

2018

Sat. 9/1 vs. Mercer

Sat. 9/8 at Navy

Fri. 9/14 vs. Georgia State

Sat. 9/22 vs. South Alabama

Fri. 9/28 at Tulane

Sat. 10/6 vs. UConn

Sat. 10/13 vs. UCF

Sat. 10/20 at Missouri

BYE week

Sat. 11/3 at East Carolina

Sat. 11/10 vs. Tulsa

Fri. 11/16 at SMU

Fri. 11/23 vs. Houston

2019

Aug. 31 vs. Ole Miss

Sept. 14 at South Alabama

Sept. 28 at Louisiana-Monroe

2020

Sept. 5 vs. Arkansas State

Sept. 12 at Purdue

Sept. 26 vs. Texas-San Antonio

2021

Sept. 11 at Arkansas State

Sept. 18 vs. Mississippi State

Sept. 25 at Texas-San Antonio

2022

Sept. 3 vs. Arkansas State

Sept. 17 vs. North Texas

Sept. 24 at Mississippi State

2023

Sept. 9 at Arkansas State

Sept. 16 at North Texas

Sept. 23 vs. Missouri

TBA: at Georgia State