As if Ryan Silverfield didn’t already have enough on his plate, the advent of NIL brought another.

When the NCAA began permitting student-athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness three years ago, Silverfield added ‘NIL fundraiser’ to his long list of responsibilities as head coach of the Memphis Tigers football team.

A willingness to embrace the challenge of finding fans and businesses willing to donate major money so his players can get paid is something Silverfield decided to shoulder mostly alone, without asking his assistant coaches, analysts and graduate assistants to assume yet another task.

“Inevitably as a head coach you’ve got to wear a lot of hats, so I can’t shy away from it,” he said. “Because if we’re not doing what we need to in NIL, we can quickly slip far away from where we need to be.”