Memphis QB Seth Henigan is playing too well to play what if with Grant Gunnell | Giannotto

This could have been awkward.

For Seth Henigan. For Ryan Silverfield. For the entire Memphis football program.

Grant Gunnell could have come to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium this week as the North Texas starting quarterback, just a few months after transferring from Memphis, an exit indirectly shepherded by Silverfield, who gave Henigan the first team snaps in spring practice over Gunnell.

It could have been a referendum on Silverfield’s choice ‒ and Silverfield – if Gunnell returned to Memphis with North Texas and out-played Henigan.

But it’s none of that, and not simply because Gunnell isn’t expected to be the North Texas starting quarterback Saturday.

Henigan is playing too well to play the what-if game.

The decision to “push our chips in with Seth,” as Silverfield put it Monday, can’t seriously be questioned. If Silverfield succeeds here long term, it’s likely to be the biggest reason why.

“It’s one of those perfect combinations of things that occurred in the universe,” Silverfield said, “and it worked out."

The circumstances really do seem serendipitous for Memphis, given how easily the situation with Gunnell and Henigan could have soured.

Silverfield lured Gunnell from the transfer portal to replace Brady White. Gunnell had started during two years at Arizona. He seemed poised to be the starter at Memphis in 2021 after spring practice, even after Henigan showed out in the spring game that year.

OPINION:An 'electric' Memphis football moment transcends one win over Arkansas State

MORE:Ryan Silverfield: Former QB Grant Gunnell was 'class act' with transfer to North Texas

But Gunnell suffered what became a season-ending injury at the start of the preseason. Henigan proceeded to become a freshman all-American.

Gunnell returned healthy this past spring for a quarterback competition. He had the best moments during the Tigers’ spring game. One week later, news broke that he had entered the transfer portal. Whether Silverfield had told him Henigan won the job or not, Gunnell apparently thought he had.

Gunnell wound up at North Texas, but 29-year-old former minor league baseball player Austin Aune beat him out for the Mean Green’s starting gig. So, in a cruel twist, the first true freshman quarterback to start a Memphis season opener and the oldest starting quarterback in college football prevented Gunnell from being a starter this year.

Henigan made it all a moot point for Memphis, though. Gunnell’s time here has essentially been rendered irrelevant, through no fault of his own.

Imagining what might have been had Gunnell been healthy for the 2021 season, imagining how this would have gone had he been picked over Henigan (as most everyone expected before last year began), is hard to do. It’s hard to imagine someone performing better than Henigan in his 14 career starts.

Henigan currently ranks among the top 10 in the country in passing yards per game this season (313.3). Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Georgia’s Stetson Bennett and Henigan are the only three among that group to not throw an interception yet, and Henigan has more pass attempts than either of them. It's only three games, but only Riley Ferguson in 2017 averaged more yards per game than Henigan is at the moment in program history.

Henigan's decisions and deep ball have gone to a new level. He’s finding an array of new weapons, not just relying on Calvin Austin III and Sean Dykes. He’s averaging more yards per attempt than any quarterback in the American Athletic Conference, up from 8.5 yards in 2021 to 10.2 through three games. In fact, that figure is higher than any of the three record-setting quarterbacks that preceded him at Memphis.

Any way you look at it, Henigan has turned into the fourth great quarterback in a row for Memphis, starting with Paxton Lynch. It’s a remarkable run, as impressive and important as anything this program accomplished during its transformation over the past decade.

How seamlessly Silverfield managed to keep the streak alive is probably his greatest achievement as head coach. He took a risk with Henigan and didn’t make the wrong choice.

So what could have been weird, what could have turned into another reason to debate Silverfield, will instead be a wonderful reminder that so much seems possible with the right quarterback.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football: Seth Henigan made Grant Gunnell transfer irrelevant