Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield has a metaphor for building confidence.

"Confidence is built in three different ways," he said after Tuesday's practice. "The first way is preparation. It's kind of like the foundation of a house. The next way you do it is by results. And that's kind of the frame of your house. The results are what you're doing day in, day out. The third thing is feedback, and for us, the only feedback that should really matter is the feedback within our building.

"I appreciate people that are talking positive about us, but the feedback's kind of like the window shields and the painting on the house. That stuff really doesn't matter, it just dresses it up. Whatever's being said on the outside, good or bad, we can't focus on that. All we can do is work on is getting our confidence by preparation."

The Tigers wrap up spring practices with the spring game on Saturday. They'll do so as they prepare to enter a season with expectations that are probably higher than at any point in Memphis football history, with the expanded College Football Playoff guaranteeing a spot for a Group of Five team.

With quarterback Seth Henigan returning for his senior year, the Tigers have already been picked to win the American Athletic Conference and reach the playoff in plenty of early season previews. That noise will only increase in the fall.

Silverfield often says he puts on "blinders" during the season and stays off social media once the season starts. But that doesn't extend to the spring, so some of the outside noise has crept in.

"You do see things and you do hear it, and that's great," Silverfield said. "But we haven't proven or earned anything. We've got to go out there and work harder than we ever have in order to garner any momentum that we have going into it."

Tigers experiment with new technology

Silverfield said last month that he and his staff were still waiting to get the OK from the conference to begin using helmet technology, which will be new this season in college football and allows coaches to talk directly to one player on each side of the ball.

That approval has come, and the Tigers have begun experimenting with it during spring practices.

"I think you always have to be careful how much dialogue you're giving a 17-23 year old in their ear," he said. "But it's been good. We're going to continue to explore ways we can use it."

The spring game is set for 3 p.m. Saturday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football program experimenting with helmet technology