Cougars’ title shot goes up in smoke
Defense gashed for 610 yards with division at stake
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Finally, after 12 games and 13 weeks, it was too much to overcome.
Even through the injuries that decimated a roster and consecutive losses in early November, the University of Houston found itself playing in a winner-take-all for the division title on the last weekend of the regular season.
And for one half Friday afternoon, it looked like the Cougars might dig deep one final time to snatch an improbable victory. In the end, the Cougars ran out of gas, seemingly ran out of bodies, and had no answer to stop Memphis’ potent rushing attack in a 52-31 loss before an announced crowd of 27,790 at the Liberty Bowl.
With the win, Memphis (8-4) clinched the West Divi-
sion title for the second straight year and will face ninth-ranked Central Florida in the American Athletic Conference championship game on Dec. 1 in Orlando.
After an injury-riddled 8-4 season, the Cougars must wait until Dec. 2 to learn the destination for a program-record sixth consecutive bowl appearance.
“Our guys have been battling the last 4-5 weeks with some setbacks, lack of depth, but they never made excuses and fought their (butts) off to get an opportunity to play for a division title,” coach Major Applewhite said. “I told them (in the locker room) don’t get used to the feeling. Ever.”
Late-season collapse
After a promising 7-1 start, the Cougars closed the season with losses in three of the final four games.
What if the defensive line had not lost three starters? What if Ed Oliver had not missed 4½ games with a knee injury and played to his All-American standards? What if quarterback D’Eriq King had not suffered a season-ending knee injury a week earlier?
What if the Cougars’ defense could have made a few stops here and there?
UH struggled to stop the run all season. They had no answer for Darrell Henderson and Co.
Henderson, the nation’s second-leading scorer, ran for 178 yards, and Patrick Taylor Jr. added 128 yards. Memphis had 401 of its 610 yards on the ground. Down 2117 at halftime, the Tigers ran for 277 yards and five touchdowns in the second half with Oliver on the sideline after aggravating his knee.
Henderson set the AAC singleseason rushing record with 1,699 yards, breaking the old mark 1,629 set by Tulsa’s James Flanders in 2016.
“It was part of the game plan,” Memphis coach Mike Norvell said of the Tigers’ 59 rushing attempts. “We knew we wanted to try and wear them down throughout the game.”
Behind true freshman quarterback Clayton Tune, the Cougars marched 73 plays on their opening drive — capped by a 33-yard touchdown pass to Terry Mark — to seize an early lead.
“It felt good to get the first drive out of the way and start rolling,” said Tune, the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the Cougars since John O’Korn in 2013.
From there, the UH offense repeatedly stalled with four punts, a loss of downs and 42 yards as Memphis took a 17-7 lead.
“We just weren’t executing,” Tune said. “I just wasn’t making plays.”
UH made things interesting with a 14-point swing in the span of one minute, 39 seconds. On thirdand-goal from the Memphis 3, Tune scrambled outside, avoided a tackle and then came back across the field to find Keith Corbin in the back of the end zone.
Memphis drove inside UH territory on the ensuing drive, only for quarterback Brady White to lob a pass that defensive back Gleson Sprewell grabbed and returned 63 yards for a touchdown to give the Cougars a 21-17 lead.
Again, White marched the Tigers down the field in the closing seconds of the first half. This time his ill-advised pass — intended for Joey Magnifico — was picked off by Sprewell at the goal line with 17 seconds left in the first half.
Dam breaks in 4th quarter
The teams went back-and-forth in the third quarter, with the Cougars pulling even, 31-31, on a 45yard catch by Corbin with 1:34 left.
Memphis scored the final 21 points, all on the ground, on a 1yard run by Taylor and runs of 60 and 1 yard by Henderson.
“This team overcame a lot,” Sprewell said. “The mood never changed. We had one goal: to come here and win the game.”
Tune was 18-of-43 for 256 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. He nearly had three other passes intercepted in the first half.
“That guy has a hell of a career ahead of him,” Applewhite said. “Some of the plays he made today did not look like a true freshman. He’s only going to get better.”