Memphis faces Cyclones with chance for 10th win
It’s rare for a college football team to both qualify for a bowl and wrap up the season on its own field, with most of those bonus games requiring a trip of some length.
So the Memphis Tigers will try to make the most of a rare luxury when they face Iowa State on Friday in the Liberty Bowl and get all the comforts of home.
Well, almost all of them. The Cyclones (7-5) will work from the sideline that Memphis usually occupies for its home games at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, pushing the Tigers (9-3) to the visitors’ side. Memphis will get to use its own locker room, though, as it seeks just the fifth season in program history with at least 10 victories and fourth since 2014.
The Tigers also can earn some payback for 2017, when they lost this bowl game to Iowa State by a single point despite being ranked.
Coach Ryan Silverfield said his Tigers understand both the history of this bowl — currently sponsored by AutoZone, it dates to 1959, with the first five played in Philadelphia and the one after that in Atlantic City before the move to its current locale — and what it means to Memphis.
“National television, and then also the opportunity to go down in history as one of the top five winningest teams in program history,” Silverfield said Thursday. “Those are huge things that are at stake, and our guys will certainly come out swinging.”
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.
That 2017 Liberty Bowl is the only game Iowa State has won in the state of Tennessee in six tries.
This marks Iowa State’s sixth bowl with coach Matt Campbell. It could also be the most impressive job of bowl qualification in that span after five projected starters were sidelined by an investigation into illegal gambling. Quarterback Hunter Dekkers was among three Cyclones who pleaded guilty to underage gambling.
Campbell called what his players accomplished this season “nothing short of incredible.”
“The guys that have stood up and played meaningful snaps and the stories that I think will come out of this season … and the ability to be ready for when their number was called,” Campbell said, “I just think that that to me has been what’s been remarkable about this season.”
Rocco Becht replaced Dekkers at quarterback, and he made his own splash as the Big 12 offensive freshman of the year. Becht set a handful of program records for a freshman, including marks of 20 touchdown passes and 2,674 yards.
It certainly helps that Becht has enjoyed good protection. Iowa State has allowed only 12 sacks this season, an average of one per game that is tied for eighth in the country and second in the Big 12 for fewest allowed.
Memphis counters with Seth Henigan, who has lots of experience even though the 20-year-old is the third-youngest quarterback in the Football Bowl Subdivision this season. He has 17 games with at least 300 passing yards and the program record with five 400-yard passing games.
His average of 293.2 passing yards per game ranks 10th nationally, and he’s ninth with a per-game average of 313.8 yards of total offense.
Memphis has scored an average of 39.7 points a game this season to rank seventh nationally. With Henigan, the Tigers ranked 13th by averaging 301.7 passing yards and 19th by putting up 452.5 yards per game in the high-scoring American Athletic Conference.
As for the defenses, Iowa State ranked fifth nationally in picking off 16 passes, led by AllBig 12 defensive back Jeremiah Cooper, a sophomore who led the Cyclones with five. The Cyclones also recovered three fumbles and tied for 18th in the country with a plus-8 turnover differential.
Memphis has its own knack for forcing turnovers. The Tigers have a takeaway in 24 of their past 30 games, totaling 54 in that span.