Tag: American football

The biggest play of the most important game of this historic Memphis football season was about Mike Norvell staying true to Mike Norvell.

Because after he went for it when he could have padded the lead and failed, he went for it again. He dialed up a trick play that was equal parts aggressive and successful. That was everything Norvell has proven to be during his four years as the Memphis head coach.

Tailback Patrick Taylor took the hand-off from quarterback Brady White, then Taylor flipped the ball to wide receiver Kedarian Jones, who then tossed the ball back to White.

Streaking down the field was wide receiver Damonte Coxie, who out-leaped a Cincinnati defender for a 46-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter that pushed the Tigers' lead back to double digits.

Never mind the stakes of the situation. Never mind what conventional wisdom would have suggested. 

This was the defining blow in the Tigers' 34-24 win over Cincinnati on Friday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, even though this roller coaster of a game was far from over.

There was still a Memphis fumble recovery overturned by replay, a 51-yard third-and-15 conversion by Cincinnati the very next play, and a touchdown to draw the Bearcats within a field goal again. There was still an interception by White and another defensive stand by a Memphis defense that was gouged at times in the first half. 

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But all of it happened because of that one play, because Norvell stayed aggressive when other coaches might not have.

It's why Memphis is now in the midst of the first 11-win season in program history. It's why the Tigers will play in their third-straight American Athletic Conference championship game and they'll get to host it next Saturday at the Liberty Bowl against this very same Cincinnati team.

It's why, ultimately, this program is just one more win away from playing in the biggest bowl game this city has ever seen. 

But that bowl game, that one last win, it won't validate Norvell. That's already done. Friday was just more confirmation.

All you had to do was listen to the thunderous "Let's go Tigers" chant that broke out with less than four minutes to go, right before Antonio Gibson iced this game with one last touchdown run.

So as Memphis went through a muted postgame celebration, it seemed like ages ago these two teams traded questionable coaching decisions in the third quarter with the Tigers nursing a 20-17 lead.

First, Norvell called timeout facing third-and-1 from the Cincinnati 15-yard-line, watched tailback Patrick Taylor Jr. lose a yard and elected to go for it on fourth-and-2 instead of settling for a short field goal. 

White's bootleg pass was incomplete and momentum was firmly with Cincinnati all of a sudden.

But Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, facing fourth-and-1 from the Memphis 17-yard line, responded to Norvell's aggressiveness by leaving his offense on the field rather than attempt a game-tying field goal. The Memphis defense responded, stuffing Cincinnati during a second half that was dominating as the first half was worrisome. 

Another Memphis rout seemed in the offing when this regular-season finale began. Defensive back Chris Claybrooks took the opening kickoff 94 yards to the house, and Memphis made the AAC’s best defense look like every other defense it has faced in recent weeks and quickly built a 17-3 lead.

But Cincinnati proved to be up to the challenge, which should not have been, in retrospect, much of a surprise considering the Bearcats had just one loss — to Ohio State — coming into this game. There’s a reason Fickell and Norvell are both always listed on those coaching hot boards whenever a Power Five conference job opens up. 

So there was Cincinnati during a second quarter in which it methodically took apart the Tigers’ defense and got back into the game. Bearcats redshirt freshman Ben Bryant, making his first career start, completed 11 of 12 passes, dissecting the Memphis secondary during two touchdowns that took a combined 26 plays, gained a combined 165 yards and ate up 11:30 of game clock before halftime. 

By halftime, a very clear message had been sent. Getting back to the AAC championship game was not going to be easy.

Two teams playing in back-to-back weeks with a league title hanging in the balance has happened three times before, including each of the past two seasons.

In 2012, Stanford beat UCLA by 18 in their regular-season finale but needed a fourth-quarter comeback to win the Pac-12 championship game. 

In 2017, Boise State and Fresno State played twice in a row. Fresno State won the regular-season finale and Boise State came back the next week and won the Mountain West Conference championship game.

Last year, meanwhile, Middle Tennessee State and UAB went through this and it's the only time both games were played in the same location (Murfreesboro). In this instance, MTSU won the regular-season finale and UAB turned around and won the Conference USA championship game. 

Which is all just to point out that Friday's seesaw affair might not be an indication of what's to come next Saturday. 

But Norvell will still be Norvell, so you have to like the Tigers' chances.