On a picture-perfect Tuesday night in Frisco, Texas, the Memphis Tigers took the field against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. Memphis came into the matchup with West Virginia looking to win an 11th win for the first time under Coach Silverfield and remain undefeated in postseason play.

Despite losing the coin toss, Memphis would race out to a 10-0 lead after one quarter before the second quarter opened with fireworks from the Mountaineers and Tigers. Memphis would ten points before West Virginia responded with back-to-back touchdowns to make it 20-14 with a little over a minute and a half remaining in the half. With 55 seconds on the clock in the first half, the Tigers would respond on a corner route to the back of the endzone with a pass from Seth Henigan to DeMeer Blankumsee; after a successful two-point conversation, the Tigers held on to a 28-14 lead over West Virginia. West Virginia marched down the field, picking apart the Memphis secondary to only settle for a field goal to send it to the break with a score of 28-17 in favor of the Tigers.

At the break, Seth Henigan had 136 yards through the air with two passing touchdowns, while Greg Desrosiers led the Tigers with 48 yards on the ground with a touchdown to go with it.

Memphis opened the second half with a four-minute drive that ended with a Mario Anderson touchdown, extending the Tigers’ lead to 35-17 over the Mountaineers. As expected, West Virginia came out swinging in the second half after a conservative play-calling first half. West Virginia would put together a response of their own, capping the drive with a touchdown to cut into the Memphis lead 35-23 after a bad snap on the extra point with 7:15 remaining in the third. A Memphis punt would give West Virginia the ball back with 5:00 on the clock in the third.

As the third quarter ended and the 4th quarter loomed large, you could sense the momentum slowly shifting in favor of West Virginia. West Virginia would ride the momentum to a 4th and goal touchdown to cut the lead to 35-30 in favor of Memphis with a little over 12 minutes remaining on the clock. Seth Henigan would find DeMeer Blankumsee for an 89-yard Memphis first down, giving the Tigers a first and goal on the one-yard line. Brandon Thomas would take the handoff up the middle on the next play for a massive Memphis touchdown to extend the lead to 42-30 with 10:49 remaining in the game. West Virginia would put together a long drive ending in a touchdown with 4:17 remaining to make it 42-37 in favor of the Tigers. At the two-minute warning, Memphis had a 2nd and ten, with West Virginia having two timeouts while holding on to a 42-37 lead over the Mountaineers.

Coach Silverfield decided to opt for a 50-yard field goal attempt on 4th and three with 51 seconds remaining in the game. However, the kick would go wide right, and West Virginia would take over down 42-37 with 47 seconds. A weird sequence of events had Memphis with an interception that saw the Mountaineers strip and recover the fumble with eight seconds remaining; after an official review, officials ruled that Elijah Herring was down, and the Tigers escaped with an 11th win with the final over West Virginia 42-37.

With the win over West Virginia, Coach Silverfield improves to 4-0 in bowl games as the head coach of Memphis Football.

Photo credits – Memphis Football on X