UAB football

Will Memphis win a football game this season?

The Memphis football team is now 0-3 for the first time since 2008. MTSU won in convincing fashion 48-30 on Saturday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium thanks to countless fumbles (Memphis lost three of them) and a poor second half performance by the Tigers. While a 0-3 record is not what any Tigers fan wanted to see at the start of the season, the last time Memphis was in a bowl was also in 2008 after starting with 3 straight losses.. The Tigers won six of their final nine games that year to make it to a bowl. Maybe this year’s team can accomplish what the 2008 team did, but probably not. In fact, the Tigers may not win a game all year. It would be the first time since 1936 that Memphis went winless in a season.

Photo by Just Ford

There are still some winnable games on their schedule. Here is a list (a very short list, but a list nonetheless) of possible wins this year for Memphis football.

October 6 vs. Rice
Memphis will be coming off of a bye week and the extra week of preparation might prove to be the difference between the two teams. However, Rice is no slouch. They beat Kansas this season and have a pretty good rushing attack, averaging 204 yards per game on the ground. The Tigers allow nearly 220 yards rushing per game, and will have to find a way to stop the Owls’ rushing attack if they expect to have a chance to win this game at home.

November 10 vs. Tulane
Like Memphis, Tulane is also winless so far this year. After two games, the Green Wave are averaging 7.5 rushing yards per game. Yes that is right. They average 7.5 rushing yards per game! This game might answer the question of what happens when a very movable object meets an incredibly stoppable force. Memphis has won six straight in this series, and if they cannot find a way to beat Tulane, the Tigers may be headed for a 0-12 campaign.

November 17 vs. UAB
The Battle for the Bones is always a good rivalry game to watch, and this year Memphis may be looking for their first win of the season, which could stoke the fire some. Like the Tigers, UAB is breaking in a first year head coach in Garrick McGee after years of mediocrity. UAB is allowing 477 total yards which should bode well for the Tigers offense when the two teams face off.

November 24 vs. Southern Miss
This is the last game of the year for Memphis, and it may be the last chance they have to prevent a winless season. Southern Miss is not having the best of years after losing their first two games and struggling without last year’s stand out quarterback Austin Davis. The Tigers may be able to feed off of the energy and emotion of senior day to pull off the upset and beat the Golden Eagles. After all, there is nothing more dangerous than a hungry a tiger whose back is against the wall with nothing left to lose.

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CJ Hurt covers college football for MemphiSport. Follow him @churtj09 for live tweets from different college football games throughout the Mid-South.

Memphis is the Worst Team in C-USA… Again

Memphis and UAB fought for bragging rights of a different variety when the two teams meet in an epically bad game on Saturday. This contest was not about the best of the best, but rather the worst of the worst, as this year’s “Battle for the Bones” decided who would be crowned the worst team in C-USA (and possibly the nation). Both teams lived up to their hype as two of the worst teams in the nation, but in the end it was Memphis that won the unique honor of being labeled the worst team in C-USA.

Memphis dominated the game through the third quarter and took a 17-35 lead going into the fourth. Then the Tiger defense pulled a Lebron James and forgot there was one more quarter to play. Maybe they were preoccupied with thoughts of grandeur at the possibility of winning their third game of the season, or maybe they were trying to figure out what they were going to wear to the Lady Tiger’s first round soccer match against UT Martin. Whatever the case, the Tiger’s allowed UAB to gain 200 total yards in the fourth quarter, and the Blazer’s were able to score 24 unanswered fourth quarter points in route to a 41-35 victory.

Although UAB won the “Battle for the Bottom”, I mean “Battle for the Bones”; they have nothing to be proud of. The Blazers gave up a staggering 217 rushing yards to a Memphis team that ranks 114^th nationally in rushing, averaging about 93 yards per game before this contest. Let me put this awe inspiring stat into perspective for you. If you add up the Tiger’s rushing yards from their other five conference games Memphis has an amazing 221 total rushing yards. UAB almost gave that many yards to Memphis in one game!

These two teams were on the outside looking in when the Big East pillaged C-USA a few years ago. They both had solid football and good basketball teams, but were unfortunately left out of Big East expansion. Now, thanks to a decline in the prestige of their respective football programs, no conference in America wants them, except maybe the OVC.