The Tigers rallied this afternoon in Huntington, West Virginia, but came up short against the Marshall Thundering Herd to fall to 1-8 on the season.
Down 31-7 late in the third quarter, Memphis scored 21 unanswered points to pull within three with just under 10 minutes to play in the game. But Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato threw a 28-yard touchdown pass (his fourth of the game) to Davonte Allen with 7:34 to play to seal the win for the home team (Marshall improved to 3-5 on the season). Cato completed 34 of 44 passes for 341 yards without an interception.
Junior tight end Jesse Milleson caught a short touchdown pass from Jacob Karam to complete a 71-yard Memphis scoring drive with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter. Paulo Henriques’s extra point made the score 31-14 at the time. Jai Steib ran the ball in from two yards out early in the fourth quarter and senior tackle Jordan Devey recovered a Steib fumble in the end zone three minutes later to make the score 31-28, Marshall. It was the closest the U of M has been in the fourth quarter of a game since its win over Rice on October 6th.
Karam completed 21 of 31 passes for 170 yards and did not throw an interception. Brandon Hayes led the Tiger rushing attack with 60 yards on 22 carries.
The Tiger offense scored its most points since the 48-30 loss to Middle Tennessee on September 15th. In terms of total offense, Memphis gained 372 yards, its second-highest total of the season (the Tigers had 399 against the Blue Raiders).
Now on a four-game losing streak, the Tigers return to the Liberty Bowl next Saturday to face Tulane.
