Tag: Calvin Austin

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Memphis Topples Houston, 30-27

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

It wasn’t as easy as it appeared it was going to be, but the Memphis Tigers eked out a last-second 30-27 win over the Houston Cougars at the Liberty Bowl on Saturday.

After building a 27-6 lead, Memphis appeared to have the game well in hand at the end of the third quarter. Then the Tiger defense surrendered three consecutive touchdowns in the fourth quarter, with Houston tying the game at 27 on an 18-yard pass from Clayton Tune to Bryson Smith with 28 seconds left.  Larry Kuzniewski

Brady White

Undaunted, Memphis quarterback Brady White quickly drove the Tigers 46 yards and got them into field-goal range. Kicker Riley Patterson nailed a 47-yarder as time expired, giving Memphis a second-straight undefeated home season at the Liberty Bowl.

White became the Tigers’ all-time leading passer in his final home game, and receiver Calvin Austin passed the 1,000-yard mark for the season, with seven catches totaling 74 yards, becoming just the fourth Memphis receiver ever to reach that mark.

With the win, the Tigers defeated Houston (3-4) for the fifth straight season, and finished the year with a 7-3 record, pending a likely bowl game invite. 

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tulane 35, Tigers 21

CREDIT: Tyler Kaufman

The Tigers’ three-game winning streak came to an end Saturday afternoon at Yulman Stadium in New Orleans. Tulane scored early and put up touchdowns in each quarter, never trailing, to improve to 6-5 on the season and 3-5 in the American Athletic Conference. The Tigers fell to 6-3 (4-3) and have now lost two straight at Tulane.
Tyler Kaufman

After falling behind by a touchdown, the Tigers tied the score at 7-7 when Brady White connected with Calvin Austin III for a 59-yard score just five minutes into the game. (Austin later dropped a pair of would-be touchdown passes.) The Green Wave regained the lead when quarterback Michael Pratt found Jha’Quan Jackson for a 42-yard touchdown late in the first quarter. Memphis played from behind the remainder of the contest.

The Tigers played without two of their top defensive linemen, as O’Bryan Goodson didn’t suit up and Joseph Dorceus was sidelined early after a blow to the head.

White’s second touchdown pass of the game — a six-yarder to tight end Sean Dykes — brought Memphis within seven points (28-21) with 5:13 to play in the third quarter. On Tulane’s ensuing drive, Tiger safety Quindell Johnson intercepted his second pass in as many weeks. (Johnson also forced a fumble for the second straight game.) But the Tiger offense couldn’t finish drives, Austin’s two drops proving especially painful. Cameron Carroll’s nine-yard touchdown scamper put Tulane up by 14 points with 11:34 left on the clock and proved to be the clincher.

White completed 19 of 39 passes for 248 yards, becoming only the second Memphis quarterback to top 10,000 yards for his career. (He needs 56 yards to surpass Danny Wimprine’s program record.) White threw a pair of interceptions in addition to his two touchdown tosses. Austin caught five of his passes for 110 yards.

An ongoing problem for the Tigers — their running game — resurfaced, Memphis gaining only 45 yards on 28 carries. Tulane ran the ball for 165 yards and Pratt passed for 254 more.

The Tigers will complete the strangest regular season in memory next Saturday when Houston (3-3) visits the Liberty Bowl. For the first time in four years, Memphis will not have an appearance in the AAC championship game to extend the season. A bowl berth likely awaits, perhaps the Birmingham Bowl, where Memphis last played in 2015.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 10, Navy 7

CREDIT: Carolyn Andros

Memphis and Navy played Saturday night like a pair of programs knock out of alignment by the coronavirus. In the lowest-scoring game Memphis has played since 1999, the Tigers came away with a victory thanks to a 26-yard field goal by senior kicker Riley Patterson in the fourth quarter. The three points proved to be just enough when Navy kicker Bijan Nichols pushed a 45-yard attempt just right of his target on the ensuing possession.
Carolyn Andros

Quindell Johnson and the Memphis defense held firm.

With the win, Memphis improves to 6-2 for the season and 4-2 in the American Athletic Conference. After winning their first three league games, Navy has now lost three in a row and falls to 3-3 in the AAC (3-5 overall).

The Tigers’ first road win of the season came ugly. In the first half, Memphis punted the ball three times, lost a fumble (by Tahj Washington after a lengthy gain), and saw a Patterson field-goal attempt from 52 yards sail right. Their only points came on a 14-yard scoring strike from senior quarterback Brady White to junior receiver Calvin Austin. That touchdown, late in the first quarter, tied the score at seven and would be the game’s last tally before Patterson’s game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore safety Quindell Johnson came up big, particularly in the first half, ending one drive with a fourth-down tackle behind the line of scrimmage, then ending the next with an interception inside the Tigers’ 20-yard line. Freshman linebacker Cole Mashburn recovered a Navy fumble early in the fourth quarter to extinguish another Midshipman drive.

White completed 18 of 32 passes for 205 yards, leaving him within 100 yards of becoming only the second Memphis quarterback to top 10,000 for his career. Marquavius Weaver led the Tiger ground game with merely 49 yards. (Dreke Clark sat out the game with an injury.) Washington caught four passes for 68 yards and senior tight end Sean Dykes had six catches for 47 yards.

The Tigers won despite gaining a total of only 280 yards, 38 fewer than Navy.

Memphis returns to the road next Saturday to face Tulane (5-5) in New Orleans. The Tigers are now a win away from an unprecedented seventh straight season with seven victories.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 34, USF 33

CREDIT: Joe Murphy

The Memphis Tigers erased a 13-point deficit in the final five minutes of their game Saturday at the Liberty Bowl to beat the USF Bulls and earn their 13th-straight home win, a record in the stadium where they’ve played since 1965. Tiger quarterback Brady White threw four touchdown passes — including the game-winner to Calvin Austin with just over a minute to play – to tie Danny Wimprine’s career record (81) and set a new mark for wins by a Memphis quarterback (24). The victory improves the Tigers’ record to 4-2 (3-2 in the American Athletic Conference) while USF falls to 1-6 (0-5).

Joe Murphy

Brady White

Playing in front of a pandemic-reduced crowd of just over 10,000, the Tigers struggled throughout the first half, with three series ending on downs and USF’s Daquan Evans returning an interception of White 51 yards for an early 13-6 Bulls lead. The only Memphis touchdown before halftime came on a White-to-Austin 65-yard pass connection. But USF scored touchdowns on each of its next two possessions to take a 27-13 lead at the break.

White found tight end Sean Dykes for a five-yard touchdown strike on the Tigers’ first possession of the third quarter to reduce the USF lead to 27-20, but the U of M’s next two possessions ended with punts. A Spencer Shrader field goal (his fourth of the game) from 46 yards gave USF a 33-20 lead with just 4:36 left in the game.

Memphis marched 72 yards in just over a minute and reduced the deficit to 33-27 when White connected with Dykes again, this time from 10 yards with 3:19 left on the clock. A maligned Memphis defense then managed to stop the Bulls, forcing a punt that set up what proved to be the game-winning drive. White completed six straight passes (after an incompletion) to complete the comeback, finding Kylan Watkins (three times), Tahj Washington, and Kameron Wilson before hitting Austin for the decisive score.

White completed 30 of 50 passes for 437 yards, his favorite target being Dykes (7 catches for 147 yards). Austin caught five passes for 102 yards.

The Memphis defense held USF to 330 yards, considerably lower than the average for Tiger opponents this season. Memphis gained a total of 535 yards.

The Tigers are scheduled to travel to Annapolis, Maryland, next week to face Navy. (The Midshipmen are 3-4 and had their game against Tulsa today postponed because of Covid cases at the Naval Academy.) Memphis returns to the Liberty Bowl on November 21st when Stephen F. Austin comes to town.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 41, Temple 29

CREDIT: Joe Murphy/Memphis Athletics

Brady White threw four touchdown passes and Rodney Owens intercepted a pair of passes by Temple quarterback Anthony Russo Saturday afternoon at the Liberty Bowl to help the Memphis Tigers avenge their only regular-season loss of 2019. Playing in conditions more common to Philadelphia this time of year, the Tigers overcame a pair of first-half turnovers and came from behind twice on the scoreboard to improve to 3-1 for the season and 2-1 in American Athletic Conference play. The Owls fall to 1-2 with the loss.
Joe Murphy/Memphis Athletics

Brady White

White connected with Tahj Washington to finish an 80-yard drive with 5:29 left in the first quarter to give Memphis a 7-0 lead. But fumbles on the Tigers’ next two possessions gave the ball to Temple and Owls capitalized, taking a 9-7 lead midway through the second quarter on a touchdown pass from Russo to Jadan Blue (Blue’s first of three scores in the game). Memphis linebacker Xavier Cullens blocked the extra-point attempt.

Senior kicker Riley Patterson connected on a 42-yard field goal to regain the lead for Memphis (10-9) with 3:34 left in the second quarter, but Temple responded with another touchdown drive, capped by a 10-yard pass from Russo to Branden Mack for a 15-10 Owls lead at the half.

The Tigers scored 17 points in the first nine minutes of the third quarter, White hitting Calvin Austin for a 65-yard touchdown then finding Washington again (for 26 yards) for a 27-15 lead. Russo found Blue for a 32-yard scoring strike to close the Tiger advantage to 27-22 late in the third quarter.

Following Owens’s second interception early in the fourth quarter, the Tigers converted a fourth-and-six attempt with a completion from White to Austin. White then found freshman Javon Ivory for a seven-yard touchdown and a 34-22 lead. Blue’s third touchdown of the contest closed the lead to five points (34-29), but the Memphis defense forced punts on consecutive Temple possessions. When Kylan Watkins dashed 15 yards to the end zone with just over two minutes to play, the Tigers clinched their second consecutive win in the first back-to-back weekends of play they’ve enjoyed this season.

White completed 17 of 36 passes for 313 yards and now has 76 touchdown passes for his Tiger career, five shy of Danny Wimprine’s program record. Austin compiled 184 yards on his six catches and sophomore tailback Dreke Clark rushed for 106 yards on 22 carries. Washington caught five passes for 77 yards.

The Tigers face perhaps their biggest test of the season next Saturday when they travel to Cincinnati to face the 9th-ranked Bearcats. (Cincinnati plays at SMU Saturday night.) The game will be a rematch of last season’s AAC championship, a battle won by Memphis at the Liberty Bowl.