The University of Memphis stepped on the gas early against South Alabama and never let up in a 42-6 victory in Mobile. The victory moved the Tigers to 3-0 on the season and marked the team’s first road win of the year.
Matthew Smith
Kenneth Gainwell
The Tigers led 23-0 at halftime, mostly on the strength of a running game for which the Jaguars seemingly had no answer. Kenneth Gainwell, standing in for the second consecutive week for injured starter Patrick Taylor, had 141 yards — by halftime. Kylan Watkins added 87 yards to pad the halftime ground totals.
In their first possession of the second half, the Tigers drove 65 yards to a score in 70 seconds, using a tipped-pass reception to Joey Magnifico for most of that yardage.
The breaks were going the Tigers’ way, to be sure, but the Tigers were clearly the superior team on both sides of the ball. Judging from the vast vacant spaces shown on television in Ladd-Peebles Stadium, the locals weren’t exactly pumped about this matchup. Announced attendance was 12,373, but several thousand of those fans were obviously disguised as empty bleacher seats.
After a Riley Patterson field goal made it 33-0 early in the fourth quarter, the Tiger defense got on the scoreboard when Austin Hall scooped up a fumble and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown, making it a 40-0 game. It was Hall’s second fumble recovery of the contest.
South Alabama finally found the end zone on its next possession, but promptly muffed the extra point and Memphis’ Jacobi Francis picked it up and returned it to the opposite end zone for a two-point score. With the game at 42-6, Memphis starting quarterback Brady White left the contest, as Coach Mike Norvell called off the dogs, er, Tigers. White completed 12 of 20 passes for 209 yards, including three touchdowns and one interception.
Memphis finished with 302 yards rushing, for a total of 511 offensive yards, while holding the Jaguars to fewer than 230 yards total offense.
Memphis has a bye next weekend before taking on Navy on Thursday, September 26th.