Stephen Gostkowski – Memphis Flyer

• Navy ruined our chance to see a battle of unbeaten Top-20 teams this Saturday in Houston. Even so, the Memphis-Houston game is the biggest clash in the three-year history of the American Athletic Conference. It will be the first time a pair of AAC teams ranked in the Top 25 face each other on the gridiron. It will also be a showdown between the top two offensive players in the league (at least as measured by total offense). The 25th-ranked Tigers are led by quarterback Paxton Lynch (356.2 total yards per game) while the 16th-ranked Cougars have Greg Ward Jr. under center (327.2). Ward has a decent chance to finish the season with 3,000 yards passing (he currently has 2,116) and 1,000 yards rushing (829), meaning Saturday’s game could weigh heavily in the AAC Offensive Player of the Year race. Two ranked teams — combined record of 17-1 — playing in cities that each have NBA teams in the Southwest Division, led by star quarterbacks and two of college football’s hottest coaching commodities (the Tigers’ Justin Fuente and the Cougars’ Tom Herman). This is about as good as November football gets.

• The late, great Dennis Freehand had an opinion about the start of college basketball season, as it relates to college football. The former Flyer editor felt the two enterprises damage one another by overlapping in November. Why not start the college hoops season after college football’s regular season is complete? Come Saturday night, there will be a lot of Tiger fans — those devoted to football and men’s basketball, at least — who will agree with my longtime colleague’s sentiment. With the nationally televised Memphis-Houston game kicking off at 6 p.m. and the Tigers and Southern Miss tipping off the 2015-16 basketball season at 7 p.m., there will be empty seats at FedExForum that would otherwise have been occupied. (My duties as a reporter will have me at FEF for the basketball game, though I will miss some action with glances for updates from Houston.) This will be the first time since 2003 that the Tiger basketball team’s home opener coincides with a Tiger football game. Twelve years ago, the football team beat Cincinnati at the Liberty Bowl to improve to 8-3 while the basketball bunch beat Fordham by 30 points.

• The Tigers are making significant renovations to the football record book. Last week against Navy, the Tigers became the third team in program history to score 400 points in a season (last year’s team was the second). With his first-quarter touchdown strike to Anthony Miller, Paxton Lynch became the second Memphis quarterback to throw 50 career touchdown passes (Danny Wimprine threw for 81 over his four seasons with the U of M). This Saturday in Houston, another pair of significant marks could be met. Lynch will break the single-season passing yardage record (3,220 by Martin Hankins in 2007) with 207 yards against Houston. And if he scores 11 points, kicker Jake Elliott will become the third Tiger to score 300 career points (after Stephen Gostkowski and DeAngelo Williams).

As you stock the cooler for Monday’s Miami Beach Bowl, enjoy this refresher on the Memphis Tigers’ bowl history.

NOTE: The undefeated (10-0) Tigers of 1938 received an invitation to play in the Prune Bowl (yes, it was held in California), but declined when bowl officials were unable to cover the team’s travel costs. This was the Great Depression, after all.

1956 BURLEY BOWL
The Tigers went 4-4-1 in the regular season and won a pair of shutouts before falling to Ole Miss in their season finale. They traveled to Johnson City, Tennessee, to face East Tennessee State on Thanksgiving day. The Tigers scored three touchdowns in the third quarter (two of them by Eddie Gebara) to pull away. You won’t find many first-person accounts of this game. The crowd was estimated to be 700 people. It was cold.
Tigers 32, East Tennessee State 12

1971 PASADENA BOWL
The Tigers were invited to this bowl by virtue of their Missouri Valley Conference championship. Their regular-season record was 4-5-1, but they were 3-1 in league play. The game was played in the Rose Bowl (on December 18th) but attracted merely 15,244 fans. Tailback Dornell Harris was the Tiger star with 87 rushing yards and a second-quarter touchdown. This was the last game on the sidelines — and 91st win — for Memphis coach Spook Murphy.
Tigers 28, San Jose State 9

2003 NEW ORLEANS BOWL
A 32-year drought ended in fine fashion for the Tiger program despite the absence of sophomore sensation DeAngelo Williams (sidelined by an injury). North Texas scored first, but Tiger quarterback Danny Wimprine led three scoring drives before halftime to give Memphis the lead for good. The Louisiana native completed 17 of 23 passes for 254 yards and a touchdown to earn MVP honors. The win was the Tigers’ ninth of the season, the program’s most in 40 years.
Tigers 27, North Texas 17

2004 GMAC BOWL
The Tigers earned a bid to this bowl (played in Mobile, Alabama) with an 8-3 regular season. Bowling Green scored five first-half touchdowns, but the Tigers answered with four of their own, including a 31-yard scamper by Williams to make the score 35-28 at halftime. But Memphis didn’t score again until late in the fourth quarter, the game having been decided. Williams ran for 120 yards and Wimprine passed for 324 in his final game with the Tigers.
Bowling Green 52, Tigers 35

U of M Athletics
Stephen Gostkowski

2005 MOTOR CITY BOWL
Ford Field made for quite a setting, considering the Super Bowl would be played at the same venue six weeks later. DeAngelo Williams completed the greatest career in Memphis football history by rushing for 238 yards and three touchdowns to earn MVP honors. (The Tigers attempted only 14 passes.) This was also the final college game for the Tigers’ alltime leading scorer (and current New England Patriot), Stephen Gostkowski, who connected on three field goals, one from 50 yards. The win gave the Tigers a final record of 7-5.
Tigers 38, Akron 31

2007 NEW ORLEANS BOWL
The Tigers won five of their last six games after a slow start for a return to the Superdome with a 7-5 record. Florida Atlantic scored 17 points in the game’s first ten minutes and led 30-20 at halftime. Memphis quarterback Martin Hankins threw a touchdown pass to Carlos Singleton to close the Owl lead to three in the third quarter before FAU pulled away for the victory.
Florida Atlantic 44, Tigers 27

2008 ST. PETERSBURG BOWL
The Tigers reached a fifth bowl game under coach Tommy West by the slimmest of margins, beating Tulane (handily) to finish the regular season with a record of 6-6. (Memphis lost its first three games and was 3-5 in mid-October.) South Florida dominated on both sides of the ball, holding the Tigers to 66 rushing yards and 172 through the air. Playing in its backyard, USF benefited from three touchdown passes by Matt Grothe, the game’s MVP.
USF 41, Tigers 14