The Memphis Tigers and SMU Mustangs put together Friday night football follies in Dallas, and Memphis prevailed. Behind two touchdowns each from tight end Joey Magnifico and tailback Patrick Taylor, the Tigers improved to 7-4 for the season and 4-3 in the American Athletic Conference. The victory sets up what amounts to an AAC semifinal game against Houston next Friday at the Liberty Bowl, the winner advancing to the league championship game on December 1st.
The win can best be described as awkward. In the first half alone, one team botched a fake punt (SMU) while the other missed a 21-yard field goal attempt (Memphis kicker Riley Patterson). Tiger quarterback Brady White managed to complete a pass, via deflection, to himself. Taylor was taken down in the end zone for a safety. Memphis suffered more than 100 yards in penalties . . . and led at the break (7-5) courtesy of a White-to-Magnifico touchdown pass.
Taylor scored on a 9-yard run early in the third quarter to extend the Memphis lead to 14-5. SMU tightened things with a touchdown pass from Ben Hicks to James Proche for 31 yards late in the third, but Memphis responded on its ensuing possession, White again finding Magnifico in the end zone to make the score 21-12. Taylor all but clinched the win with his second touchdown run, a two-yard sprint midway through the fourth quarter.
Taylor finished the game with 112 yards on 20 carries while his backfield partner, Darrell Henderson, ran for 75 yards on 16 attempts. (Henderson surpassed 1,500 rushing yards for the season, only the second Tiger in history to do so.) White completed 18 of 31 passes for 226 yards, with the two touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Sophomore wideout Damonte Coxie caught two passes for 90 yards (the first a 62-yarder on the Tigers’ opening possession). Coxie became just the third Memphis receiver to top 1,000 yards in a season but missed the second half with a leg injury.
SMU drops to 5-6 (4-3) with the loss. Memphis owns any three- or four-way tiebreaker (with Tulane and Houston also in the mix), so a win next week over the Cougars would mean a second straight trip to the AAC championship game.
The victory clinches a fifth straight winning season for the Tigers, a streak unmatched since 1973-77.
