Memphis vs. West Virginia:
The characteristics of the bowl season are on full display in the Frisco Bowl between Memphis and West Virginia. The standalone bowl game on Tuesday December 17 down in the Lone Star State has featured some pretty drastic line movement and is a game that features some serious motivation questions for one of the teams involved.
This is the second bowl game of the bowl season and this is a reminder that we’ll be putting out bowl previews and predictions with at least 48 hours lead time in advance of the game in hopes that we have the full picture of what to expect. Note that lines can change and players can hit the transfer portal or opt-out in that window, despite our best efforts.
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Frisco Bowl: Memphis Tigers (-5, 58.5) vs. West Virginia Mountaineers
Tuesday Dec. 17, 9 p.m. ET
The first domino to fall in advance of this bowl game was the firing of Neal Brown. West Virginia has already hired Rich Rodriguez, who had a very animated and honest press conference this past Friday when he was introduced as the head coach for the second time in his career.
Chad Scott is the interim head coach for West Virginia in this one and it is his first time as the head coach. He’s been with West Virginia since 2019 coaching running backs and was the offensive coordinator the last two seasons. He and DC Jeff Koonz have a tall order here. They have to keep Mountaineers players invested enough to prep for a very potent, very experienced Memphis offense and do so without top defender Josiah Trotter, who is in the transfer portal.
A handful of opt-outs are possible as well. Depth becomes an issue at that point and Memphis is a team that ranked 20th in offensive plays with 871. The Tigers racked up over six yards per play during the regular season, one of 51 teams to do that. West Virginia was not one of them, as the Mountaineers had 5.7 yards per play.
Memphis is 3-1 in bowls under Ryan Silverfield, but the loss was against Penn State in the Cotton Bowl, so it was a much grander stage. They were winless in three bowl games under Mike Norvell and also lost the only one with Darrell Dickey after Justin Fuente took the Virginia Tech job. Silverfield has fared well, including a 10-point win over Big 12 member Iowa State last season, though the Cyclones had a ton of opt-outs for that game.
The Tigers defense has given up a lot of points this season, but West Virginia doesn’t have the tempo or the potency of an AAC offense. QB Garrett Greene had a 13/11 TD/INT ratio and the Tigers were tied for ninth with 24 takeaways. They are also an opportunistic defense with 14 fumble recoveries. WVU only lost four fumbles during the season. But, as a defense, they only had 11 takeaways, so Memphis may very well carry the edge in the turnover margin department.
The Memphis offense is a well-balanced crew. This will be the final college game with the Tigers for Seth Henigan, who has racked up nearly 14,000 passing yards and 102 TD passes over four seasons as a starter. Roc Taylor (61-834-2) and Mario Anderson Jr. (219-1292-17) are potential NFL talents at the skill positions. Anderson has rushed for just under 2,000 yards in two Division I seasons.
With a win, Memphis should finish the season in the Top 25 of the CFP Rankings and the AP Top 25, a feat they haven’t achieved since 2019. Ending the season with a number next to your name and sending out your senior QB a winner is a lot of motivation and Silverfield has been great in bowl games.
Pick: Memphis -5