By Lang Whitaker
Grind City Media
MEMPHIS – With just over four minutes remaining in the 59th annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the Memphis Tigers found themselves in something of a jam.
The Iowa State Cyclones were clinging to a 21-20 lead, and they had the ball in the red zone, moving toward the end zone with the chance to push the lead to eight. So as they have done often this season, the Tigers made their own luck.
Iowa State rugged running back David Montgomery took a handoff and pushed toward the end zone, but the ball popped free and was recovered by Memphis for a touchback.
So the second-highest scoring offense in college football this season (47.7 ppg coming into the Liberty Bowl) got one more chance to flex its scoring mettle. Two minutes later, quarterback Riley Ferguson willed the Tigers down to the Iowa State 40-yard line. But the team that had been able to score seemingly at will this season suddenly found itself hamstrung.
The Memphis Tigers went unbeaten at home during the 2017 regular season, but couldn’t get past Iowa State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in front of a sellout crowd of 57,266 fans last week. Photo Credit: Austin McAfee/Getty Images
After scoring essentially in their sleep all year long, the Tigers ended their season with four consecutive incompletions. Iowa State won the Liberty Bowl, 21-20.
“It was a hard-fought contest,” said Memphis coach Mike Norvell, “one that went back and forth. We just came up a little short.”
Even in defeat last weekend, the season was nothing short of a major step forward for the Tigers, who capped the most successful four-year run in program history.
Memphis finished 10-3 on the season, an unquestionably impressive mark but still a bit disappointing. For a Tigers’ team that went to overtime against Central Florida in the AAC title game just weeks ago, the chance to close out the season victorious at home in a bowl atmosphere went to waste.
Memphis is graduating a group of seniors who changed the program, making four consecutive bowl appearances, first under coach Justin Fuente and now Norvell. While guys like Ferguson and Miller will move on, Norvell recently signed a contract extension that will keep him around.
The season closed on a frigid and gray day in Memphis, with the temperature flirting with the freezing mark all afternoon. A sellout crowd of 57,266, pretty much evenly split between Tigers fans and Cyclones fans, wrapped in layers and endured the weather to see a game that came down to the final drive.
The Tigers didn’t end their season the way they wanted, but as Norvell noted in his postgame press conference, just because there wasn’t a storybook finish doesn’t mean the book is over.
“The brightest days are ahead,” Norvell assured.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Memphis Grizzlies. All opinions expressed by Lang Whitaker are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Memphis Grizzlies or its Basketball Operations staff, owners, parent companies, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Memphis Grizzlies and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.