Memphis had a somewhat disappointing 2019. Despite 3 conference losses, the Tigers watched as their American West competitors stumbled in November so they could come back from the dead and have a rematch with UCF in the title game.
The really bizarre part: Arguably, Memphis’ 3 most important games were the duo with UCF and yesterday’s Birmingham Bowl against Memphis. In all 3, Memphis sprinted off to sizable double-digit leads. And the Odyssey does mean sprint, as the total points scored by the Tigers in the 3 games totalled a whopping 96. Now, the impossible to believe part: total points scored by Memphis in the 2nd half in the trio: 9!!! All morphed into stomach-churning defeats.
How could this happen? Mike Norvell gets lauded as a quality coach. Maybe so, but their halftime adjustments must be among the worst in college football. I suppose one might make the excuse for the bowl game that human bowling ball, Darrell Henderson, elected not to play yesterday. But such excuse would be lame when you have other excellent running backs in Patrick Taylor and Tony Pollard.
From 96 to 9?!?! Some questions are just far too difficult to answer. One can almost hear “96 Tears” by Question Mark & The Mysterians.