Well here we are, last week of the college football regular season, it always goes faster than I want it to and despite what feels like a seasons worth of offensive problems the UC Bearcats are 10-1 and AAC East champs.
This week the Bearcats play on Black Friday as they head to Memphis to play the Tigers in a game that has huge implications for the conference as well as the New Years Six bowls. The title game breakdown is fairly simple, a UC win Friday and they host the title game at Nippert Stadium December 7th against either Navy or Memphis. Lose on Friday and they might as well stay there because they would once again play Memphis on the road for the title game. A win on Friday would also keep the Bearcats in the driver seat for the Cotton Bowl against one of the top 10 teams in the country.
Memphis is by far the biggest test of the year since UC play Ohio State, the Tigers are favored by double digits in this game for a reason, and I will just go ahead and get this out of the way now and hope it serves as a reverse jinx of sorts (and feel free to scream at me online), I don’t know how UC wins this game Friday and I don’t have any expectations that they will. IF they were somehow going to do it however, this is who they’ll need to stop.
At quarterback for the Tigers is junior Brady White, White has thrown for 3,074 yards this season with a 67% completion percentage and he also has a staggering 30 touchdown passes. He is a huge reason why this Memphis team is averaging 42.2 points a game.
Junior Damonte Coxie is far and away White’s favorite target in the passing game. Coxie has 834 yards and eight touchdowns on the season, both are team highs, and he averages 75.8 yards a game. Stopping him completely seems too improbable, but if the Bearcats secondary can find a way to limit his chances and generate some pressure on White it could go along way in deciding the outcome.
You don’t trot out an offense that puts up 488.2 yards a game like the Tigers do without a complementary rushing attack and oh man does Memphis have a rushing attack. At running back will be freshman Kenneth Gainwell. Gainwell has burst onto the scene this year for Memphis already rushing for 1,294 yards and 12 touchdowns while boasting an absurd 6.8 yards per carry. To give Bearcat fans some context Michael Warren currently has 939 yards rushing, 11 touchdowns, and a 4.8 average per carry. Gainwell is going to be a huge problem out of the backfield, especially since the freshman is also has 472 yards receiving to go with three receiving touchdowns. Gainwell is a three down back who can burn defenses at any moments notice. If UC hopes to slow down Memphis it will start on first, second down and limiting Gainwell.
The offense gets all the credit for Memphis and rightfully so, but the Defense isn’t a liability. Memphis is surrendering only 24.5 points a game and hold opponents to 361.7 yards a game. Leading the defense on Friday will be senior linebacker Austin Hall. Hall leads the team in tackles with 56, and he’s also got 1.5 sacks and an interception on the season.
UC, especially Ridder and the passing game are going to have to really dial it in Friday and play the best game of the season if they expect to walk out of their with a victory, this has to be a game where you go in telling yourself we have to get to 30 points if we want to even have a shot, and with the way the last few weeks have gone it’s hard to imagine this offense scoring 30. It doesn’t mean it is impossible and the UC defense, minus outlier games against OSU and ECU, have managed to put the clamps on just about everyone this year so it’s not outrageous to think UC can have some success against Memphis. Success against a team scoring in the 40’s might mean holding them to the 30’s however so just be ready for an up and down game Bearcat fans.
Despite picking Memphis at the top of the article based on the numbers and how each team has looked over the last month of the season. The UC fan in me says kick the ball off already and give Memphis the blues.
