Memphis football has one more game in 2024.
The Tigers (10-2) will meet West Virginia (6-6) in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl on Tuesday. Memphis opened as a 4.5 point underdog but is now favored to beat the Mountaineers.
It’ll be the final game for a Memphis senior class that’s had an outsized impact on the program. Seth Henigan will play his final college game just a few miles from his hometown of Denton, while Roc Taylor, Jonah Gambill, Greg Rubin and key contributors will also conclude their respective careers.
That ups the motivation for the Tigers, who began the year with College Football Playoff aspirations but missed out on the AAC title game because of losses to Navy and UTSA.
West Virginia hired Rich Rodriguez again but he won’t coach vs Memphis
The Mountaineers will have a new coach for this game and then a different one for the future. Neal Brown was fired after the regular season, and Chad Scott was tapped as the interim coach for the bowl game.
After a coaching search, the Mountaineers formalized the hire of Rich Rodriguez, who just won the Conference USA title with Jacksonville State and will return to the West Virginia program he led from 2001-07. There will be plenty of players looking to make a good first impression when the Mountaineers take on the Tigers.
Even with the coaching change, West Virginia has not had a lot of key players decide to enter the transfer portal before the game. That comes with a key exception: Linebacker Josiah Trotter, who made 93 tackles and won Big 12 defensive freshman of the year.
Garrett Greene leads experienced West Virginia backfield
Garrett Greene has been at West Virginia since 2020 and has been the Mountaineers’ starting quarterback for the last two seasons. He threw for 1,972 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this season. He also rushed for 656 yards and five touchdowns, so a Memphis defense that has had problems defending quarterback runs will have to be on high alert.
Jaheim White is West Virginia’s leading rusher. He rushed for 817 yards and five touchdowns. Tackle Wyatt Milium won Big 12 offensive lineman of the year, while defensive lineman TJ Jackson II also made the All-Big 12 first team.
What’s Memphis playing for?
The Tigers were effectively eliminated from AAC title contention on Nov. 2, when they lost at UTSA in a dispiriting performance after weeks of living on the edge against inferior opposition. They responded with more encouraging wins over similarly inferior opposition and then traveled to New Orleans as two-touchdown underdogs against Tulane, which was still in playoff contention and looked like the best team in the conference.
Memphis won that game 34-24, beating the Green Wave in a performance that showed the Tigers might be the best team in the conference.
The Frisco Bowl is a chance for Memphis to earn its second power conference win this season after the Tigers beat Florida State. And it’s a chance to win a bowl game over a power conference team for the second straight year, after Memphis took down Iowa State in last year’s AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Memphis vs West Virginia score prediction
Memphis 38, West Virginia 27. West Virginia is focused on the future and has little to play for in Frisco. Memphis usually gets up for power conference games and wants to send its seniors out with a win.
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.
