The University of Memphis football team dealt with the expectations of being a 12-point favorite and sent 46,378 happy fans home with a convincing 36-17 over MTSU on Saturday.
Memphis head coach Justin Fuente said the crowd’s energy played an active role in Tigers victory.
“I thought we had a great crowd and an active crowd that wanted to participate in us winning a football game,” Fuente said after the game. “I felt like we as Tiger nation showed up tonight. They helped us win. I'm very proud and appreciative of that.”
The Tigers (2-1) had a lot of momentum going into this game with the 63-0 drubbing of Austin Peay, in the season opener, and the narrow loss at then, No. 11 UCLA two weeks ago. However, they were playing an MTSU (2-2) team, which they hadn’t beaten since 2010.
One of the driving factors in the Tigers win was their strength and belief in the running game. The Tigers ran it an astounding 51 times for 261 yards. Senior running back Brandon Hayes had 21 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown, while sophomore running back Doroland Dorceus rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.
Sophomore quarterback Paxton Lynch couldn’t quite live up to his game against UCLA, but he did not have to. Paxton managed the game well throwing 21-35 for 219 yards, 2 touchdowns and one interception.
Senior Keiwone Malone led the receivers with 6 receptions for 76 yards, but it was junior tight end Alan Cross who had two touchdown catches with his only two catches of the game one of them being a 50-yard touchdown – the longest pass play of the season for the Tigers.
While the Tigers rushing prowess was a bit of a surprise, MTSU’s 246 rushing yards per game was put to a hault by a strong Memphis defense, which held the Blue Raiders to just 88 yards on 34 carries.
The Tigers held MTSU quarterback Austin Grammer to just 24-35 for 237 yards and interception along with only 33 yards rushing – the majority coming after the game was already decided.
The bounce-back defensive performance was led by senior linebacker Tank Jakes, who continued his strong start to the season by recording the first Tigers safety since 2003. Jakes also had seven tackles, three of them being tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble.
Jakes said the energy from the crowd gave the Tigers players’ great energy and that the defense prepared really well for MTSU’s offense.
"It was a great atmosphere,” Jakes said. “There was some great energy. This is the first time I've actually seen the "wave" happen. Defensively, we had two weeks to prepare. We knew they had a good offense so we came out and made sure that we executed. We prepared great for two weeks."
Also, Senior cornerback Bobby McCain scored his fourth defensive touchdown of his career – a 59-yard fumble recovery to ice the game and make it 36-10 to the Tigers with 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers will now travel to Oxford to play No. 10 Ole Miss on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Fox Sports Network plans to carry the game.
