Memphis outlasts West Virginia 42-37 in the Frisco Bowl

Memphis used 294 yards passing and two touchdowns from quarterback Seth Henigan to defeat West Virginia 42-37 in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl played tonight at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

The 25th^th-ranked Tigers also got 120 yards receiving from Demeer Blankumsee and 116 yards from Roc Taylor en route to 474 yards of total offense.

West Virginia (6-7) had a season-high 328 yards passing from the senior Garrett Greene166 of them must Hudson Clement on 11 receptions, in a losing effort.

Greene also ran seven times for 95 yards. The Tallahassee, Fla., native finished his Mountaineer career tied for eighth in rushing touchdowns, 10^th in passing yards, 11th^th in touchdown passes and 18th^th in a hurrying yard.

CJ Donaldson Jr. added 83 on 22 carries as WVU generated 534 yards of offense, third-most this season.

Two Mountaineer turnovers, poor field position early in the game, the defense’s inability to get off the field on third down and prevent big plays were the deciding factors in tonight’s game.

Great field position allowed Memphis to take a 28-17 halftime lead. Four of the five scoring drives for the Tigers consisted of 45, 25, 46 and 51 yards.

Memphis’ final scoring drive of the half covered 75 yards and took just 55 seconds to complete.

Henigan threw 4-yard touchdown passes to Mario Anderson Jr. and 18 yards to Blankumsee and Greg Desrosiers Jr. took a reverse pass 46 yards for another score.

Tristian Vandenberg also made field goals of 34 and 42 yards.

West Virginia’s offense finally came to life after starting the game with two three-and-out possessions, just 28 total yards after the first quarter and dug itself a 17-0 hole.

A Greene 33-yard touchdown pass down the far sideline to Clement got the Mountaineers on the scoreboard, and six minutes later a scrambling Greene took off down the far sideline and kept running until he reached the end zone 56 yards later.

It was the longest touchdown run by a Mountaineer player this year.

After Blankumsee’s touchdown reception came with 55 seconds left in the second quarter and Henigan’s 2-point conversion pass to Blankumsee put the Tigers ahead 28-14, Greene was able to get the Mountaineers in position for Michael Hayes II to kick a 46-yard field goal on the last play of the half.

Memphis (11-2) had the ball to begin the third quarter and continued to encounter little resistance from West Virginia’s defense. Henigan’s first play was a long pass down the other side of the field to Taylor for a 48-yard gainer to the WVU 27.

Henigan’s third-and-9 pass to Anderson got the ball to the 6, and from there it took Anderson two snaps to reach the end zone, the second coming from the 3. Vandenberg’s conversion kick made it 35-17, Tigers.

West Virginia responded with a 10-play, 75-yard march that trimmed six points from Memphis’ lead as Greene once again connected with Clement in the end zone, this time for 10 yards. However, WVU was unable to get the conversion point due to a mishandled snap.

The defense finally got a third-down stop, thanks to some linebacker pressure Ben Cutterforcing the Tigers to punt for just the second time tonight.

West Virginia took over at its own 10, converted two third downs, two fourth downs and overcame two holding penalties to make it a one-possession game.

The big play was Clement’s 37-yard reception on third-and-9 that took the ball to the Tiger 15. Donaldson scored the touchdown from the 1, culminating a 16-play, 90-yard drive.

But all the hard work of the offense was wiped out on one play, a Henigan 89-yard pass to a wide open Blankumsee down the far sideline that took the ball to the Mountaineer 1. Brandon Thomas took it in from there and Vandenberg’s conversion kick made the score 42 -30.

The Mountaineers had another answer, marching 75 yards in 12 plays and getting into the end zone on Donaldson’s second 1-yard plunge. The big plays were Greene passing for 17 more yards Jarel Williams13 more yards Cole Taylor and 27 more yards Rodney Gallagher III.

Memphis gained two first downs, forced West Virginia to use all of its timeouts and got into position where Vandenberg could attempt a 50-yard field goal to make it an eight-point game. But his kick sailed wide right, giving Greene an opportunity for some late game heroics with 51 seconds left and the ball at the WVU 31.

His first pass was completed to Clement for 23 yards to the Memphis 46. Another to Clement scored 5, and then he scrambled for 4 more.

But his final pass down the middle toward Gallagher ended up in the arms of Elijah Herring, who returned it 21 yards before fumbling it back to West Virginia.

Unfortunately, the replay official ruled he was down, even though the ball came out before he began his toil.

Memphis took a knee and ran out the remaining eight seconds to win the game.