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 25^eThe ranked Tigers also got 120 yards receiving from Demeer Blankumsee and 116 from Roc Taylor on their way to 474 yards of total offense.

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

Greene also ran seven times for 95 yards. The Tallahassee, Florida, native finished his Mountaineer career eighth in rushing touchdowns, 10^ein passing yards, 11^ein touchdown passes and 18^ein hasty distance.

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

Two Mountaineer losses, 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.

Thanks to good field position, Memphis was able to take a 28-17 halftime lead. Four of the Tigers' five scoring drives consisted of 45, 25, 46 and 51 yards.

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

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

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

West Virginia's offense finally came alive after starting the game with two three-and-out possessions, going just 28 total yards after the first quarter and digging themselves a 17-0 hole.

A Greene 33-yard touchdown pass down the far sideline to Clement put 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 into position for Michael Hayes II to kick a 46-yard field goal on the final play of the half.

Memphis (11-2) got the ball to start the third quarter and still encountered 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 gain to the WVU 27.

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

West Virginia answered with a 10-play, 75-yard march that cut six points off Memphis' lead when Greene connected with Clement again in the end zone, this time for 10 yards. However, WVU was unable to reach the conversion point due to a mishandled snap.

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

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

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

But all that hard work by the offense was undone in one play: an 89-yard Henigan pass to a wide-open Blankumsee down the far sideline that brought the ball to Mountaineer 1. Brandon Thomas took the ball 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 passes of 17 yards to Jarel Williams13 meters to Cole Taylor and 27 meters to Rodney Gallagher III.

Memphis got two first downs, forced West Virginia to use all its timeouts and got into position for Vandenberg to attempt a 50-yard field goal to make it an eight-point game. But his kick went wide right, giving Greene a chance 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 netted 5, and then he scrambled for 4 more.

However, his final pass up 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 him down even though the ball came out before he started his slide.

Memphis got down on one knee and ran out the remaining eight seconds to win the game.