Last time out: Navy 31, Army 13

Surprise, but the Academy played a heckua game. Blake Horvath rushed for 204 yards and 2 TDs. Stellar performance by the junior quarterback.

South Alabama 30, Western Michigan 23

Two former Crimson Tide coaches under S; Major Applewhite of South and Lance Taylor of Western Mich. Good game in the Salute to Veterans Bowl at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery.

For Year: SU 153-56, 73%; ATS: 108-99, 52%. Need to get on a hitting streak.

Frisco Bowl

No. 25 Memphis (10-2) vs. West Virginia (6-6)

 Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX., 20,500

8 PM CT

 ESPN

 Mike Monaco, Kirk “Caravan” Morrison, Dawn Davenport

 Laundry: Sun Belt, Lead, Jeremy (spoke in, Pearl Jam) Parker

 Tigers by 4 ½

There are some transfers off each team, but most of the teams are intact. Each has its quarterback playing in the game. The Tigers’ Seth Henigan has completed 291 of 451, 65%, for 3,208 yards, 23 TDs against 6 ints. Wide receiver Demeer Blankumsee has caught 41 passes for 557 and 5 TDs. Running back Mario Anderson Jr. has rushed for 1,308 yards and 17 TDs. Memphis is explosive and handled Tulane on the road to end its season, 34-24. On defense, middle linebacker Chandler Martin leads the Tigers with 94 tackles, 15 TFLs for -62 yards and 7 sacks for -46 yards. Cornerback Davion Ross leads the D with 3 ints. The team has 10 interceptions on the season. The defense also has 14 fumble recoveries on the season, and is led by Martin with 4. Forty four year old Ryan Silverfield is the Memphis head coach. He is 41-21 overall and has led Memphis to three bowl victories including the Liberty Bowl in 2023 over Iowa State, 36-26.

For West Virginia, their last outing wasn’t a pleasant one as they lost to Texas Tech on the road, 52-15. Quarterback Garrett Greene completed 160 of 275, 58%, for 1,972 yards, for 13 TDs against 11 ints. Their leading rusher is Jahiem White, who’s rushed for 817 yards and 7 TDs. Hudson Clement leads the wide receiving corps with 40 receptions for 575 and 3 TDs. Safety Anthony Wilson Jr. leads the defense with 95 tackles and 2 ints.

Final Analysis and Prediction

The Mountaineers fired head coach Neal Brown, the former Troy coach, at the end of this season. Brown, who had great success at Troy going 35-16 and 23-9 in the Fun Belt, and won all three bowls his teams played in,  couldn’t quite find his footing in Morgantown going 37-35 overall and 25-28 in the Big 12, including 6-6 this season. Brown is a good coach, it just didn’t work out this time. Rich Rodriguez was hired from Jacksonville State where he had good success with a 27-10 overall record and 18-3 in Conference USA leading the Gamecocks to a 9-4 season in 2023 along with a New Orleans Bowl victory, and a 9-4 season this year with a berth in the Cure Bowl. And at West Virginia from 2001-2007, Rich Rod was 60-26 with a victory in the Sugar Bowl in 2005 and an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl in 2007. He had left the program before the Fiesta Bowl, but the Mountaineers still defeated Oklahoma in Phoenix, 48-28. So he had a lot of success there. He was head coach at Michigan from 2008-10, and was 15-22 overall and 6-18 in the Big Ten and 0-3 against the team from the South before being fired after the 2010 season. He was at Arizona from 2012-17 and compiled a  43-35 record  there including 24-30 in the PAC-12 before being fired. He was an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, Hawaii, and LA-Monroe before landing the Jax State head coaching job. At one time, he was a candidate for the Alabama job after the 2006 season when Alabama fired Mike Shula before the Crimson Tide hired Nick Saban. I know the Tide faithful are happy about that decision. Maybe they wish they had him back now.

Chad Scott, the West Virginia offensive coordinator for the past two seasons, will be the interim coach for the Frisco Bowl.

Memphis is a very good team and I like them to be successful in Texas today.

Memphis 38, West Virginia 24