American Stories – Ferguson, Miller Helped Memphis Shine Against UCLA

MEMPHIS – It took three weeks, but we finally saw how good this Memphis football team can be.

The Tigers opened their season with a 37-29 victory over Louisiana-Monroe in a tropical storm. Their next game against UCF in Orlando was rescheduled because of Hurricane Irma. But they finally got to showcase their talents on a beautiful sunny day at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Saturday, defeating 25th-ranked UCLA, 48-45, in a wild nationally televised game here before a crowd of 46,291.

“We knew this was going to be a showcase game for the coaches, the players and our city,” Tigers’ coach Mike Norvell said. “One game doesn’t define a season. But like I told the players, one game can always be remembered. This game will be on our walls. And our team will always remember the day UCLA came to the Liberty Bowl and we got the job done. It gave us an opportunity to show where our program is going.”

The Tigers, who are the preseason favorite in The American’s West Division, took advantage of a UCLA team that traveled two time zones to the east and was playing at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Memphis ripped through a Bruin defense that looked tired in the second half for 560 yards of total offense and unleashed a devastating passing game that had been a hidden treasure because of the weather.

Memphis quarterback Riley Ferguson, a one-time enrollee at Tennessee and a transfer from Coffeyville (Kan.) College, was particularly effective, outplaying the more hyped Josh Rosen and wearing out the Bruin secondary by completing of 23 of 38 passes for 398 yards and six touchdowns. Wide receiver Anthony Miller caught nine passes for 185 yards and touchdowns of 33 and 12 yards.

“We know what we’re capable of and don’t worry about what the other team is doing,” Ferguson said. “We know what we have to do – go out on the field and score every time we have the ball.”

Ferguson entered the game in the shadow of Rosen, a potential top-10 NFL draft pick who lit up the TV screen three weeks ago in UCLA’s season-opening comeback victory over Texas A&M. Against Memphis, Rosen completed 34 of 56 passes for 463 yards and four touchdowns but he also threw a costly interception that Tiger linebacker Tim Hart returned for a 60-yard touchdown.  Rosen was not able to get the Bruins on the scoreboard in the final 11:51.

“Everybody was talking about Josh Rosen,” Miller said of UCLA’s quarterback, whose nickname for years has been “Chosen” Rosen. “They should have been talking about Riley before the game. But none of our guys get the recognition they deserve.”

After all, all Ferguson did last year was break Paxton Lynch’s single-season school record with 32 touchdown passes in 2016. He threw for nearly 3,700 yards and engineered an offense that averaged 38.8 points and 463.8 yards per game.

Miller, a one-time walk on from Christian Brothers High in Memphis, punctuated those feelings leading up to this game with a tweet that said, “Walk ons vs. 5 stars.”

“I went up against a five-star guy. I was nowhere near that out of high school,” Miller said. “And that’s big for me. I worked for everything I’ve got, I’m not going to let you stop me from shining.”

“He’s made in Memphis,” Norvell said of Miller, who enjoyed a breakout season in 2016, when he had 95 catches for 1,434 yards and 14 touchdowns on his way to all-conference status. “That dude is special. If he gets the opportunity, he’s going to rise up and show what he can do. That’s the heart of this team. Like I told the guys today, they’ve been given nothing. They have to earn everything they’ve gotten.

Miller has shown he is almost an impossible cover in one-on-one situations and the Tigers constantly mixed formations to create opportunities for him to excel.

The American has been posturing itself as a Power 6 league since the start of the season, hoping to gain more traction with the College Football.

Wins like this are certain to raise some eyebrows across the country.

It was reminiscent of Memphis’ emotional win over Ole Miss here in 2015 and its 48-44 victory over Houston here last season – both wins against top-25 programs that were televised on ABC. “We knew were going to have an opportunity as long as we did what we needed to do wand didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot,” Ferguson said. “I think we did it.”

It came with drama that kept the fans on edge until the end. UCLA looked like it had a chance to complete another comeback after Octavius Spencer intercepted a pass by placekicker Riley Patterson in the end zone on a fake field goal that gave the Bruins the ball at their own 20-yard line with three minutes left.

“We could have settled for a field goal. But we wanted to be aggressive,” Norvell said. “When they stopped us, the defense came over to me and said, ‘Don’t worry coach, we got this.”The Bruins got as far as the Memphis 46 after Rosen connected with Jalen Starks to set up a fourth down and five. But Rosen’s pass intended for Darren Andrews was broken up by Memphis defensive back Jacobi Francis with 56 seconds left and Memphis ran out the clock

This is only the beginning for this Memphis team.

If they continue to play like this, Beale Street will be rocking.