Many times in the smaller bowl match-ups, you have a familiar pattern that emerges. The Power 5 team that squeaked out six wins in order to be bowl eligible versus the mid to high mid-major club that has had such a successful couple of years, their coach leaves for a Power 5 job.
When Auburn and Memphis meet on Wednesday at NOON in the Birmingham Bowl on ESPN, that will certainly be the case.
Gus Malzahn’s club started 2015 ranked in the Top 10 and was favored to win the SEC. However, they were wildly inconsistent, finishing 2-6, last in the SEC West and are headed into this game without their defensive coordinator. Will Muschamp is taking his second turn coaching in the SEC as the new coach at South Carolina. He replaces Steve Spurrier, who resigned mid-season, leaving the Gamecocks to be coached by offensive coordinator turned interim head coach Shawn Elliott, the last six games.
Quarterback Jeremy Johnson started the season as the second coming on Cam Newton but struggled immensely and lost his starting job to Sean White.
Under (now former) coach Justin Fuente, Memphis went from 3-21 in the two seasons before Fuente got there to back-to-back bowl games. The Tigers started this season 8-0 including a big win at home over Ole Miss. However, the team limped home at 1-3 to land in Birmingham.
Fuente was named as new head coach of Virginia Tech on November 29th, replacing the retiring Frank Beamer. Former Arizona State offensive coordinator Mike Norvell was named as Fuente’s replacement; however, Darrell Dickey will coach the team in the game.
Quarterback Paxton Lynch is the main man for the Tigers. As he goes, so goes the team. Lynch threw for almost 3,700 yards with 28 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions this season.
One of two things usually happen when a team’s coach leaves before the bowl game. Either the team falls apart over their coach leaving or the team plays exceedingly well as if to say “Coach, you shouldn’t have left us.”
This will be the fourth year the Birmingham Bowl will feature an AAC versus SEC matchup. The SEC has won the previous three meetings.
I see this one as a high scoring game that could be a showcase day for Lynch. Memphis’ defense has been pretty bad all year and Auburn should be able to score on them. However, I think Lynch will put even more points on the board and the Tigers will go 2-0 against the SEC West this season.
Main Photo:
