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Welcome back to the Tigers Football Insider, where we bring you the latest news and analysis from The Daily Memphian’s Frank Bonner II and Tim Buckley each week.
The Memphis Tigers will try for their 10th win when they face Iowa State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Dec. 29 (2:30 p.m. ESPN) at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
Iowa State will be the second Power 5 school the Tigers face this year. They lost 34-27 to Missouri in September.
Memphis played Mizzou, No. 9 in the College Football Playoff rankings, in St. Louis.
Over the past nine seasons, including this year, Coach Ryan Silverfield’s program is 1-3 on the road in the regular season against teams from one of the Power 5 conferences and 1-7 including bowl games. The lone win: at Kansas, 55-23, on Sept. 12, 2015.
Playing Power 5 schools at home, however, has worked out well for Memphis in the last eight years.
The Tigers have played five regular season games at home against Power 5 schools since 2015 and are 5-0 in those matchups. Including the postseason, Memphis is 5-1 during that span.
A 21-20 loss to Iowa State in the 2017 Liberty Bowl is the only loss the Tigers have suffered at the hands of a Power 5 school while playing in Memphis since they lost 28-14 to Duke in 2013. Memphis only won three games that year before starting its current 10-year streak of not having a losing overall record.
The Liberty Bowl technically won’t be a home game for Memphis, though. Instead, Iowa State will be listed as the home team.
But the Tigers will clearly have a homefield advantage when the game kicks off.
“I think it’s big for us because it’s a chance for us to shine in our own stadium. ... Also, to sort of match the excitement and the attendance of a Big 12 opponent,” Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch said. “When you have somebody like Iowa State, who we know travels well, coming into your backyard, we get a chance to show up and match that. We’re going to continue to challenge our fans to be there and to be proud be loud.”
Iowa State is a 7-5 team that finished in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Big 12. The Cyclones beat Big 12 runner-up Oklahoma State 34-27 in the fourth week of the season and lost 26-16 to a Texas team that won the conference title and is one of four programs in the playoffs, along with Washington, Michigan and Alabama.
List of Power 5 teams Memphis has played at home in the regular season since 2015:
- Memphis 31, Mississippi State 29 (Sept. 18, 2021)
- Memphis 15, Ole Miss 10 (Aug. 31 2019)
- Iowa State 21, Memphis 20 (Dec. 30, 2017)
- Memphis 48, No. 25 UCLA 45 (Sept. 16, 2017)
- Memphis 43, Kansas 7 (Sept. 17, 2016)
- Memphis 37, No. 13 Ole Miss 34 (Oct. 17, 2015)
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