Memphis vs Florida Atlantic 12/23/20 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The Memphis Tigers will meet up with the Flordia Atlantic Owls in the Montgomery Bowl played at the Crampton Bowl. 

Memphis finished their season 7-3 and 3rd in the American Conference, their losses all came on the road to solid teams including top-10 Cincinnati, at the time ranked SMU and Tulane. Memphis did win four of their last five games capped off with a 30-27 win over Houston. Florida Atlantic lost their last two games of the season to drop to 5-3 on the year, the regular-season finale falling 45-31 to Southern Mississippi and dropping to 5-3 on the year for a second-place finish in the C-USA East. 

Memphis has become a solid program year in and year out behind their potent offensive attack, they finished second in the American in scoring offense averaging 451.5 yards per game and 31.6 points per game. At the helm is star-senior quarterback Brady White, his numbers dipped in the strange 2020 season completing 60% of his passes for 3,096 yards tossing for 28 touchdowns to 9 interceptions. The connection with junior Calvin Austin III was among the best in the conference, he reeled in 60 passes for over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The Memphis rushing attack left a lot to be desired this season averaging 3.9 yards per carry and 9 touchdowns as a team. The Tigers rushed for just 1,412 yards this season led by sophomore Rodrigues Clark, Clark led the team in carries with 125 and rushing yards with 523 as well as finding the endzone twice. 

Florida Atlantic despite finishing second in the C-USA East was among the worst offenses in the conference averaging 328.9 yards per game and just 20 points, the second-worst scoring offense in the C-USA this season. The Owls bounced between quarterbacks with junior Nick Tronti and freshman Javion Posey giving them different looks. 

Posey is a threat on his legs and actually led the team in rushing with 401 in the season but completed just 50% of his passes for 390 yards and threw three interceptions to just two touchdowns. While Tronti is a more traditional option at quarterback, he completed 54.1% of his passes for 759 yards tossing for 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. 

The running back room is led by the tandem of senior James Charles and junior Malcolm Davidson, Charles carried the ball more and had more yards and touchdowns with 76/347/4 TDs but averaged 4.6 yards per carry while Davidson averaged over 7 yards per carry, totaling 298 yards and 2 touchdowns. 

The struggling offense of FAU applied a lot of pressure on the defensive unit, they answered by allowing 16.5 points per game and 326.4 yards, both ranking the top-3 in the C-USA. The Owls were gashed their last time out for 45 points and 514 yards and haven’t seen many offenses of the caliber of Memphis’. Memphis was one of the worst defenses in the AAC this year allowing 448.7 yards and 29.7 points per game.