MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Brady White passed for 284 yards and three touchdowns and Memphis ended its long bowl drought with a 25-10 victory over Florida Atlantic on Wednesday night in the Montgomery Bowl.
Memphis Snaps Losing Streak
The victory saw the Tigers halting a five-game bowl losing streak, while Florida Atlantic saw its streak of four straight bowl game wins snapped.
“I’m extremely proud of our program and everything we’ve done,” White said. “We finished it off right. It feels good to walk out of here with a bowl trophy.”
White went 22 of 34 on completed passes with one interception as Memphis (8-3) built an 18-0 first-half lead and then held on to take the victory.
White threw touchdown passes to three different receivers, finding Javon Ivory from 5 yards, then Joseph Dorceus from 2 yards, and Calvin Austin III with a 7 yarder to wrap up the scoring after Florida Atlantic had cut the lead to eight points in the third.
Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.
“My time here at Memphis has been so special,” White added, who was named the game MVP. “It’s a special city and a special program.
“No one truly knows what it’s all about unless they are around it long enough or living in the city. I’ll bleed blue for the rest of my life. I’m a Memphis Tiger forever.”
Career Day For Ivory
Ivory caught a career-high seven passes for a career-best 126 yards, while redshirt freshman receivers Tahj Washington took eight catches for 105 yards for Memphis.
Asa Martin, who transferred from Auburn, ran for 96 yards on 15 carries for the Tigers.
“The young men in our locker room will go down in history for me,” said first-year coach Ryan Silverfield, who ended the season with the best winning percentage of any Memphis coach in their first term.
“Hopefully, this won’t be the best record or most memorable bowl win I have, but it will probably be my most memorable season because of all the things that we faced. I love those guys in our locker room. It’s an honor to have worked with them.”
Meanwhile, Nick Tronti went 16 of 32 on completed passes for 146 yards with a touchdown and an interception for Florida Atlantic.
Charles James rushed 16 times on the night for 82 yards in the defeat for the Owls (5-4) who ended the season with three defeats.
“I felt like we didn’t’ take advantage of opportunities that we got in this football game,” said Willie Taggart, who completed his debut season with Florida Atlantic .
“The defense did a great job getting three takeaways, and only getting three points off those takeaways is not good enough against a team like Memphis.”
