Tigers, Wake Forest set to battle in Birmingham Bowl

Saturday, December 22

Birmingham, Ala.

11:00 a.m. CT

University of Memphis

Wake Forest

Tickets

Patrick Taylor will likely have an expanded role Saturday against Wake Forest.

Photo by: Matthew Smith

Tigers, Wake Forest set to battle in Birmingham Bowl

Dec 21, 2018 | Football

2018 Memphis/Birmingham Bowl Guide 2018 Wake Forest/Birmingham Bowl Guide

UofM playing in its record fifth-straight bowl, 10th since 2003.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The University of Memphis and Wake Forest University – two football programs on the rise – will meet one another at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Birmingham Bowl.

The game, played at Legion Field, will feature two teams becoming accustomed to the postseason and all that bowl weeks offer.

The Tigers (8-5) will be participating in their 12^th bowl game in program history and their school-record record fifth straight. Memphis has appeared in 10 bowls since breaking a 32-year postseason drought in 2003 behind the school's career rushing leader, DeAngelo Williams.

The Demon Deacons (6-6) will be playing in their 13^th bowl game in program history, including their third straight. Wake Forest has won its past two bowl games: the 2016 Military Bowl (over American Athletic Conference champion Temple) and the 2017 Belk Bowl.

Unfortunately for Memphis and Wake Forest, the game will be played minus each team's star attraction.

Memphis running back Darrell Henderson will not participate. The consensus All-American, the first in Tigers' history, declared for the NFL Draft after a season in which he rushed for 1,909 yards and averaged 8.9 yards per carry. His yards-per-carry average ranked first nationally. In his place, the Tigers will insert another 1,000-yard rusher, Patrick Taylor.

Wake Forest will be without its primary offensive weapon, too. Redshirt sophomore Greg Dortch suffered a thumb injury in the regular-season finale, a lopsided win over Duke. Demon Deacons coach Dave Clawson announced Friday Dortch would not play.

Dortch, like Henderson, is an All-American. He finished with 1,078 yards, the second-most by a Deacon receiver in a single season. In the team's finale, he caught 10 passes for 124 yards giving the 5-foot-9 star his fourth 100-yard receiving game of the season and his third 10-catch game of the year.

Without Dortch, quarterback Jamie Newman will be missing the person who has made his transition to starter seamless. Newman replaced Sam Hartman three games ago after Hartman suffered a season-ending foot injury in a Nov. 3 game against Syracuse.

Newman, 6-5 and 240 pounds, has thrown for 680 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions.

QUICK HITS

Wake Forest WR Greg Dortch finished the regular season with 1,750 all-purpose yards, the second-most AP yards in a year by a Demon Deacon behind Kenneth Moore's 1,854 all-purpose yards in 2007.
Memphis and Wake Forest have played four times, but will be competing against one another for the first time since the mid-1960s. Each team has won two games.
The Tigers set a single-season school record with 6,946 yards of total offense.
Memphis quarterback Brady White, in his first season with the Tigers after transferring from Arizona State, passed for 3,125 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Tiger RB Darrell Henderson was the school's first unanimous selection to the NCAA consensus All-American team..
Wake Forest's Greg Dortch has 3,040 career all-purpose yards and ranks 17th all-time in Wake Forest history. The Duke game marked Dortch's 20th career game. He has 19 career touchdowns.
Entering the Birmingham Bowl, Dortch leads the ACC in all-purpose yards with 145.8 per game. He compiled 1,750 all-purpose yards in 12 games including 1,078 receiving yards.
Dortch leads the ACC in punt return average at 11.0 yards per return. He ranks second in the ACC with 7.4 receptions per game, third in receiving yards per game at 89.8, and eighth in scoring.
Memphis defensive coordinator Chris Ball will coach in the game despite being named head coach at Northern Arizona after the season ended.