Memphis’ game-winning touchdown with 67 seconds left capped a 17-point unanswered run in the fourth quarter to claw all the way back and knock off visiting No. 18 South Florida 34-31 on Saturday afternoon in an American Conference matchup.
Brendon Lewis found Cortez Braham Jr., who high-pointed the pass in the corner of the endzone from 10 yards out to give the Tigers their first lead since the first quarter.
Nico Gramatica missed a game-tying field goal for the Bulls from 52 yards out as time expired.
Memphis (7-1, 3-1 American) allowed just seven second-half points to the high-octane South Florida (6-2, 3-1).
Lewis, whose status for the game was in question after getting injured last week, completed 27 of his 44 passes for 307 yards and two TDs. Braham caught both of his touchdowns and had seven catches for 75 yards.
South Florida’s Byrum Brown was 26-of-43 passing for 269 yards with an interception and a touchdown with another 121 yards and two TDs on the ground.
South Florida’s Sam Franklin took a run up the middle 73 yards for South Florida’s lone second-half score to push the lead to 31-17 with two seconds left in the third after a missed field goal by Memphis.
The Tigers followed it up with a 13-yard run by Greg Desrosiers Jr. They missed the two-point conversion so the Bulls led 31-23 with 13:13 left.
Gianni Spetic’s 28-yard field goal trimmed the lead to 31-26 with 7:08 left before the winning drive.
The Tigers came out the gates hot. After an interception by Brown on the fourth play of the game that was fumbled and then re-recovered by Memphis, Frank Peasant and the Tigers needed just three plays to open the scoring with a 19-yard run.
Brown’s first rushing touchdown was a 3-yard rush with 8:31 left in the first, and the latter was an electrifying 44-yard run. Brown shook past one defender, hurdled another and then evaded one more for the miraculous run and a 14-7 lead.
Jeremiah Koger caught Brown’s next touchdown from 5 yards out to push the lead to 21-7 with 4:21 left in the half.
Lewis and the Tigers then used a well-worked drive right before the whistle that was capped by Lewis finding Braham 5 yards out to cut the lead to 21-14 with 50 seconds left.
The Bulls squeezed out 47 yards to set up Gramatica’s 46-yard field goal with no time left for a 24-14 halftime lead.
Memphis increased its home winning streak to 11 games.
