Five things to watch for in Birmingham Bowl between Memphis and Auburn
The match-up between the Auburn Tigers and Memphis Tigers on December 30 in the Birmingham Bowl comes with much intrigue for both teams. Memphis will be without their former head coach, Justin Fuente, who is now the coach for Virginia Tech, and Auburn will be without its former defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp, who is now the head coach at South Carolina.
The Tigers of Memphis started the season on fire winning their first eight games, including a stunning upset at home over Ole Miss. Then the wheels started to fall off after they were beaten by Navy 45-20. They went on to lose their next two games as well before finishing the season with a 63-0 win over SMU. That win gave them nine on the season giving them a chance to get a 10th in the bowl game, which would give them back-to-back 10-win seasons.
Auburn won its first two games of the season, albeit they weren’t pretty, and actually started the season 4-2 before losing four of their last six games. This certainly isn’t the season Auburn fans were hoping for, but this is still a very talented team that is capable of turning it all around next year. This bowl game will be a starting point as they look to get back to the top of the SEC.
Beyond the fact that both teams are looking for coaches, there are five things that fans on both sides, as well as college football fans in general, should be looking for in this game.
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