Iowa State football faces the high-powered Memphis offense in the Liberty Bowl. Here’s why the Cyclones should be worried about an upset.
No. 20 Memphis will face Big 12 foe Iowa State on December 30 in the Auto Zone Liberty Bowl at 12:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Memphis comes into the game 10-2 and Iowa State is 7-5 and a huge surprise in the Big 12 with wins over TCU and Oklahoma this season.
This game will be very interesting come Saturday. I have five reasons Memphis will get their 11th win of the season at the expense of Iowa State.
1. Anthony Miller is a beast
Senior wide receiver Anthony Miller is one of the best at the position. If you have watched as many Memphis games as me you know he is a big time player and his numbers are fluff. If Memphis needs 15 yards, 9 times out of 10 he gets at least 16 yards.
Miller finished the regular season with 92 catches, 1,407 yards and 17 touchdowns on 15.3 yards per reception. His longest play of the season was an 89 yard catch for one of his 17 scores. No team has been able to stop him even though the closest player on his team in catches has 34 (Tony Pollard). Pollard is the second in receiving yards with 504 so it is clear as day when Riley Ferguson is passing he is looking for Miller and yet teams haven’t been able to control the senior.
Will Iowa State be able to? I highly doubt it even though they have done a good job with high-powered offenses (see Oklahoma and TCU), but nobody has a player with the exact talents of a player like Miller.