Memphis Football: 3 takeaways from Black Friday win over Cincinnati

3. Ben Bryant gives Cincinnati hope at quarterback

Over the past few weeks, Desmond Ridder fought gamely through a shoulder injury that was obviously impacting his performance. Ridder has never been the type of quarterback that is going to chuck the ball 50 times and throw for over 400 yards. Even then, it was sobering to watch his passing yardage go from 161 yards to 136 yards to 78 yards to 62 yards over the past four days as his completion rate torpedoed well below 50 percent.

It made total sense, then, to sit Ridder and allow him to recover. If Cincinnati is going to win itself a spot in the New Year’s Six this season, it will have to rely on a redshirt freshman to get them there. After his first start for Memphis, Tigers fans should be really excited about what Ben Bryant was able to do against the Tigers.

Bryant went 20-of-32 for 229 yards and a touchdown, and he also ran for a touchdown. It was by no means a perfect performance, as the youngster did throw two interceptions. Bryant also coughed up a fumble on a sack.

In the end, though, he still kept the Bearcats in the contest against Memphis as he threw for one touchdown and ran for another at the Liberty Bowl. With Cincinnati headed right back to Tennessee next weekend, Bryant offers Cincinnati some hope of pulling off the upset if he can cut down on his mistakes and learn from his first college start against a now-familiar opponent.