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trated National Player of the Week for his part in the Tiger win. The Tigers reached another milestone when they appeared on their first nationally televised broadcast against the Hurricanes of the University of Miami in the Orange Bowl. The game was carried by ESPN. Memphis had played in several regional broadcasts on ESPN and ABC but had never played in a national broadcast. The 1994 season marked the end of an era for head coach Chuck Stobart but still found Tiger football battling for that elusive bowl bid. As a member of the Liberty Bowl Alliance (East Carolina, Cincinnati, Tulane, Southern Mississippi and Memphis), the Tigers had an opportunity to play their way into the first bowl game for the University of Memphis since the 1971 Pasadena Bowl. Early in the season, junior flanker Ryan Roskelly had a record setting night against Tulsa. The Placentia, California, native returned 10 punts for 194 yards and one touchdown and caught six passes for 174 yards and a second score. Roskelly's 368 all-purpose yards set a new University of Memphis record as did his punt return yardage and his number of returns. In fact, Roskelly's 194 yards in punt returns were the most by any player in NCAA Division I football in 1994. After claiming a third straight win over the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Tigers ran off victories against Tulane, Arkansas State and Cincinnati. Racing with East Carolina for a bid to the St. Jude-Liberty Bowl, the Tigers found themselevs in Oxford, Mississippi, facing backyard rival Ole Miss.
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tallied 35 points in the first quarter on touchdowns by tailback John Martin (2), wide receiver Isaac Bruce, flanker Mac Cody and strong safety Sam Edwards. Martin and Bruce added second quarter scores to up Memphis' halftime lead to 49-13. Cody caught his second touchdown pass of the game in the third stanza and kicker Joe Allison added a 31-yard field goal to push the UM lead to 59-20. Allison booted his second field goal of the game in the fourth quarter to make the final margin of victory a whopping 62-20. With his three field goals against Tulane boosting his season total to 19, Joe Allison laid claim to the 1992 Lou Groza Award. The Groza Award, which is presented each year to the nation's top kicker, was the first national award ever won by a Memphis football player. The cousin of the late NASCAR driver Davey Allison, Joe finished the season with 23 made field goals. He was named to six all-America teams in addition to being named the recipient of the Groza Award. In 1993, the University of Memphis shocked the nation by opening the season with a 45-35 victory over the nationally ranked Bulldogs of Mississippi State University. Senior quarterback Steve Matthews completed a school record 29-of-45 pass attempts for 340 yards and two touchdowns. The lefthander set new Tiger records for most pass completions in a game (29) and for most attempts in a game (45). In addition, he ran for a 41-yard touchdown and finished the game with 362 yards of total offense. Matthews was named the Sports Illus-
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Crawford and Porter began banging away on the ground in the third and fourth quarters and set up a four-yard touchdown pass from Benton to fullback Jeff Bynum to give the Tigers a 1710 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, the Trojans bobbled the ball and it was recovered by the Tigers' Rod Brown. Three consecutive rushes by Crawford gained the Tigers their final score of the day and provided the 24-10 margin of victory. Actress Cybill Shepherd, star of stage, screen and television, was presented the game ball since she gave the team an inspiring pregame speech in the locker room. Memphis gained wins over Mississippi State, Southern Mississippi and Louisville on its way to a 5-6-0 record. During the 1992 and 1993 seasons, the team's record improved to 6-5-0 and included impressive wins over the University of Arkansas, Tulane, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. In 1992, Tiger cornerback Ken Irvin placed his name in the NCAA and Memphis record book by blocking four punts in a single-game. The Tigers were hosting the University of Arkansas in Memphis for the first time in the two schools' histories and Irvin used the opportunity to not only log a couple of records but help Memphis to a 22-6 win over the Razorbacks. In a span of 60 minutes, Irvin broke the oldest record in the NCAA record book. The 1992 Memphis-Tulane game in the New Orleans Superdome saw the greatest first-half offensive explosion in modern Tiger history and produced the most points scored by a Tiger team in 23 years. Memphis
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Memphis gained national attention after its upset win over No. 14 ranked USC at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Actress Cybill Shepherd, a native of Memphis, gave the team a pregame, inspirational talk.
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Tiger History
Record-setting quarterback Steve Matthews threw 31 touchdown passes in his two-year career.