BOISE, ID - Memphis had Boise State on the ropes early, then watched the game turn on one fourth-down call and never quite got the momentum back.
The Tigers built a 17-3 lead and looked ready to keep punching, but Boise State answered with a relentless second-half surge and left with a 38-20 win after erasing the deficit. The Broncos ran for 357 yards, with Dylan Riley piling up 206 of them, and finished the day on a 35-3 run.
That turning point came just before halftime. Facing fourth-and-6 at the Memphis 37, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson chose aggression. Maddux Madsen hit Akeem Wright in the middle of the defense, Wright spun free and sprinted toward the end zone, and the Broncos suddenly had life again.
“The momentum shifted," Memphis linebacker Mike Montgomery said.
It was a familiar kind of swing between these programs. In 2023 in Memphis, then-Boise State coach Andy Avalos opted for a field goal on a fourth-down decision, Memphis blocked it and returned it for a touchdown, and Avalos was fired a few weeks later.
Danielson ended up in his place. This time, Danielson took the chance - and it paid off.
Memphis coach Charles Huff had framed the matchup beforehand through the lens of “Rocky III,” saying he wanted the best challenge, not a soft path. For a while, the Tigers looked like they were ready for that fight.
The explosive throws downfield gave them early separation. But Boise State absorbed the shots and eventually started landing its own, especially once the Broncos began leaning on the run game and wearing down the defense.
“Probably a little bit of a wear-down as the game went on from the defensive side," Huff said. "I don’t know how many plays we played on defense.
We played a lot. But offensively, we’ve got to score to kind of balance that.”
After the game, Huff pointed to two areas that hurt Memphis all night: missed tackles and poor red-zone offense. The tackling issues were obvious enough that both Huff and Montgomery said Boise State wasn’t doing anything the Tigers hadn’t prepared for.
Memphis had four trips inside the red zone and came away with only three points.
There was also a special teams moment that Memphis fans will point to. Early in the second half, after the Tigers punted, Jeremyah Lane muffed the return.
Replays appeared to show Memphis' Tylon Nash recovering the ball, but the officials awarded possession to Boise State. Huff declined to answer a question about the play after the game.
“Suffer well," he said, when asked what he told the team afterward. "Suffer well, man. We don’t officiate.”
Boise State also made life difficult for Memphis on the ground from the start. The Broncos stacked the box with eight defenders and challenged the Tigers to win through the air. Memphis got one huge answer - Jaylin Carter’s 80-yard touchdown run in the first half - but outside of that burst, the Tigers managed just 55 rushing yards on 25 carries.
That left quarterback Marcus Stokes to carry a heavy load, and he did more than enough to keep Memphis in the game for stretches. He threw for a career-high 384 yards, while tight end Hunter Tipton turned in a monster day with nine catches for 229 yards and a touchdown.
“I thought he made some critical plays in some critical moments," Huff said about Stokes' performance. "I thought he stood in there and took some big shots.
Obviously there’s some plays down in the red area where we’ve got to get him in a little better position. Without looking at the film, I thought he battled."
The loss drops Memphis to 2-1, but the schedule now opens up. The Tigers get FCS-level UT Martin next, then a bye week before conference play begins against Charlotte and UAB.
"It's tough," Tipton said. "Any loss is.
But it's not just a loss. It's a lesson."