No. 18 Memphis relishes attention, opportunity after big win

The Ole Miss Rebels (5-1) are coming from a 52-3 win over New Mexico State last week.

The Tigers have won 12 straight games dating back to last season – a streak that’s lasted almost a full calendar year. “We have to stay focused on one game at a time because our remaining opponents are just as tough as the rest of them”.

The Rebels were able to pull within 31-24 later in the third quarter, but could get no closer.

Treadwell caught 14 passes for 144 yards and one touchdown and threw a 68-yard touchdown to Quincy Adeboyejo to open the scoring 20 seconds into the game.

Lynch (6-foot-7, 245 pounds) was superb, doing whatever he wanted against the Rebels’ secondary.

Memphis grabbed the lead before halftime and extended it to 10 points before the break on a great touchdown pass from Paxton Lynch to Anthony Miller. The Buffalo, New York native threw for over 300 yards for the fifth time this season, passing Eli Manning and Bo Wallace for the most 300+ yard games in a single season in school history.

Memphis fans celebrate in the second half of an NCAA college football game against Mississippi Saturday, October 17, 2015, in Memphis, Tenn.

Memphis fans play air guitar shirtlessly on megaphones and mug at ABC’s cameras in Grizzlies hats.

Lynch leads an exciting offense installed by Fuente, who quickly gave the program relevance following his late 2011 hiring.

Memphis head coach Justin Fuente had his name bandied about as a potential candidate for the vacant head coaching vacancies at USC and South Carolina this week and he just added to his sterling resume with a signature win over No. 13 Ole Miss. This could be a shootout with Ole Miss averaging 339.5 yards passing a game with Chad Kelly and ranked 11th. The city must sell out the Liberty Bowl from here out this season (and in the future) because they’re is no excuse not to come out each home game and support these kids.

Rivalry game or not, these Rebels can’t afford to be caught napping against Memphis this year.

“Invariably when you’ve got a young, inexperienced team, they get out there and try to do more than they’re supposed to”, Fuente said. But, aside from the injuries on the defense, there was nothing fluky about Memphis’ defeat of Ole Miss. Ole Miss remains without the services of nickel back Tony Conner, a projected first-round pick, and coach Hugh Freeze earlier this week was not optimistic that Conner would return soon.

MEMPHIS HAS SPOILED BEFORE: Overall, this regional rivalry has been dominated by Ole Miss. Undaunted, the Tigers, led by quarterback Paxton Lynch, fought back, scoring 31 consecutive points and taking the lead for good in the process. Whoever would have imagined that a party featuring Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon and Keith Richards would the second-most joyous party in Memphis? His players certainly know they need to win on this type of stage to validate the team’s recent run of success. “They played hard. They played to the whistle and knew what they were doing”.

After Kenseth led the first 117 laps and 148 in all, Busch grabbed the lead for good in his Toyota with 15 laps to go.