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West Virginia's 24-21 AutoZone Liberty Bowl victory over Army rounds out 2020 Memphis sports calendar

Happy 2021 from Local Sports Reporter Clayton Collier

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It was rainy. It was cold. It was windy and miserable outside.

What else would you expect the weather to be on the final day of 2020?

In spite of the conditions, the pandemic and losing Tennessee to a COVID outbreak just last week,  the 62nd Annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl was played on New Year's Eve.

The smallest crowd in the Memphis history of the Bowl officially just over 8,000 witnessed the exciting conclusion of the final college football game in 2020.

West Virginia rallied from a 21-10 deficit with 14 unanswered to win the Liberty Bowl, 24-21, just their second Bowl victory since joining the Big 12. But for the Black Knights and Mountaineers, this evening also marked the finish line of this college football season like no other.

"2020 has been a different experience for me, I had a couple deaths in my family. I had a couple things go sideways for me," WVU linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo said. "But really just being able to persevere and just fight. Football definitely saved my life this year."

"With everything dealing with COVID and cancellations and things like that, my biggest takeaway from this season is how much the brotherhood means to me," Army quarterback Tyhier Tyler said.

"You're always going to remember this year," WVU head coach Neal Brown. "That's what I told our players, and what better way to remember it than with a Bowl win here."

And so this odyssey of a 2020 Memphis sports calendar finally comes to a close. We were with you at FedEx Forum on the day we learned of the death of Kobe Bryant, with the Tigers in Fort Worth, TX on the night Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. As there were shutdowns, restarts, protests, bubbles, stoppages, and champions crowned, we were with you for every step of the way and thank you for being with us through it all.

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