University of Memphis Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
Oct 26, 2008 | Football
Oct. 26, 2008
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Oct. 25, 2008
Memphis Head Coach Tommy West
"To say that I am proud of my team would certainly be an understatement. I don't know if we have ever had where we were had to face as much adversity as we had to face today. It is really a credit to our assistant coaches and our players. We asked the defense to step up going into the game and they did. We talked about how our running game had to be productive to win, and Curtis Steele and the offensive line certainly stepped up tonight. We knew our receivers were going to have to go and get some balls and Carlos, Duke (Calhoun) and (Steven) Black, everybody stepped up and took balls away from the defenders. Our offensive really played great tonight, and defensively, it was really our first chance for our defense to go out and win a game for us. It is the first time in a while that we got a lead and our defense was able to help us hold the lead. I am just extremely proud of all of our guys."
Was that the gutsiest performance of a team that you have coached?
"Yes. We probably lost Tyler Bass. You saw what he could bring to the table as far as running the ball. The way that it came about, we really just thought that Brett (Toney) was the guy to go with as the starter because of his experience. We just rotated them. Anyone doesn't like the two quarterback system probably didn't make them happy. But they both brought something different to the table. The shear guts of the team and just believing that they could come in here and win, with everything going on, just really says a lot. We've got some good players."
"Without a question. I knew we would play well. I didn't know if we would play well enough to win. You never know that. But I knew we would play well, and I knew that we had decent enough players. I never doubted that. I knew it would be a heck of a game. It really surprised me when we were ahead as much as we were at the end too. I expected that out of our guys."
Southern Mississippi Head Coach Larry Fedora
On the loss
"No they don't get any easier; they get harder. It hurts more and more for me, and I know it does for these guys too."
On the defense
"We didn't make plays when we needed to make plays. Our guys made some plays, but we gave up too many big plays. We gave up some trick plays, and then we couldn't stop the run tonight. We've got to be able to stop the run."
Memphis throwing everything at Southern Miss
"They threw everything, and you knew they were going to. We just didn't know what to prepare for. We tried to prepare for everything, and anytime you do that it makes it hard because you're preparing for a lot of things that they don't do."
Memphis jumping out 14-0 to begin game
"It's 14-0 and you're scrambling to come from behind and try to get back in the ball game, which we did. Then we tried to get the run game started and got it going. You get in a situation where you kind of have to get off your game plan for a minute to get back into the game, and that's what we did."
Positives to take from the game
"There are a lot of positives. Our guys are playing hard. They haven't given up and they're playing their rear ends off. We've got to make plays. They're making more plays than we are right now. It's frustrating for everybody. Our special teams played better tonight. We just didn't make enough plays."
