Justin Fuente Weekly Press Conference Highlights

Opening Statement…
"Last week was a disappointing defeat. I wish we had played better and I wish we had found a way to win the game. There are some positives to take from it. Our defense, in my opinion, gave us an opportunity late in the game to have a chance to win. It was a two-point game in the fourth quarter. We had three, fourth-down stops, two turnovers and a blocked punt. Those are certainly some big plays but we couldn't get enough going offensively to give ourselves a chance to win the ballgame. Ultimately we got a little bit worn down in my estimation and things got away from us at the end. Credit to Temple, they are a fine football team.

"Now we have to get ready to try and win against SMU. They are explosive offensively with a bunch of good, young skill players. They are scoring points by the bunches and are improving defensively. We will certainly have our work cut out for us. We had a good meeting in preparation for this game.

"It is "Senior Day" and 14 kids that have been really special to this program will play their last game at the Liberty Bowl. It's our job as coaches and the other players to do everything to send them out on the right note, to give them the opportunity to win the ninth game of the season and the 19th in the two-year period. I think our kids understand that because I do believe we have some pretty good chemistry on the squad and guys that genuinely love and care about each other."

Offensive struggles last week…
"I don't want to be perceived as taking anything away from that defensive effort that Temple put forth. They played a lot better than we did and kept us from running the football. They were at a different level than we were on that day. It's up to us on offense to play at a much better level, which we have at times and we did not Saturday…"

On the carryover from losing to Houston…
"I don't think there's any doubt that those things take their toll on your psyche. We did a good job preparing to play though. You can't dodge the fact that Houston was disappointing and you can't dodge the fact that we had eight straight wins to start the season. People were maybe saying things about us that weren't true in a good way. As much as we try to shelter ourselves that can't help but seep through somewhere. I want to stop short of saying that we were just demoralized because that's not what I saw on the film. I saw us competing and we ran up against a pretty good team that had a different kind of defeat the week before and played really well. Guys like Donald Pennington played their tails off. Guys like Wynton McManis and Alan Cross played as a hard and as tough as they could play we just weren't able to get it done."

The reason for the offensive struggles…
"It's a little bit of everything. We haven't executed at the same level. I don't remember what we scored in the Houston game, but it wasn't enough obviously. There were some bright spots against what I consider to be a very athletic defense in Houston. Each team provides different problems and different matchup issues. In the Temple game, the matchup issue was we couldn't make them commit enough people to the box, which then led to more problems. In the Houston game they started off that way and then we were able to make them commit which led to us having a little bit more success. I think it's a little bit of everything to be honest."

The lack of big plays recently…
"When I think back, we had a shot early in the game with Tevin (Jones) down the sidelines and we don't come down with it. Those are chunk plays that we had executed at such a high level at times that those were almost an after thought at one point during the year. For whatever reason that play didn't get made and we've had a couple of others that had opportunities to be big chunk plays that we couldn't make. I'm not discouraged. We are playing good people, which is the other part of it. It's about our execution level. There is some give and take and what the defense gives you but ultimately it's about our execution level. When we get in good situations we need to make those plays. We haven't made them as consistently and certainly not last week."

Paxton Lynch dealing with the pressure…
"I haven't seen any change in him. I think he's done a really good job of handling it all. I had a meeting with him four or five weeks ago and it was almost like he was insulted that I was even bringing it up. He has been focused on the task at hand and his preparation and practice habits haven't changed. I have been pleased. I think he has set a good example to the other guys and I know he'd like to find a way to win one ballgame this week."

The senior class…
"Along the same lines as the group last year, as the foundation layers of what we started. They are guys that have bought into what we are doing that maybe came here when they may not have had a whole lot of reason to come here other than they believed in what we were selling. Guys have made those dreams come true and have set great examples for the young guys coming through the program. They have laid the foundation for the years to come."

University of Memphis Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Alan Cross

Paxton Lynch

Wynton McManis

Donald Pennington

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