University of Memphis Athletics
Postgame Quotes
Oct 11, 2003 | Football
Oct. 11, 2003
MSU HEAD COACH JACKIE SHERRILL
Opening Comments:
"The players win; the coaches do not. These players have been playing hard.
We played against a team we knew could throw and catch."
"I thought a lot of our players played well. Fred Reid did a great job for us on the return. It was a big play for us."
"We are still playing without some of our best players. They could have helped us today."
On Going For The Touchdown In The Fourth:
"We felt like we needed to go ahead and score. I thought Kevin [Fant] was in
the first time. I did not think we were going to get any calls today, but we
did on that touchdown."
On Auburn:
"Auburn is a very physical football team on both sides of the ball. It will
be a much different game than we played today. I?ve been very impressed with
their defensive line."
On Kevin Fant:
"He did a great job today. He did exactly what we needed him to do. Going
into the game, we knew we had to protect him."
On Aaron Lumpkin's First Touchdown: "We practiced that play a couple of time this week. We felt he would be open."
On The Return Game:
"Those guys work very hard. We have definitely improved in the return game.
The return gave us momentum when we needed it. Our receiving corp has really
helped us and Kevin."
On The Momentum Swing:
"If we had played this way at the beginning of the season and the young kids
had more experience, things would be a lot different."
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MEMPHIS HEAD COACH Tommy West
Opening Comments:
"I thought our guys gave a great effort. I thought we played well except for
errors. They returned the kickoff, and then the points right before half
played a big role in the game. Our guys came back in the second half and
acted like there was nothing wrong. We missed a field goal, then we had the
interception and the dropped punt. Our guys fought their tails off."
On Game:
"I hate to lose this game. I hate to lose anyway, but I really hate to lose
this one. I thought we were us today. When we got on the goal line, we threw
the ball and didn?t try to run it. I called the fake punt because I thought
it was the right call for us at the time. I thought it was time to take a
shot. We went back to being us. We wanted to throw the ball and run the draw
with DeAngelo (Williams). We looked more like us."
On Second Half Adjustments:
"I really don?t know, you would have to ask Joe Lee (Dunn) about that. I
thought when we dropped the punt and gave them the ball on the four-yard
line and didn?t give up any points. We played really well and made good
adjustments. Our guys really played their tails off."
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MSU PLAYER QUOTES
Darnell Jones, FB:
"I just want to thank all the players. Luckily, I was wide open. Kevin put
the ball there and I ran with it.
"We knew they never covered the fullback. We practiced all week on it, and it worked during the game. I was just hoping they would pass it to me.
"I think we did a great job in the first half. We lost a little bit of focus during the second half. We had an edge over them I think."
Kevin Fant, QB:
"The offensive line came out firing. The whole game plan is to have a fast
start; that is generated around the offensive line. You have to give a lot
of the respect to them for that."
"Coach Dunn is a great coach. He has proven that through his history. Look at the Ole Miss game. He came out and had a great second half against them. He goes in and makes adjustments. The offense didn't do as well as we wanted to in the second half, but the defense stepped up and played great and got the win for us.
"The way I look at it is I have seen it for four years. I was familiar with a lot of it. We had some guys out there who had seen this defense. Everyone respects Coach Dunn, and we just played him like any other game.
"Special teams played great. We had a lot of times we pinned them down, and that helped with field position."
Aaron Lumpkin, TE:
"It always feels good to score. It has been a long time since I scored a
touchdown. It felt good to get into the end zone.
"We knew we could get them with some misdirection plays. You have to take what the defense will give you. In the past, people have hurt us with that. Coach Dunn was here for so many years, and they hurt us with the misdirection plays. So we took a look at it, and it worked for us in the game today.
"It is just a game until it is over. You have feelings for the guy on the other side because Coach Dunn brought us to a lot of wins here and gave us great defenses. We have a mutual respect. We have a lot of respect for Coach Dunn and what he is doing with Memphis' defense."
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MEMPHIS PLAYER QUOTES
Danny Wimprine, QB:
On the play of the offense:
"We know that the team with the fewest mistakes usually wins, and we just
made too many mistakes today. We did some good things, but we have to go
back and make some corrections. It was a big game and we would have liked
to come out with a win, but we just couldn?t get it done."
On the last drive that came up short:
"We were trying to get the ball in the end zone any way we could, but we
just couldn?t get the job done. We had some opportunities, but our guys
were tired and we had some miscommunication among the receivers."
On the tempo of the game:
"Coming into the game, we thought it would be a shootout, and we got into a
good rhythm early on. We thought that we were going to be able to attack
with the pass. We were moving the ball well, but we just had some mistakes
that stalled our drives."
Darron White, WR:
On the play of the team in the second half:
"We made too many mistakes in the first half and we knew we had to come out
and play harder in the second half. We were making plays, but the dropped
punt and the kickoff return really hurt us."
On the last drive:
"I take the blame for the last play, because I ran the wrong route.
Mistakes just killed us and took us out of the game."
Derrick Ballard, Safety:
On the play of the defense:
"We should?ve made more plays when they presented themselves, but we just
beat ourselves today. We had some internal
problems. Guys were getting in the wrong gaps and not getting off blocks,
and we just didn?t get it done."
On the emotions of the team:
"We're disappointed. We thought we were the better team coming in, but we
didn?t get the job done."
