Post-Game Notes and Quotes

Oct 15, 2006 | Football

Oct. 14, 2006

Memphis Head Coach Tommy West

"Obviously we are disappointed. I felt like we played very poorly in the first half on both sides of the ball. I thought we came back in the second half and played pretty well. Then it came down to a play, and Arkansas State made a play and we did not. I give credit to them for making their play, and we did not."

"I have never been through a play like that before, but I give credit to Arkansas State. It was one of those deals where you throw the ball up in the air. We have to have containment on that play, and that is why I called a timeout. We had everyone in the endzone. You cannot throw the ball in the pocket. You have to roll it out to one side of the field, and we lost containment on that play and they made the play."

"I did not understand the face mask call. I thought he grabbed the guy on the side of the jersey. That really hurt us and gave them a chance to maybe get a field goal."

"We made some plays in the second half to give us a chance to win the game, but we did not make the biggest play of the game and they did."

"I hope we grew up defensively in the second half because we played better in the second half. Offensively we did not make plays in the first half. Duke Calhoun made a big play for us in the second half."

Arkansas State Head Coach Steve Roberts

"I am more than flipping out. I am flat worn out. I am proud of our football team. This is just a great testament to the character of these young men, continuing to play with six seconds left. It would have been easy to go out there and run four plays, run three plays, and take it to the house. But they kept competing and doing what we needed to do to put ourselves in position to throw that pass. I can't say enough about Patrick Higgins. Patrick's been in a big time slump the last few weeks. He couldn't catch anything. I told Patrick last week after our ballgame on Saturday night to keep his head up. Good things are going to happen to you if you keep working hard. We're going to need you to make a big play pretty soon, and he did that today."

"Corey Leonard, Cedric Wilkerson and Brandon Thompkins are three freshman that stepped up big to make plays in this game."

"We played really well the first half. We just wanted to finish. We've been ahead of these guys 10-3. We've been ahead of these guys at our place at half time, and then haven't been able to finish. But today we finished."

On the final play being reviewed "It felt like 20 hours. I was scared to death. I was ready to go pull some wires somewhere and not let them review. But they did make the right call."

MEMPHIS GAME NOTES

 Senior defensive back Jermaine Chambers started today on the Memphis kick-off return team. It was his first game back this season as he had knee surgery in the spring.

 True freshman kicker Matt Reagan put the first points on the board with a 28-yard field goal with just over 10 minutes left in the first quarter. The 28-yarder tied his long for the season. He equaled that kick in the third quarter to pull the Tigers within one point. Reagan ended the day 3-for-3 on FGs and 2-for-2 on PATs.

 True freshman receiver Dave Thomas caught a season-high 35-yard pass in the first quarter. His previous long pass reception was a 27 yarder in the season-opener against Ole Miss. Thomas ended the day with two receptions for 61 yards.

 True freshman defensive end Steven Turner recorded his first career fumble recovery in the second quarter. It was the fourth fumble recovery for the Tigers this season.

 So far this season, senior Michael Gibson has booted seven punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Today, Gibson booted 51 and 52 yard punts, both to the 1-yard line and his 57 yarder landed in the endzone for a touchback. He also totals seven punts this season over 50 yards. He finished the game with four punts for an average of 49.5 yards. His average of 49.5 was the second highest for him for the year and ties for sixth all-time in single game average.

 Sophomore receiver Earnest Williams has caught at least two passes in all six games this season. He is on a seven-game streak of at least one reception, dating back to the 2005 Motor City Bowl. Williams completed the day with two receptions for 14 yards.

 Senior receiver Ryan Scott extended his receiving streak to seven games, having caught three passes for 28 yards in today's game.

 Sophomore Brandon Douglas sacked ASU quarterback Corey Leonard for a loss of four yards in the third quarter. It was Douglas' second sack of the season.

 True freshman Duke Calhoun caught a 49-yard pass from Martin Hankins for a touchdown in the third quarter. This is the fourth straight game that Calhoun has caught a touchdown, and he has caught at least one pass in each of the six games this season.

 Brandon Patterson logged his third interception of the season when he picked off Corey Leonard in the third quarter at the ASU 14 yard line. Patterson now totals five career picks.

 Ryan Scott completed his first career touchdown pass, completing a pass to Joseph Doss for 37 yards in the fourth quarter to put Memphis back ahead of Arkansas State for the first time since Memphis led 3-0. Scott has completed two passes this season.

 Junior Heath Grant tallied his second interception of the season at the 2:37 mark in the fourth quarter, to end an ASU drive that had gone 14 yards following a Memphis touchdown. It was the Tigers' seventh interception of the season.

 The Tigers did not turn the ball over in today's game, marking the first time this season that Memphis did not give up any turnovers. The Tigers recovered one ASU fumble and picked off two passes, which marks the second time this year that Memphis tallied fewer turnovers than its opponent.

 Junior Rod Smith sustained a compression fracture in his neck and is expected to undergo surgery at some point this week as addressed by Coach Tommy West following the game.