University of Memphis Athletics
Tommy West Press Luncheon Quotes
Oct 16, 2006 | Football
Oct. 16, 2006
MEMPHIS, TENN. -
Opening Remarks
I am disappointed in the outcome of the (Arkansas State) game, but like I told our team, it should never have come down to a final play. I thought we played very poorly in all phases in the first half of the game. I thought we played like we had a little more to us in the second half, but we had chances in the second half. Down the stretch we had plenty of chances to win the game. We had chances offensively when we couldn't run the ball and get first downs. We had errors there. Then we don't get it closed out at the last play of the game defensively. You have to make your play and win the game, and it's very disappointing that we couldn't make our play. We played poorly in the first half and then made a nice run to take the lead in the second half, but then don't close the game.
That's kind of this team right now. I've gone back and looked at our teams. What's wrong with this team, and what I've told them yesterday, is we're not winning the games in the fourth quarter. In 2005, we had eight games that were decided in the fourth quarter, and we won five of those games. We went 5-3. In 2004, we had seven games that were decided in the fourth quarter, and we went 5-2 in those games. In 2003, we had eight games, and we went 5-3 and those games. In 2002, we had six games and we went 0-6 in those six games in the fourth quarter. Right now we are 0-4 this year in the fourth quarter. That's basically what games come down to now because we're all very similar. There's not a nickel's difference other than seven or eight teams in the country. Everybody is real close. So games come down to the fourth quarter, and right now we're not getting it done in the fourth quarter. There's several reasons for that. Right now, from an injury standpoint, we are bad off.
We struggled. I thought our quarterback really didn't play well in the game. He was off. To be honest, most teams right now I think are just pretty good. There's not very many really good teams. That's because of the numbers and the parity. I don't think there's a lot of great teams out there right now. I think it all depends on who gets hurt, who's got a quarterback, whose quarterback plays really well and who can play well on defense. Right now, when our quarterback doesn't play really well, we have really struggled. I think that's due to the nature of who we are a little bit. We're not a great running football team, so we depend a lot on our quarterback. When he's on, we're pretty good offensively right now. When he's not, then we're not as good. That hurt us in the first half because we'd get some people where we want them but we can't get the ball to them, so we come up with field goals the first couple of times. We missed some passes in the red zone, and then we do hand it off we don't get anything when the field condenses down. We've got to be good and we've got to be accurate throwing the ball because that's what we do. We're not good enough right now to say if we're off a little bit we're going to run it. Make you play the run, and then we'll come back throwing it.
I thought we ran the ball better than what we did at UAB taking what they gave us. But we're still not good enough when you have to run the ball. There comes times when you have to run the ball. We saw one Saturday. We made an error that kills me. We made an error on a reverse blocking where we would have probably gotten a first and ran the clock out. That's kind of been the nature right now. We're a team that makes errors and keeps you from winning games. That sounds too simple of an explanation of why we lost those four games, we lost five but the one wasn't close, but the four games that we've had a lead at some point in time in the second half, it's basically been errors that we've made to lose the game.
What do you expect from Tulsa?
They are really good. They are the opposite of what we've been so far. They're playing with a lot of confidence right now. When you lose, those errors get magnified because every play is so critical. We can't go in the tank and then all of a sudden make more errors. Tulsa has great confidence both sides of the ball. What they do, they do really well. Their quarterback is really, really good. He protects the ball. They protect him very well. He's hard to get to. They run the ball really well. Probably the best thing they do is run the ball and then their quarterback doesn't throw interceptions. He doesn't make mistakes. Defensively, they've been in the same scheme and they do it well. They're good. I think they are a really solid football team. I would say probably without question that they are the second best team we've played. I wouldn't say they're Tennessee right now, but I would say they're the best team in our league that I've seen on tape so far. They're playing with great confidence. They've got good players.
Last year, when we went there, I didn't know them real good. We had a great game with them when we went out there last year. Will (Hudgens) was our quarterback then. He got hurt and we went into overtime in that game. They had the long run right before the half and we all stood there and watched it. Then we had the long screen pass in the game that got called back. That was probably the difference in the game a year ago. I remember they hit their tight end in overtime. We were three deep, and they hit the tight end on a vertical. I thought it was two teams that were pretty comparable at the time. What happened after we left, that was a good comeback win for them that gave them a little confidence.
I thought watching tape a year ago, their quarterback got better and better and better as last season went along. He was a sophomore last year. They can lean on their running game. That's kind of what they are now. He's another year older. When you've got that trigger guy that can make some things happen only with the running game, then you're going to be pretty solid. They'll stick with their run game. They're not afraid to run it four or five times in a row.
They've played solid defense. I think they have a lot of seniors on this team. Defensively they are about all seniors. About everybody that's playing on their defense played a year ago. They've got a good run of players, and they've been able to keep them there. As opposed to us, I looked back yesterday because I'm trying to find a reason why were not winning games in the fourth quarter and why we're making errors that we haven't made. We're getting a lot of errors right now out of what I call our role players, guys who play 10 or 15 plays in a game and have a role for us. They're not coming through for us right now at times. We played 27 freshmen and sophomores in the game. We're not really an experienced team right now. We're kind of in the middle. That's a lot of freshmen and sophomores. That's probably more than at any time since I've been here. It bodes good for the future, but it doesn't help with how I feel right now.
