University of Memphis Athletics
Post-Game Notes and Quotes
Sep 30, 2006 | Football
Sept. 30, 2006
Memphis Head Coach Tommy West
"I did a poor job of preparing our football team for this game today. I thought Tennessee played a great game and they have a very good team. Tennessee really handed it to us and they were the more physical team and better team. We did not help ourselves missing assignments but I still think we can be a good football team and I have to find a way to make us a good team and bring them along."
"I knew the defense could be on the field a lot today and they were and that is not a good combination. I knew and was prepared for that."
"Joe Doss was late for a meeting and he was suspended for half of the game. That is our rule."
"Not having Doss really did not affect us. That would be a crutch to say it did. To be honest not having Joe Doss had nothing to do with us losing. He played in the second half and we weren't much better."
"We felt we had to be a balanced team and an understatement would be that we struggled running the ball. We knew we would have to run the ball to have a chance."
Tennessee Head Coach Phillip Fulmer
"I'm really proud of our football team. I think we really worked to get better during the course of the year. We've come out of these games with some improvement, and that's what we needed. We still have a way to go in some areas, but we'll find out who we have healthy tomorrow and obviously start getting ready for the Georgia Bulldogs."
"Our defense is still a work in progress as far as overcoming the loss of a couple key players. We spent a lot of time talking about stopping the run. We tackled well. It was really a good effort by our guys today."
"We had three significantly long drives; two for scores and one we left at the foot line. We talked about doing what good teams do. We're trying to be a good team."
On Memphis' defensive coaching change: "That's really hard. Everybody expected miracles. You still got 11 guys and you're going to put 11 on the field at some position. It was kind of like an opening season game. That's how we approached it. They were going to be somewhere on the field and we had a quarter or so to figure out where they were going to be."
MEMPHIS GAME NOTES
• Running backs Joseph Doss and Miguel Barnes were suspended for the first half today. Redshirt freshman T.J. Pitts started in place of Doss, marking his first career start.
• Redshirt freshman Greg Terrell started at defensive end, logging the first start of his career. Today's defensive starting lineup included three sophomores (Corey Mills, Clinton McDonald, Greg Jackson) and redshirt freshman Terrell.
• Michael Gibson's 73-yard punt in the first quarter was the third-longest punt for a Tiger in school history. The longest punt was 85 yards by Roland Eveland against Washington in 1950. The second-longest was Jeff Fite's 78 yarder against Alabama in 1989. Gibson, a candidate for the Ray Guy Award, had a previous high of 70 yards in the regular-season finale against Marshall last year. Later in the third quarter today, Gibson registered a 70-yard punt. For the game, Gibson averaged 50.9 yards on seven punts. He dropped three punts inside the 20-yard line.
• Michael Gibson's punting average of 50.9 yards was the fourth-highest in school history. Highest punting average is 52.5, which Michael Gibson recorded last season against UAB. In that game, he totaled two punts for 105 yards. The highest punting average for Tiger with five or more punts in a single game was previously 50.3 by Jeff Buffalo against Louisville (7-352).
• Defensive lineman Rubio Phillips tallied his first career fumble recovery late in the second quarter.
• Today's announced attendance was 61,783, marking the sixth-highest crowd for a Tiger game at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
• The 34-point loss today is the worst loss that the Tigers have suffered to Tennessee since dropping a 55-16 decision to the Vols in 1969. This is the biggest loss for Memphis since a 49-10 loss to Cincinnati on the road in 2004.
• Freshman Duke Calhoun caught his second career touchdown in the 4th quarter. The 21-yard touchdown was his 11th career catch at Memphis.
• The Tigers had only five first downs in today's game, marking the fewest first downs since Memphis totaled five against Ole Miss in 1963. The most recent time that Memphis was held to fewer than 10 first downs was in 1999 when they totaled just eight against Ole Miss.
• Memphis 121 yards of total offense was the lowest since totaling 115 yards of total offense against Ole Miss in 1999. In addition, the 42 yards rushing was the lowest for a Tiger team since its 48 yard effort against UCF in 2002.
