University of Memphis Athletics
Memphis - Marshall Postgame Quotes
Sep 26, 2009 | Football
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Marshall 27, Memphis 16
September 26, 2009
Postgame Quotes
Memphis Head Coach Tommy West
Q: Opening Remarks
COACH WEST: We didn’t do our job good enough to win the game. We didn’t deserve to win the game. Give Marshall credit; I thought they deserved to win the game. We knew coming in that we would have to run the ball and connect on the deep balls.
Right now we are not a good enough offensive football team to win games. Then when you throw on top of it special teams, it’s disastrous. That’s kind of what happened today. Offensively in the first half we gave up a turnover in the red zone; got no points. And then in the second half in the first drive we get the ball to the three yard line and get a motion penalty and that took us out of a touchdown right there. That’s seven that we just gave up, coupled with the long run. I’m really disappointed in giving up the long run.
Defensively I thought that outside the long run in the first half I thought we fought pretty good on defense. They got a touchdown in the second half I think on the fourth drive maybe off a very short field. I don’t know where the punt return went to. Probably the 25 yard line. I’d like make them kick a field goal right there. Outside of the long run, our defense played good enough to win the game.
Offensively, that’s my responsibility. I’m not going to throw it anywhere. I thought we came out the second half with some fire about us to really come back and win the game. We took the ball right down to the three-yard line and got a motion penalty. The next drive, we had two motion penalties to stop that drive. Those are errors that we can’t make. It’s on me. That’s a lack of discipline, which is on me. I’m disappointed that we weren’t good enough on offense.
Q: From a physical standpoint, do you think they easily won the battle in the trenches?
COACH WEST: Well, I thought that we needed to hold their running back to a 100 or less to win the game, and he got 200. So we didn’t do our job there. Again, I didn’t think we played terrible outside of the home run play they had. If he gets 130, and he’s probably going to get that, that’s okay. But, he had that long run. Again, you just can’t really say good things about a defense that gives up runs like that. Physically, yeah I’d have to say that I thought they won physically today. Both of their tight ends gave us trouble on the edges all day, especially #16 (Lee Smith). He was really good on the edge and gave us a lot of trouble.
Q: Though you aren’t pleased with the defense, were you happy about being able to get some pressure on the quarterback?
COACH WEST: Well again, I though defensive outside of the run we played pretty well. Again, we came out in the second half it was ‘punt, punt, punt’ and just kept putting ourselves in bad field position. I thought we put good pressure on their quarterback. But again, that wasn’t our focus coming in. We can’t make those mistakes up front offensively. We’re playing without our back (Curtis Steele), and the quarterback has to take the offensive load. Today we didn’t really take the load in terms of their offensive line. Yeah, I guess I would agree with that. I thought their offensive line probably took the load off their quarterback and put them in a position to win the game.
Q: Assess Bass’s performance.
COACH WEST: Today, he played against a veteran defense. They have a lot of guys back and they change coverage and mix things up on you. For the most part, he read coverage decent and protected the ball with the exception of the late throw in the red zone, which you just can’t make. It wasn’t there and he should have just thrown it out of the back of the end zone. I thought he played okay.
Marshall Head Coach Mark Snyder Quotes
Q: How important is this win?
COACH SNYDER: It was a good win; I’m going to be honest. It was a good program win for us in three ways: It was a win; it was a conference win; and it was a conference road win. Those three things set up pretty well for us now that we’re going back home at 3-1 to play the conference champions at our home. So, the setting is pretty good there.
Q: Talk about the defense’s performance.
COACH SNYDER: I thought our defense played lights out again. How about those cornerbacks? They rose to the challenge I thought. I mean, those guys are talented. You saw on the first touchdown pass how fast Duke Calhoun is. He’s dangerous now. But I thought our guys did a good job of containing him. Special teams, we set up scores all day with our punt and kickoff returns. I thought our kickoff coverage was good. We played superior special teams and scored enough points on offense to get it done. But we have to get rid of these penalties. We had way too many penalties. Against a good team like East Carolina, we aren’t going to be able to survive that many penalties.
Q: Talk about the penalties and chop blocks in particular.
COACH SNYDER: You know, last week they let the kids play. I guess you just have to get a feel for the crew that you have. Last week, there were hardly any hankies thrown, but this week they were all over the place.
Q: Talk about your decision to pull #38 Andre Booker’s redshirt.
COACH SNYDER: Andre’s a good player. He can help this football team, as you’re seeing. We tell all freshman that if we feel like you’re going to help the football team, then you’re not going to redshirt. If we have enough depth and so forth, then we’ll redshirt you.
