Nov. 17, 2007

Recap

Nov. 17, 2007

UAB - 9
Memphis - 25
Post Game Quotes
November 17, 2007

Memphis Head Coach Tommy West

Obviously, I'm pretty happy for our program, our fans and our players and assistant coaches. We did an unbelievable job of staying focused through the adversity that we went through early in the season. Down the way they have made themselves a better team. I knew today would be work; it would be really hard because I knew UAB has a lot of pride in their program. They didn't want to be the team to lose, but I thought our guys did what they had to do. We knew what we had to do to win the game.

Did it make it sweeter to get the bowl eligibility against UAB?
I don't know if it made it any sweeter. I tried to tell myself all week that when you get to five it doesn't matter who you play next. It's just whoever you're playing; you're trying to get to six. But really I had a hard time focusing because this happened with UAB, and they've had our number.

On Joseph Doss' running game
I thought he played good today. I thought T.J. (Pitts) kind of gave us a lift, but I thought Joe got going and looked like Joe. He did that at Rice, and then he looked that way again today. We knew we had to run the ball coming in here. I thought their defense really got stingy in the red zone. If I got mad at us, it would be because we weren't good enough in the red zone. We kicked way too many field goals when we could have almost ended the game because we were playing good defensively.

UAB Head Coach Neil Callaway

I'm very disappointed in the loss. We still can't stop the run; our defense can't stop them from running. I thought our defensive backs made some good plays even though they did some things; you know third and catching. But they've (Memphis) got a good core of receivers. And then offensively, we've got to score more than nine points. We had some chances. I think we moved the ball pretty consistently. You've got to score touchdowns.

Where do you go from here?
Well we have one more game, and we're going to play to win. If we're going to play, we might as well play to win. Certainly we'd like to send this season out on a good note, and get a good taste in our mouth going into next year.