Oct. 19, 2009

An Interview with Memphis Head Coach Tommy West

Q: OPENING REMARK:
COACH WEST: As I said after the game, special teams put us in a position where we didn't have a chance to win the game. We gave up over 200 return yards in the game and really 14 points on special teams. That takes you out of a close game. When you go down there, you know that you're going to be in a hard-fought, real football game. It was that.

The positives were that we did a lot of the things we felt like we had to do to have a chance to win the game. Offensively, we took the first three drives right down the field. We had over 10 plays in each of those drives. We missed a field goal the first time down. The special teams got us again ... We kicked a field goal. Then we got the ball to the TWO-yard-line and didn't get it in.

We ran the ball well in the game. Our back went for almost six yards a carry. When you look at the difference in yardage, we went for 420, and they go for 360. We did a lot of things right in the game. Their back was under four yards a carry. I felt like we had to run the ball on them to be productive there. Then, Will (Hudgens) had to have a good day offensively for us to have a chance to win, and Will goes for 62 percent in the game, which is the best he's thrown the ball percentage-wise. I thought he was accurate in the game and gave us a chance to win the game.

The thing we didn't do offensively was score touchdowns in the red zone. We've been really good at scoring points in the red zone. I talked a week ago about it. Last week, we went 4-for-4 in the red zone for touchdowns. This week we were 1-for-4 scoring touchdowns. We've got to score touchdowns down there. Opposite of that is that they got it four times in the red zone and scored three touchdowns. They go 3-for-4 and we go 1-for-4 in the red zone. Outside of the teams, I thought that was a big difference.

Defensively, I thought we had to get after their back. I thought we had to limit his yards. More importantly, don't give (Damion) Fletcher the big run. The defense did a nice job of doing that. Where we weren't good defensively was third down. They ended up 9-for-15 on third down, and we can't win not getting them stopped on third down, and then we have to make them kick field goals when they get in the red zone.

I thought our team competed at a very high level. It was probably the best that we've competed this year. I thought they played at a high level. At halftime, I thought we had a great game on our hands. We've got a 10-6 game. You know, we've been down there and didn't get it in one time. Other than that, it's basically was an even game at the half. You had two teams that were getting after each other really good. Then we fall apart. We stopped them. They punt. We punt. Then they run the punt back for a touchdown and now it's 17-6, and we're kind of scrambling from then on, and our special teams took us out of it.

Injury-wise, it's bumps and bruises. I don't think we lost anybody in the game. The one note would be that Tyler Bass will have his shoulder surgery tomorrow, so he will be done for the year. Hopefully, by doing it now, it will give us a chance to get him back for the spring.

Q: What about Greg Jackson? Is he okay?
COACH WEST: Greg got a stinger early in the game. Then, he got a lower leg injury that swelled significantly. Our doctors pulled him out of the game because of the swelling. The swelling has gone down. It should be a day-to-day thing, but I anticipate that he'll be okay to play in this game.

Q: Tyler's (Bass) shoulder, do they know exactly what it is yet?
COACH WEST: He's got a labrum tear that will have to be repaired.

Q: Being a spread team, it's really difficult to play power football. What do you do to correct that when you get down there?
COACH WEST: That's exactly right. When you're a spread team, it makes it harder when you get down inside the five-yard-line. We went out of Wildcat down there. It had been good to us. We didn't get it in. We missed a block one time, then we tried to stretch it. It's hard to tell a back. When you have a stretch play, then the first thing they see inside on the goal line, they're taught to hit it. If we stretch it like we're supposed to do, we walk in. We've got to get better doing what we do down there.

It is harder, but it's harder on our two-back team to throw the ball. We're going good in the red zone. Statistically, we're at the top of the league in the red zone offensively. I would guess we're somewhere pretty close to the top 25 or 30 nationally in the red zone, but we've got to get better scoring touchdowns. That's an Achilles Heel right now.

Sometimes it's easier for us to throw it in than it is for us to run it. But now we got our back and again I think now we are making progress every week in the offensive line. There was a point in time when we couldn't run the ball at all. We were a terrible offensive team. We couldn't run it, and we didn't throw it very well. We just weren't good offensively. Now, I felt like offensively we gave ourselves a chance to win the game. But again, we've got to score touchdowns. The first three drives we take it right down the field. I think it went 11 plays, 10 plays, 11 plays the first three drives and we get it down there every time. Now we've got to start making all of our field goals too. Those points add up.

Q: On shotgun snaps to quarterback
COACH WEST: That happened Saturday night. That was not by design. As the game went on, Brad (Paul) started floating the ball more and more. We'll get it corrected this week. Tried to correct it during the game and had a hard time getting it corrected. But no that was not by design and we'll get that fixed.

Q: On special teams play
COACH WEST: Well we've just got to put an emphasis, we do a lot of special teams work and I'm not real pleased with what's going on right now with special teams. I'm not pleased at all because we put a lot into it. We put time into it, and we put some good players on it. We've got to punt the ball better. We've had some problems this year with some low, line-drive punts that people have run back on us and that was a low, line-drive punt that their guy caught and took it back. We've got to get better in all areas of it. We've got to kick it better, and we've got to punt it better than what we're doing right now, and we'll work on the coverage part of it.

There could be some changes. I mean obviously, if you're not getting your job done that's just like any other phase, offensively or defensively, we will change personnel.

I've got Carlos Singleton on the punt team. I've got Marcus Ball. I've got some pretty good players. I've got the best players we've got on there. The one thing, if I had to pick something, we've for whatever reason lost a lot of guys that would be on those teams. Like at safety right now. We've got four safeties that are out and can't play That would all be involved in special teams and were involved at one point and time. It happens to everybody.

Punt returns are pretty easy. You punt the ball in a way that you get fair catches. I mean that's the punter's job to start with. I'm not just singling Matt (Reagan) out for the reason they ran the punt back, but that didn't help at all. That's the start of it.

Q: On East Carolina
COACH WEST: Their stats are never just crazy. I guess their running back a couple years ago had good stats, but they don't make mistakes. I think East Carolina probably does the best job in the league of making you beat them. They don't beat themselves. They won't make errors and beat themselves. They'll be solid and they'll be sound in what they do. So we'll have to be the same way.

It's the same thing we try to be, which really we didn't put the ball on the ground down at Southern Miss and that was a huge deal. Going down there we knew we couldn't put it on the ground. We did and we threw one intercept when it was on the line. But this will be another one of those games where you can't have those errors. You can't make the mistake to lose the game and then in particular in the kicking game. We'll have to get that solved real quick. If we get that solved, then this ought to be a really good game

Q: Talk about being able to have some extra time to prepare for this game
COACH WEST: Right now it comes at a good time for us because we've been going for seven weeks in a row and we are pretty banged up. We're banged up at certain positions right now. We have three safeties playing right now at two positions. Seven straight weeks of playing will do that to you. Having a little bit of extra time for this game and having a weekend after this game should help us.

Q: Is East Carolina's team this year similar to their team last year?
COACH WEST: They have a lot of guys back defensively. It is about the same defense. They are a very solid defensive team, in particular in the secondary. I think they are very good in the back end of their defense. They don't make very many mistakes. They are an aggressive defensive football team.

Offensively, they are kind of what they have been in the past. They will give you a lot of formations and at the end of the day they don't turn it over. They don't beat themselves. (Dwayne Harris) is a very good player for them (at wide receiver) and is their go to player on offense. I think they are very similar (to what they have been in the past). The quarterback is back. That is usually the key to all of it. They play the same style of offense as last year's team.