Nov. 2, 2009

An Interview with Memphis Head Coach Tommy West

Q: About East Carolina
COACH WEST: To recap the East Carolina game, the thing I said we couldn't do was help them. They're an excellent team at taking advantage of your mistakes; that is how they win. We did exactly what I said we couldn't do. We start the game and we score and they score and we stop them, but then we turn it over on a punt return. So instead of the game being 7-3, now it is 14-3. We fumble a pitch out and then it goes to 21-3. The thing we couldn't do if we wanted to win the game was turn the ball over, and we did and it cost us the game.

I'm disappointed in our rush defense. It was bad in the East Carolina game. We have to get that corrected. We are getting better running the ball, but we have to get better at stopping the run. This team also has to be on the plus side of the turnover battle. We got our special teams coverage corrected. Our punt team was excellent and our kick team was very good. But then we turn the ball over on a punt return. We didn't play good rush defense, and turning the ball over was the difference in the game against a good team.

Q: About injuries suffered against ECU
COACH WEST: We did have some injuries in the game. It looks like Jada Brown and D.A. Griffin will be out of this game, which certainly doesn't help along with the other people that are out in the secondary. D.A. (Griffin) being out certainly hurts our defense.

Q: About Greg Jackson's progress
COACH WEST: I'm optimistic that Greg (Jackson) will be able to play. We practiced yesterday and he was able to do that yesterday. I think he will be able to play.

Q: On the defense against ECU
COACH WEST: I didn't think we really came with the right kind of attitude defensively. I didn't like the attitude of our defense. I didn't think we had the right kind of temperament on defense in that game. We are going to get the right type of attitude going into the next game. I thought we played a little bit soft, in particular on the edges of our defense. Defensively, you have to bring an attitude every time you come out to play, and I didn't think we had (an attitude) from the get go. I'm disappointed in the way we played defensively.

Q: On Tennessee playing with confidence
COACH WEST: I watched their game on television. Their (Tennessee) game was almost a replica of our game from Tuesday night. South Carolina knew that they couldn't go up there and help Tennessee. They (South Carolina) did that on the first two possessions. All of a sudden their game was a 21-0 game, our game was a 21-3 game for that same reason. It was pretty much the same type of game.

Tennessee is playing with confidence on both sides of the ball. They're outstanding on defense and have been from the start of the season. Now their offense has caught up. Their offense is doing a great job of protecting the ball. I think the back (Montario Hardesty), is as good of player as we have played against. I think we've played against some really good backs so far. Both of them (Hardesty and Bryce Brown) are really good players. The quarterback (Jonathan Crompton) is protecting the ball. He is putting it in the right place on passes. He is putting it where nobody can get the ball except their guys. Early in the year they were turning the ball over. They're hitting on all cylinders right now.

Q: On where the offense and defense are at this point
COACH WEST: I don't like to make excuses with injuries, but defensively we have a lot of people out. I was looking at it earlier today and we have six or seven guys that are out on our defense. But that is okay, we have to make it work. I think our offense right now has caught back up. We want to score more points. Our offense is moving the ball and looks like our offense again. Defensively we are not caught up. We've got to get there. We've got to play better defensively than how we are playing.

Q: On Eric Berry and the rest of the Tennessee defense
COACH WEST: He's certainly an outstanding player (Eric Berry), but he isn't all they have. They're good on defense. I thought they were really good on defense last year. They finished second in the country a year ago on defense. A lot of the same players are back. Everyone talks about Berry, but Janzen Jackson is really good player. I think he's (Jackson) an outstanding player. At linebacker (Rico McCoy)is playing goo;, LaMarcus Thompson is playing real well. The other guy that makes a difference in their defense is Dan Williams. He is playing unbelievable up front. Nobody in that league is really blocking him. He was in the backfield all night against South Carolina. They're a handful on defense right now. They have good players at every position. Eric Berry is certainly tremendous player, but their whole defense is full of players.

Q: How do you make sure that the players don't make the same mistakes they made against East Carolina?
COACH WEST: We can't make those mistakes. We have been up there before. We took one team up there, and they made mistakes, and the game got out of hand early. We took another team up there and had a wide-out playing quarterback and did our stuff and had a chance to win the game at the end. Our guys have got to learn not to make mistakes, but they know they can't make the mistakes. I promise you I am not telling them to turn the ball over; I am trying to coach them where they don't turn the ball over.

Chris Hobbs I think is going to bring something to our return game. He made a bad play by trying to run without the ball before he caught it. He fumbled the ball at the nine yard line and then the score goes to 14-3. A team that is not playing well and struggling a little bit and it gets 14-3 or 21-3, it's hard to play.

Somebody said they didn't see a lot of life on our sidelines after the score was 21-3. Are you kidding me? We are having a tough year and the game goes 21-3. Nobody is saying get fired up about that, we just needed good things to happen to pull out of it. We have to coach them hard about mistakes and doing the right things. We are going to step back and try to simplify things to make sure we don't have assignment problems. Defensively, we have to play a speed higher than what we are playing at right now, and we will do what we can to get that corrected this week.

Q: Talk about the snowball effect of how things have gone wrong this year.
COACH WEST: I have been a head coach 15 years and I have never had a year quite like this. I thought our offense would have to carry us earlier in the year. I thought our defense would struggle because of all the moves. We come out of blocks and don't throw it well then the back goes down. All of a sudden now you have a young offensive line that everybody realizes is a young offensive line and it all goes from there.

Defensively, we start losing players and we have four secondary players that are out for the year. To be honest, when we went to Southern Miss we were ready to make the move, and then we had special teams problems. It was almost like you plug one hole and look and there is water coming out of another. We got the coverage fixed and then we fumble a punt. It has been one of those deals. I don't know if snake bit is the right word but it seems like we get something fixed and there is always something else to be fixed.

Another example is we started with Arkelon (Hall), and he struggled a little bit early in the year. I made the decision to bring in Tyler (Bass) and we get what we want in his first game and then he gets injured and is out for the year.

Q: How big is the challenge of winning in Knoxville?
COACH WEST: I think anytime a non-BCS beats a BCS it's a big deal. In particular, when a Memphis team goes to Knoxville and wins it is huge because it has never been done. We have been close several times up there but haven't been able to get over the hump. This is a game that we can just go lay it on the line since nobody expects us to win. It would be huge to go up there and win. I have to get our team better, and I think that is the most important thing right now.

Q: Do you think that Tennessee is the best team you have faced all year?
COACH WEST: I think this is the best team we have faced this year. I felt like going into the Ole Miss game that they were a really good team, but it was the opener so you didn't know what to expect. With the way Tennessee is playing, they have taken the mistakes out of their offense and not making mistakes. I would say that this is the best team we have played this year. I don't know if this will be the best team we play because I haven't seen the rest of them.

Q: On Tennessee's defense.
COACH WEST: The yardage that they are giving up right now is ridiculous. Going into South Carolina, I think it's been a couple games since anybody's scored a touchdown on them. Alabama is ranked pretty high, and they really didn't do a whole lot at all.

I kind of understate when I say they are playing pretty good. I don't think there is anybody in the country playing better defense than they are right now. A lot of people are talking about Alabama being the best defense in the country, but you put the tape on and watch the game, both those defenses look alike. They are both great defensive football teams. Nobody's really moving the ball on them. Believe it or not, Ohio threw the ball on them decent, but outside of that nobody's really done anything.

Q: Talk about Duke Calhoun.
COACH WEST: Duke is playing good. Duke's playing with a lot of energy and a lot of confidence. I think Duke is playing faster than he's played since he's been here. You see now that he was still hurt last year, but Duke looks like what you'd expect Duke to look like. He's playing really well right now.

Q: Is Tennessee susceptible to Duke's big plays that he's been putting out right now? I know you have to be able to run to get that.
COACH WEST: Well nobody's been able to get it on them. Nobody's really done it. I don't play these other teams all the time, so I don't know. I don't know South Carolina. I know South Carolina defensively because I've got a buddy over there, but I don't know them offensively. I know Alabama is a really good football team, and they couldn't move it, and I know they can run it good and I'm assuming they can throw it. They're just a good team.

Our offense will have to go play. We're different than a lot of those teams. It will be interesting to see because a lot of those teams are built more for power. In that league, South Carolina's a two back team, Alabama's a two back team; they play a lot of two-back teams, more power stuff. We spread you out and flip you around, so we'll see.