University of Memphis Athletics
Coach Tommy West Press Luncheon Quotes, Sept. 10
Sep 10, 2007 | Football
Sept. 10, 2007
Opening Remarks
It was an interesting deal the other night. I will say this about what happened the other night; my hat's off to Arkansas State. R.C. (Johnson) and I were together most of the time, and I thought they did a really nice job of being the host team and handling the thing. I think we did the best thing. It was all four of us--their athletic director and coach and R.C. and I-- trying to do what was best for both teams. I don't think there is any question we did what was best for our team; that was our vote to play the game when we are going to play it.
To me, I don't look at it as three games in 11 days because the Central Florida game is a normal game. Then I don't mind playing a Saturday-Thursday. That doesn't really bother me. The hard game will probably be the Tuesday game (Marshall) coming back off the Thursday (Arkansas State). What it will affect is game planning and that kind of stuff. To be honest, we'll see how it goes. I think we'll like it. I'd rather play than practice, and I know our players would. We'll get the chance to play a lot in the next four weeks.
The three games in 11 days, I'm not sure anybody has ever done that. And two of those are conference games.
But I don't look at it like that. It is three and 11, I know. The only one I see that is a problem right now is the third (game). The first one is a normal (schedule). We play this Saturday and then play next Saturday at Central Florida; that's normal weeks to me. I don't have a problem with that.
We really didn't have a lot of other options. The only other option was going back Sunday. I was totally opposed and R.C. (Johnson) was too. I really felt like that put us at a disadvantage. I really did because we traveled there and traveled back after sitting around. Then we had nowhere to stay Saturday night and don't have nowhere to eat on Sunday. Where they are right there at their place, I felt like they had a chance. Their dining hall is equipped for people on campus. We're not equipped for any food service on campus because nobody eats here on weekends. That was going to be a problem and then traveling back over there. I know I got up Sunday morning and felt the same way I normally feel. I was tired from just the emotion of sitting around waiting on the thing for three hours. And our guys agreed. When we met at 3 o'clock, they were like, "I'm glad we're not playing today coach."
I thought they (Arkansas State) had everything going. It was obvious they were going to have a great crowd. They had done a nice job selling the thing. They were going to have all the emotion. I thought our guys had done a great job from about six to seven, but then when we had to come back in, I felt like every 20-30 minutes it just started dipping. Then they were hungry. Now all of a sudden the focus has changed where before they weren't hungry. They were thinking about the game. Now there were other things creeping in.
Did you ever think about the second Saturday in December after the C-USA Championship game?
We discussed that. I felt like that was kind of like practices after the spring game. I hate practices after the spring game. That would have been a great scenario if you knew it was going to be a significant game for both teams. Then that's a nice scenario. If it's not a significant game--meaning you don't have at least five (wins) at that time--now you've got a game where you just go and get people hurt. We talked about that, but I'd rather play it when we're playing.
How is it preparing for this next game after having a week that wasn't really a bye week?
I'd like to see how they are. Our team was really excited on Saturday. I thought our team was in a great frame of mind. We had good practices. I'm usually really hard on them. I thought they were ready to play when we were getting ready to start. I bragged on them because I thought they really held their focus well over there. They were on go.
I can tell you the mindset of this team right now. This team right now wants a win. This team is sitting and waiting and is wanting a win. We want to play a game. That's our mindset right now. We want to hurry and play and we'll play as hard as we can to try and get a win. We came out of the first game and felt like we kind of beat ourselves. We're ready to play somebody else.
What do you think about Jacksonville State?
Jack (Crowe) and I worked together at Clemson in the late `80's. They are a well coached football team. Jack does a good job. They're different because they are a 3-4 defense, which we haven't seen and probably won't see again (this year). They're a little bit more of an option than anybody else we'll play (this season). That's okay. It will be a good test for us defensively that we have to be a disciplined team this week.
Offensively, we're not going to let what they do change us. We're going to do what we do and try to do it a lot better than we did the first game as far as protecting the football. That's the big thing for this offense right now. I think this can be a pretty potent offense, but we have to protect the ball. If we learn to protect the ball, I think this is an offense that can move it in a hurry and score some points.
