What Charles Huff said after the 42-24 win over Arkansas State

Memphis improved to 2-0 on Saturday with a 22-point win over Arkansas State. It was a night filled with excitement from Tiger fans as the university officially opened Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium after the renovations.

Memphis struggled to move the ball early in the game, but Charles Huff’s team found success on the ground and came up with stops on the defensive side of the ball to slow the Red Wolves.

After the game, Huff spoke to the media and talked about the stadium renovations, the run-game and the secondary.

Renovations to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium:

Huff and the Tigers spent most of the week encouraging fans to come to the first home game of the season, and in the second half, the university announced an attendance of 45,632, which is considered a sellout. In his opening statement, Huff thanked the fans for their support.

“To the city of Memphis, thank you,” Huff said. “Thank you for showing the world what Memphis is really about. Thank you for selling out the stadium. Thank you for staying the whole game. Thank you for believing in this administration, this team and these players. Thank you. Again, we had another opportunity to show the world who Memphis really is, and we did it in a positive light.”

Throughout the game, fans were posting to social media about the issues they were facing at the game. The complaints ranged from parking to concession lines, and both Huff and AD Ed Scott spent time after the game apologizing for the first-game hiccups. 

Scott took to social media to individually respond to most of the complaints, while Huff brought it up in his press conference. The head coach said that these things happen during changes, and he promised it would be fixed.

“Now, I’ll be the first to apologize. There are a lot of things we have to clean up. We have a new home. Obviously, you’ve got to do an initial walk through. You’ve got to do a lot of things, and the faucet doesn’t work here, the door knob is loose. We get all of it, and we will fix it. So, we apologize for any inconvenience in parking, any inconvenience in concessions, any inconvenience in anything. I promise you we will get it fixed.”

Running backs:

Memphis found a lot of success on the ground, and the team finished the game with 335 rushing yards. Last week, Huff talked about the running backs getting too sped up and not waiting for holes to develop, but he said the backs did a better job on Saturday.

“I thought the backs had a lot more patience tonight,” Huff said. “We talked about that last week about them being a little too fast. I thought you saw some of the patience tonight.”

Jaylin Carter led the team with 183 yards and four touchdowns, a career-high in both categories. Huff brought Carter with him from Southern Miss and said that he’s a player that will do anything to help the team win.

“The beauty of Jaylin Carter is he just wants to win,” Huff said. “If we tell him he needs to play receiver, he’ll play receiver. If we tell him we need him to run for 100, he’ll run for 100, and he was as critical of himself last week, ‘hey I’ve got to be better to help the team.’ And, the more guys we can get like that on this team, and there’s a bunch of them, but the more guys we can get like that, the better we’re going to be in the long run.”

The secondary:

Four was the number of the night. While Carter ran for four touchdowns, the defense recorded four touchdowns, including two from safety Dylan Smith.

Huff’s defenses are known for takeaways. Last year, his team led the country in interceptions, and the Tigers are off to a strong start this year.

The Memphis coach raved about his team’s knack for the ball, and he even said that they don’t have any defensive backs on the roster. 

“We don’t have DBs,” Huff said. “We have wide receivers that play backwards, so you should be able to catch the ball.”

While the secondary had a handful of takeaways, they struggled at times to slow the Red Wolves down. Butch Jones named Texas transfer Trey Owens and the team’s starting quarterback, and he threw for 325 yards against the Tigers’ secondary.

“We’ve got to do a better job covering some guys in our zone coverage a little bit,” Huff said. “We need to do a better job with our eyes in man out of the backfield a couple of times. But, overall, we were able to get our hands on the ball, which to me is a sign of an elite defense when you can take the ball away”