What Charles Huff said after the loss to Tulane

Memphis dropped its second game of the season Friday night in a 31-17 road loss to Tulane. After the game, Charles Huff met with the media to talk about what went wrong for his team.

The Tigers scored on their first possession, but they struggled to capitalize on opportunities after that. The offense scored again early in the second quarter, but that was the last time Memphis found the end zone until late in the fourth quarter.

Kevin Decker’s offense turned the ball over six times, and they went 2-for-6 in the red zone and 2-for-11 on third downs. 

On the other side, true freshman Trace Johnson and the Green Wave’s offense capitalized on mistakes to score on five drives.

Here’s what Huff said after the game.

On the game:

Huff began his press conference giving credit to Tulane and the way they played. He sad that his team didn’t play well enough, and credited the Green Wave’s “championship program.”

“Hats off to Tulane,” Huff said. “Championship program. They took full advantage of the opportunity. I thought they battled, so hats off to them. Just didn’t play well enough tonight. Just the end all be all.”

Huff is right about Tulane taking advantage of opportunities, and it scored 14 points off Memphis’ turnovers.

Turnovers:

Turnovers were the Achilles heel for the Tigers, who turned the ball over six times. Marcus Stokes fumbled the ball twice and threw three interceptions, and running back Manny Covey also put the ball on the ground.

“Can’t win little league games when you turn it over the way we did tonight,” Huff said.

Tulane’s defense entered the game with only one turnover all season, but it looked like a completely different unit on Friday. Huff said that turnovers isn’t something his team has struggled with this year, and he would need to go back and look at the film to see exactly what went wrong on those plays.

“Awful,” Huff said. “Couldn’t hold on to the ball tonight. Maybe the win, I don’t know. We’ve never done that, so I don’t know. I’ve got to go back and look at the film and see if maybe they were getting their hands on it. We just didn’t do a good job. Awful. No reason for it.”

Marcus Stokes’ performance:

Stokes had his worst game as a Tiger, and he finished the game 20-for-37 for 306 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions and two fumbles. The quarterback put up more than 300 yards for the third time this year, but the turnovers and missed opportunities plagued his stat line.

“Didn’t play well,” Huff said. “I love him. He’ll bounce back, but he didn’t play well tonight. Sometimes you’re quarterback isn’t on, and it makes it tough on everyone else.”

Stokes entered the game with only three interceptions on the season, and Friday’s outing doubled that number. He’s now tied for No. 121 in interceptions, but he sits at No. 4 in the country in passing yards and No. 2 in the country for passing touchdowns.

Defense:

Huff was asked about the defense, and he said that they did enough to win the game but were put in bad situations throughout the game.

“I thought they played well enough to win,” Huff said. “They were out there too much, but I thought from an optics standpoint, without watching the film, they battled.”

In the second half, the defense recorded three stops before the Green Wave sealed the game with a long touchdown run on fourth-and-one.