What Charles Huff said ahead of Saturday’s game against UAB

Charles Huff met with the media on Tuesday to recap the victory over Charlotte and preview this weekend’s game against UAB. Huff spoke at length about the Blazers and pleaded with Tiger fans to make it to Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

The head coach said that the team has felt the fans impact during home games, and they’ll need everyone in Memphis there on Saturday to help win the Battle of the Bones.

Huff was asked about if this week is any different because it’s a rivalry week, and he said that it’s not very different because there aren’t many people in the locker room who have experienced this rivalry. He said that the team is approaching it a little differently because they know how important it is to fans.

Win over Charlotte:

Memphis improved to 4-1 on Saturday with a commanding win over Charlotte, and Huff said he was happy with a lot of the things that he saw on film. He said his team did good things in all three phases of the game, and he’s been proud of how the players have been executing over the last two games.

“Watching the film, obviously we did a lot of really good things on all three phases,” Huff said. “Really proud of the players and their ability to continue to improve and execute as the game went on. Really proud of the guys who don’t play as much who got in and were able to continue to execute as a high level.”

While Huff talked about a lot of the highs, he said there were some issues in last week’s game, and they spent some time this week trying to clean some things up. He added that while those mistakes didn’t hurt them against Charlotte, they Weill get them down the road if the team doesn’t address them.

The upcoming game against UAB:

Memphis will play UAB Saturday night for the Battle of the Bones, and Huff is familiar with the Blazers’ head coach. Huff and Mortensen spent time together on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama, and Huff had high praise for the UAB coach.

“We’re going to play a challenging opponent, UAB,” Huff said. “A lot respect for coach [Alex] Mortensen. He and I worked together at the University of Alabama for two years, won a national championship together. Probably, in my opinion, one of the smartest, brightest offensive minds that I’ve had the opportunity to work with.”

The Blazers enter the game 3-2 after back-to-back wins over Navy and Samford, and they’ll look to beat the Tigers in back-to-back seasons. Ryder Burton returns as the starting quarterback, and Huff seemed impressed with the way he runs their system.

“Fiery competitor,” Huff said. “You can see he loves the competition. You can see he can make all the throws. You can see he has a really good handle of the offense and what they’re trying to do.”

Hunter Tipton’s impact:

Huff was asked about Hunter Tipton’s impact and if he’s surprised with the impact that the tight end is making. Huff said that he isn’t surprised to see him thriving, but he went more in depth about the work that Tipton has been putting in this season.

Huff said that before the season he met with every player about their goals for the season, and that some of the players said their goal was to get to the NFL. The problem is not all of those guys are on the NFL radar, and Huff said that he told those players, including Tipton, that they would need to make scouts look at them.

It appears the tight end has taken that to heart, and his impact for the Tigers has been unavoidable. Tipton has recorded 367 yards and five touchdowns on 19 receptions, leading tight ends in scoring.