What Charles Huff said during his press conference ahead of Thursday’s game

Charles Huff met with the media on Tuesday to talk about the loss against Tulane and the upcoming matchup against East Carolina. 

Huff talked a lot about what went wrong in the game against the Green Wave, but he said several times that the team is ready to turn the page to this week’s game against the Pirates. 

He also invited fans and students to get to the game early for the live shoot of “SportsCenter on Campus” that will be hosted on Tiger Line by Matt Barrie. The live hit will take place between 4 p.m. CT and 4:30 p.m. CT ahed of Thursday night’s game.

Here’s what Huff said during his weekly press conference.

Loss against Tulane

Huff spoke about the loss last Friday against Tulane, and he joked that it was a different team on the field in New Orleans.

“Last week’s game, we were on a bye,” Huff said. “So, the team you guys saw was not us. So, we got plenty of rest. No, obviously, a bad performance.”

After the joke, Huff didn’t sugarcoat anything. He said at the end of the day his team didn’t play well and it led to a loss.

There were some positives in the game, but he focused more on the six turnovers and missed opportunities more than the 482 yards of offense his team gained.

“I could give you 1,000 stats,” Huff said. “We had 500 yards of offense, we did this, we did that. We lost the game, and we played like crap.”

Upcoming game against ECU:

Memphis will play East Carolina on Thursday night, and he gave the team and head coach Blake Harrell a lot of credit. He said the culture Harrell is building in Greenville is impressive and said they will be a tough test.

“ECU,” Huff said. “Unbelievable opponent. A lot of respect for coach Harrell and his staff. I’ve gone against him as a defensive coordinator when I was at another school. He has done a phenomenal job keeping the culture and that program going as he has taken over.”

The Pirates lead the American in scoring defense and rushing defense, and they rank second in defensive yards per game. Huff hinted that ECU could cause problems in the backfield as well, which is an area that plagued the Tigers last week against the Green Wave.

“Defensively, they’re one of the top teams in the country in havoc plays and tackles for loss,” Huff said. 

On the other side, Huff said the Pirates have a lot of playmakers at the receiver and running back positions.

“Offensively, they stress you,” Huff said. “They’ve got some playmakers at the receiver position and some tough running backs. It’s going to be a challenge.”

Marcus Stokes’ reaction to loss:

Huff was asked about Stokes in particular after his performance on Friday, and he said they talked about it and Stokes took full responsibility for the loss. The head coach said he had to explain to the quarterback that it wasn’t all on him, but he gave him credit for stepping up.

He said the quarterback also held a players-only meeting with the offense.

“We’ve talked about it,” Huff said. “The one thing I will say is I credit him. He came in and had his own players-only meeting. He took ownership for a poor performance.”

Stokes said he took responsibility for the loss, and he sometimes thinks that he tries to do to much at times because of his competitive drive.

“I took sole responsibility of the reason why the offense played the way it did on Friday,” Stokes said. “I guess it’s just the competitor in me, like, when stuff wasn’t going our way, I felt like I needed to do more. In the process of doing more, I actually did less.”

Stokes was asked about why he called the players-only meeting, and he said it was mainly about making sure the cracks don’t turn into the dam breaking. 

“I was kind of sitting at home by myself just watching college football, and it just dawned on me, like, I need to talk to at least the offense,” Stokes said. “I needed to talk to the guys, and I needed them to see how important it was to just do your 1/11th. There have been times throughout the season, including myself, where people in our unit would go outside the offense, and it hasn’t worked out. It’s kind of like a crack, and it starts to open up more and more and more and eventually it bursts through. That’s kind of how I took it this weekend. I took sole responsibility, and I know I can’t play like that again. I just wanted them to see that.”