Danny Wimprine sat in front of his locker all alone.
His eyes were fixed on the ground and tears began to well up in his eyes.
Wimprine called his performance in Saturday night’s game the worst of his life.
After throwing five interceptions, two of which were run back for touchdowns, few could disagree with his analysis.
As a tear rolled down his face a few teammates patted him on the back as they walked by but nothing could have changed his disgust.
Wimprine’s line Saturday night: 25 for 48 passing for 288 yards, two touchdowns and five interceptions.
The five interceptions tied a school record for most in one game and the 48 passes he attempted are a new school record.
After Darren Garcia dropped a pass in the final minute against Louisville and Dante Brown and Antoine Harden dropped consecutive passes late in the fourth quarter against Mississippi State, Wimprine said players just aren’t making plays in crunch time.
“Guys need to step up and make plays when they get the opportunity,” Wimprine said. “We’re not doing that right now so I guess we need to get other guys in there. Play other guys, play another quarterback, it doesn’t matter to me as long as we win.”
Wimprine puts a lot of pressure on himself to succeed and takes the blame too often after losses, said linebacker Derrick Ballard.
“Danny is a competitor, and a lot of times he is too hard on himself because of his competitiveness, but he’ll be OK. He’s just got a lot of growing up to do,” Ballard said.
Ballard said the entire locker room was in a somber mood after Saturday’s lackluster performance.
“There are a lot of guys (in the locker room) that are sad. We’re heartbroken, just like anyone would be,” Ballard said.
Despite a bad performance last week, Wimprine is on pace to break several Memphis passing records.
For the season he is on pace for 2,794 yards on 226 of 411 passing and 27 touchdowns. All of those numbers would easily break the current records of 2,249 yards (Bernard Oden 1997), 175 completions (Steve Matthews 1992), 316 attempts (Bernard Oden) and 18 touchdowns (Steve Matthews 1992).
