The football team’s 31-17 loss to UAB Saturday was horrific.
Memphis was supposed to be ready to build on a 38-10 victory over Tulane the week before and pick up more momentum by trouncing lowly UAB before welcoming Louisville to the Liberty Bowl.
The team didn’t avenge two consecutive losses to the Blazers, get its first road win or convince doubters that Memphis meant business. Instead, the Tigers disappointed their fans, each other and especially head coach Tommy West.
Monday at his weekly press conference West was asked if the loss was the worst overall performance he had seen from his team in the two-and-a-half years he’s been associated with the program.
Initially the question seemed tough for the coach to answer.
He stopped. Then he looked out at the silent stares of the media and athletic department staff waiting to hear his answer. Then he looked to the ceiling as if he was calculating a math problem in his head.
He started off with a soft answer.
West said he didn’t pay much attention to the team’s performances as a whole his first year because he was the defensive coordinator and not head coach.
That was a slick answer. His words didn’t either add further insult to injury, or cover over the poor performance.
Thing is, Tommy West doesn’t usually try to be slick when answering questions. He usually tells you right out. So he didn’t dodge the bullet.
He admitted, on his own recognizance, that the loss was the team’s worst performance he had witnessed since he became Tiger head coach in 2001.
That wasn’t enough either.
All of a sudden it seemed like West was intrigued to know just how bad Saturday’s loss placed in his mental record book.
Then, with no one expecting it, he made a weighty statement.
“This may be the most disappointed I’ve been in eight years as a head coach.”
West’s head coaching record was right at even coming into this season. He won 40 times and lost 41 times. This season has added two wins and three losses to the total.
He lost seven times as UT-Chattanooga’s head coach, 28 times at Clemson and nine times here at Memphis.
Yet Saturday’s loss, a 14-point embarrassment to the team that was ranked 111th in NCAA Division 1 teams in total defense and 99th in rushing and scoring defense before the game, made him feel the worst of all.
“I’m as low, right now, as you can get,” West added a few comments later.
And it seemed to be the truth. West, who prides himself on being a football history buff, usually has things dissected quickly. He can tell you why the statistics are the way they are.
When the team stomped Murray State 52-6 he explained by simply saying the offense was sharp.
When Memphis went to Mississippi and lost to Ole Miss and Southern Miss, West came in with a straight face and said his team did a poor job on special teams and couldn’t stop the either team from running.
He was just as honest and kept the same straight face after the Tulane win.
West was upset, disappointed and depressed about the loss to UAB because it made no sense.
Many fans expected Memphis to beat Murray State and Tulane. Probably just as many people expected losses to Ole and Southern Miss. But not UAB. Not the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
The Tigers were roughly expected to win seven games. That was if they beat the teams they were considered better than and lost to the teams considered better than them.
A loss to the Blazers changes the entire gambit of teams Memphis is considered better than. It’s hard to safely say the Tigers are expected to beat any team left on the schedule besides Army.
West doesn’t think it’s at that point, but he did say his team is in a danger zone and will remain there if it continues to play the uninspired type of football it played in Birmingham.
“We walked out on the field for warm-ups (instead of running) and we walked back in the tunnel,” West said. “I told them ‘we’ve got to be careful about who we think we are.’ And I told them Friday night, ‘You had better have it (against UAB) because I sure don’t feel it.’”
