Memphis defensive back Sam Brewer walked into Tommy West's weekly press conference wearing a University of Memphis football shirt with a simple slogan on the back - "We do what we do better."
The shirt seemed somewhat ironic because these days West is trying make his young, injury-riddled team understand that 'what we do' isn't what we used to do. That season-ending injuries to two starting quarterbacks have made what the Tigers do much different.
The difference was never more evident than in the Tigers (2-3 overall, 0-2 in Conference USA ) 38-14 loss Saturday at UCF (formerly known as Central Florida).
"We're not a downfield, vertical passing type of team (anymore)," West said. "(Now,) we have to be a good run defense, a good run offense, be on the plus side of turnovers and win the kicking game to have a chance of winning.
"(UCF) did a better job of doing what we need to be doing that we did."
In the game true-freshman quarterback Billy Barefield, working in an extremely limited package of mostly screen passes and dump-offs, completed 13-of-22 passes, but for only 71 yards.
The longest pass play was a screen pass to receiver Maurice Jones that went for 11 yards, far removed from the spread offense that has featured the deep pass threat for the last four years.
For this offense, virtually paralyzed with injuries, to move the ball and score points, West said, it will take a different mentality and attitude.
"We're still a pretty beat-up, wounded football team right now," he said. "We've got to find ourselves and find a (new) way to win games.
"I think it's important for these young (players) to understand how you have to win. You don't just go out and win, you have to know who you are (as a team) and how you're going to win."
In the two games Memphis has won this season they've won by forcing turnovers on defense and moving the ball with the running game.
After forcing six turnovers in last week's game against UTEP, Memphis was unable to muster one against the Golden Knights.
UCF also rolled up over 500 yards of total offense with over 200 coming on the ground.
With plenty of talk radio criticism being directed at Memphis defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn recently, West took a moment to address Dunn's performance.
"We didn't play defense well at all," West said. "Anytime that doesn't do well then people start pointing fingers and I'm the captain of this ship. If they want to point fingers they should point them at me.
"A week ago everybody was OK with Joe Lee because he got six turnovers, now they're not."
Memphis was able to move the ball somewhat on the ground again due in large part to Heisman candidate DeAngelo Williams and a breakout performance by sophomore running back Joseph Doss.
Williams recorded 136 yards on just 14 carries, including an electric 76-yard effort in the second quarter. Williams' limited carries were partially due to him missing most of the third quarter with dehydration.
Doss carried nine times for 33 yards, but scored the Tigers' only two touchdowns.
