NEW ORLEANS - Memphis had a night it will want to forget fast, and coach Charles Huff made sure there was no soft landing after the Tigers’ 31-17 loss to Tulane on Oct. 16 at Yulman Stadium.
His postgame verdict on quarterback Marcus Stokes was as direct as it gets.
"S-----," Huff said after the game Oct. 16 at Yulman Stadium. "Excuse my language.
Just didn't play well. I love him, could bounce back.
He just didn't play well. Sometimes your quarterback's not on, it makes it tough on everybody else.
Everybody else has got to step up around him."
Stokes accounted for five of Memphis’ six turnovers in a game that spiraled into a brutal offensive showing. He threw three interceptions and lost two fumbles, while Manny Covey also fumbled once. The Tigers had a couple more scares, too - Stokes lost two additional fumbles that Memphis recovered, and the team also pounced on a muffed punt.
That mess of giveaways buried Memphis (5-2, 2-1 American Conference), which came in as a seven-point favorite and one of the league’s better-looking teams, only to get trapped by a Tulane squad (3-3, 1-1) that arrived with a losing record and an offense that had struggled itself.
The Tigers were still within reach late, but the turnover count never let them settle in. Huff didn’t sugarcoat that part, either.
"Awful," Huff said. "Couldn't hold on to the ball tonight.
Maybe the wind. I don't know.
But we've never done that, I don't know. I've got to go back and look at the film, see if maybe they were getting their hands on it.
We just didn't do a good job. Awful.
No reason for it."
The game followed a pattern Memphis had seen before, at least in part. It was the third time this season the Tigers went into halftime trailing.
Against UNLV and UAB, they turned the second half into a rescue act. This time, there was no such recovery, and Tulane delivered the gut punch that made the climb even steeper: a 76-yard interception return for a touchdown as the first half expired.
"Like kids, you tell them, 'Stay away from the stove, stay away from the stove, stay away from the stove,' " Huff said. "And if you don't stay away from the stove, it catches up to you. It just caught up to us tonight in droves."
The offense had problems beyond the turnovers, too. Stokes was sacked seven times in a rough evening for much of the Memphis attack.
There’s little breathing room now. The Tigers are back at home against East Carolina on Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2, and Huff said the performance across the board fell short.
"Not good enough by anybody, myself included," Huff said.