Late Bloomer

ernard Oden has an opportunity to do something Saturday that no University of Memphis quarterback has ever done -- not James Earl Wright, Russ Vollmer, Lloyd Patterson, or Steve Matthews. No Tiger quarterback has ever posted consecutive 300-yard passing games. In the Tigers' Conference USA opener at Cincinnati, Oden has a chance to do just that. And Memphis may need 300 yards passing from Oden to beat the Bearcats. They aren't likely to get much on running the ball. Cincinnati allows only 81.8 rushing yards per game (first in the league). The Tigers are averaging only 83.8 rushing (fifth in the league).

The emergence of Bernard Oden as star quarterback is as unlikely a story as it is satisfying to the senior from Spring Hill, Tennessee. Oden, named "Mr. Football" for class AA his senior year, didn't qualify academically and enrolled at the U of M under Proposition 48 guidelines. He wasn't allowed to practice or play his freshman year.

By the time his year in purgatory was finished, the university had fired head coach Chuck Stobart and the assistants who recruited Oden. New coach Rip Scherer brought a new offense and a new attitude to Memphis. Oden started his sophomore year as the number-three quarterback on the squad, but saw action in the second half of the first game at Mississippi State. He sparked the team with 155 yards passing and a 68-yard touchdown to his best friend on the team, Boo Blevins.

In his next game at Michigan, Oden performed admirably in the face of a strong Wolverine defense which chased him and pounded him throughout the day. Reporters from Michigan were impressed with the sophomore's toughness. So was Scherer, who gave Oden his first career start the next week against Southwestern Louisiana.

Oden played tight, made bad decisions, turned the ball over. The next week he was on the bench behind Joe Borich and later Qadry Anderson. Oden wouldn't start again at quarterback for the next 19 games. It was a trying time for a proud athlete. The team was losing and he was riding the bench. "I had never lost in my life," Oden says. "Losing was taking a toll on me. We're 3-8 and I'm not even touching the field. I didn't understand."

Oden expressed his disenchantment in various ways, which didn't go unnoticed by Scherer, who at one point demoted the quarterback to the scout team. Last season Oden considered leaving the university.

But last spring Oden started out as the number-one quarterback. And while everyone thought the job would be won by redshirt freshman and local hero Kenton Evans, Oden played steady. He kept the job through the spring, and by the time preseason workouts began, coaches and players alike were talking about the changes in Oden. He was working out for the first time in his life. He was being a leader, acting like a quarterback.

Oden has set a new career high in each of the last three games. Of the nine touchdowns Memphis has scored this season, Oden has been responsible for eight (three by rushing and five by passing).

Cincinnati will pose a severe test for Oden. Defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, son of Buddy, plays the same aggressive style as his old man. The Bearcats will line up with eight or nine players on the line of scrimmage and will sometimes bring them all on a dead-heat pass rush. They'll stunt and jump around, trying to play mind games with Oden.

They are effective, too -- first in Conference USA in pass-efficiency defense and total defense. Oden will have to constantly be aware of the blitz. He'll have to find his "hot" receivers and get the ball to them quickly. He must be ready to run when the opportunity presents itself. With eight or nine defenders on the line, a fast, rugged athlete like Oden can turn a simple quarterback draw into a gamebreaker.

For a guy who couldn't find his way onto the field for the past two years, Oden is looking like the best quarterback at Memphis since Steve Matthews. And the good news for Tiger fans is that, even though he's a senior, he will likely return next year. Under a new NCAA rule, if he can graduate by August 1998, Oden will be allowed to play a fourth year.

He's on track to do it. In fact, if he passes the 16 hours he's taking this semester, he will only need 18 more to graduate. He thinks he can be finished by the end of the spring semester.

Gaining a degree from the University of Memphis in four years is tough for just about anybody. For a football player who came in as a Proposition 48 student, it's close to a miracle. Bernard Oden will take his degree over a 300-yard passing game any day.

Well, maybe not this week.

TIGER NOTES:

Call it a quick-strike offense. Of the Tigers' 11 scoring drives in the first four games, the most time-consuming was a nine-play 80-yard drive against UAB that took 3:49 off the clock. Against Minnesota, Memphis had two 10-play, 80-yard drives. Both were consummated in less than two minutes. Three Bad Signs for the UC game: (1) Memphis is just 1-5 on artificial turf since 1995. The one win came at the Superdome against a weak Tulane team. Cincinnati has an artificial surface. (2) Memphis is only 12-26 on the road over the past seven seasons. (3) Memphis ranks 85th in the country in rushing defense (180.5 yards per game) while Cincinnati ranks 15th nationally in rushing offense (240.8 yards per game). The return of tailback Gerard Arnold allows true freshman Fred Powell to return to cornerback, moving another freshman, Jonathan Brooks to safety, where he will back up Jeremy Stewart. Scherer gave backup safety Kosha Irby a scholarship after the Minnesota game. Irby, a redshirt freshman who walked on from Nashville's McGovock High School, has an interception to his credit.