Familiar Territory

aul Simon said there must be 50 ways to leave your lover. Rip Scherer must wish there were 50 ways to explain a football loss. On Monday, for the 20th time in 26 months, Scherer had to make post-game rounds following a weekend in which his team lost. Those Monday rounds include a press luncheon at the Public Eye, followed by a phone interview with reporters from all six C-USA cities, followed by a call-in radio show on WREC AM-600.

The joke at the press luncheon this week was that anyone there could have prepared the coach's remarks.

What can you say?

East Carolina took it to Memphis, chasing quarterback Bernard Oden all day, forcing five turnovers, two of which led immediately to touchdowns. Memphis aggressively ran the ball against ECU but couldn't throw the ball downfield. It ranks as one of the most embarrassing losses of the Scherer era. The coach had almost everyone in Memphis believing his team was capable of winning out, of making a serious run for the C-USA championship and a trip to the Liberty Bowl.

How does the coach motivate his team now that they are out of the conference race?

"First of all, we don't think we're out of it," says Scherer, the eternal optimist. "I told our players we're not even going to dwell on that. We're not mathematically eliminated. We need help, for sure, but if we win out... ."

With four games left, this team needs to win out to accomplish a winning season. Three wins would leave them 5-6, a one-game improvement over 1996. If they split the final four, they finish 4-7, the same as last year (but without the uplifting win over national power and state rival Tennessee). Anything less than 4-7 will be seen in almost all quarters as a step back.

Scherer still thinks his program is on track, that his few seniors will lead the 1997 team to a successful conclusion. "The difference now, as opposed to the past two years, is the older guys are more with us," Scherer said following the first stop on his tortuous Monday routine. "They are staying with us. The younger guys see, like we see, that the future is bright."

He may be right, but you sure couldn't see it last week in Greenville.

TIGER TALK: ESPY winner Kevin Cobb played his last game at ECU. Cobb, a senior who has started for three seasons, injured his knee and is out for the year. His twin Keith has a chance (like Bernard Oden) to play a fourth season if he can graduate by August. Keith told me last week he thinks he will make it. ... Oden may be the toughest football player I've ever seen. He came back into the game in the third quarter and ran the ball for a touchdown after leaving earlier with a sprained shoulder. He used the injured shoulder to force his way into the end zone. "Even when you think you're hurting, your body can take more," Oden told me earlier this year. "I feel like when I'm on a football field I'm going to keep playing unless something is broke." ... Austin O'Dell, who was called "Youngster" at Westwood High School, is still very much in Scherer's plans. The offensive lineman is a year away from playing regularly, though. "He was only 17 when he came in here," Scherer says. "He's going to be a good player. He has the ability to run, to possibly play on defense; we talk about that from time to time." ... Scherer responding to criticism from the TV announcers that he should have played his backup freshman quarterback Stephen Galbraith more in the fourth quarter: "With about seven minutes to go, we were down by 22 points and we felt like we were still in the game. We were down by three touchdowns. If I pull our starting quarterback, I'm telling our guys we don't have a chance to win."