Double Trouble

hey are the casualties, the walking wounded -- Tiger football players whose bodies no longer allow them to play. You can see them at the games if you look hard. They walk together, stand together, leave together. Some are on crutches. Others walk with a limp. They can't play, but they stick around, encouraging their teammates.

Anthony Reddick injured his knee just a few weeks before beginning his senior season. He was defending Chancy Carr on a simple pass play in practice when his knee gave out. His career was over.

Andre Woods, the tiny running back who had those crucial runs in the game-winning drive against Tennessee, was also looking forward to his senior season. A serious preseason hip injury ended his career.

Wide receiver Ken Coutain, joined Reddick and Woods on the sidelines a few weeks ago after doctors decided his nagging shoulder injury would require surgery. Then there were four.

Three-year starter Kevin Cobb saw his season and his career come to an end at East Carolina. Cobb hobbled along the sidelines at the Houston game, seemingly in good spirits. Waiting for the swelling to go down so that doctors can determine how serious the injury is, what the treatment will be, how soon the rehab can begin.

Kevin was the cover boy for the Houston game program, but he couldn't play. Call it the program-cover jinx. Cobb, who won the ESPY award for the best play of the 1996 college football season, will be missed. His freshman year he wore number 35. Later he changed to 7. He had always wanted the single-digit shirt (players think it makes them look taller), and with 7 he matched up nicely with his twin, Keith, also a cornerback, who wears number 6.

Kevin didn't start his freshman year, but he played regularly. At Knoxville, he blocked a punt. It led to an important Tiger touchdown. In two years he would cost UT millions of dollars, knocking them from the alliance with an unbelievable kickoff return, which would be replayed and replayed across the nation.

As a sophomore, Kevin became a starter and teamed up with Keith in an unusual play. Kevin blocked a punt and Keith picked up the ball and returned it for a touchdown.

Kevin and Keith. Keith and Kevin. The two are inseparable. Identical. Small, strong, happy. Since arriving at the U of M, Keith has played in Kevin's shadow. Keith was academically ineligible his first year on campus. Couldn't play, couldn't practice. Those were lonely days. By the time Keith got on the football field, Kevin was starting. Keith initially struggled for playing time.

Gradually that changed. After a short-lived attempt to move Keith to tailback, the coaches made him a significant contributor in the Memphis secondary. He got better and better, until earlier this season he beat out Kevin for a starting cornerback spot.

Now number 6 plays for both of them. Against Houston, Keith Cobb was sensational. He picked off a pass, broke up a pass, and recovered a fumble. He was everywhere.

"I felt like I had to keep my brother's spirit up," Keith said. "I made sure I talked to him every time I came to the sideline. I just wanted to keep him positive and play hard the whole game."

The twins from Cleveland, Tennessee (the very heart of Big Orange Country), has been a positive influence on the Memphis football program. Both are good citizens, team leaders, hard workers. And despite the fact that both are listed as seniors, there may still be a Cobb in Memphis' future. Keith will be allowed to play an extra year if he can graduate by August of 1998. He says he is on track to do it. He feels like he's got time to make up. Especially now that he's playing for two.

TIGER TALK

What a difference a win can make. Last week Rip Scherer was talking about jumping from the top of The Pyramid along the edge of the Mississippi. This week he's looking forward to a trip downriver to face Tulane in the Big Easy. "I can come off the top of The Pyramid now," he said after the Houston win. Asked about his morale, the coach said: "I've been going to mass twice a week. I've done everything I can think of. Somewhere there is a Rip Scherer who is screwing up and God has got us mixed up in the computer. I hope now it's all straightened out." There's rebuilding jobs and there's rebuilding jobs. Tommy Bowden didn't exactly inherit an empty cupboard when he took over the Tulane program from Buddy Teevens. Ten of the Green Wave defensive starters are either juniors or seniors (nine started last year) and the skill positions are all filled with veterans on the offensive side. Calvin Lewis (6-3, 273) a redshirt freshman who is starting at defensive tackle grabbed the first interception of his career against Houston. He said it was his first pick at any level. "I just reached up and grabbed it and tried to get as many yards as I could," Lewis said later. He picked a good day to do it -- his mother, sister, and girlfriend all made the trip from Atlanta to see Lewis play. Scherer, responding to a recruiting question on his call-in radio show, said he was looking for a few junior-college players to fill specific needs. In order, they are: a cover cornerback, a linebacker, a running back, and a defensive lineman. Scherer says his philosophy is to only recruit junior-college players who project as immediate starters in his program. Tailback P.T. Jones saw his first action in several games against Houston (at one point Jones was sent in to try a halfback pass). The sophomore said after the game that his brother Jamie, a promising defensive back, is doing well and hopes to come back to school in January and be eligible for spring drills. Scherer on his team being ranked 9th in the country in total defense: "If we are still 9th after this week, then we have done something." Tulane ranks 15th in total offense nationally and 14th in scoring.

Lousy Losers

Rip Scherer was more than a little annoyed at remarks Houston head coach Kim Helton made on the C-USA teleconference Monday afternoon. Helton downplayed the Memphis defense, suggesting that his team would be facing better defenses in the coming weeks.

If that bothered Scherer, imagine if he had observed this scene: Outside the locker rooms amid nearly a dozen busses waiting for players, coaches, bands and fans, an unidentified Houston assistant walked up to a woman who appeared to be his wife.

"We just got beat by the worst team in college football," he said loud enough for several nearby to hear.

A Tiger fan responded: "So what does that make you?"

Empty Seats at the U of M: A Way of Life

As Memphis media, business leaders, and politicians continue to concern themselves with low turnout for Oilers games, their silence on University of Memphis attendance woes is telling. The Tiger program has reached the point where the "Kroger Buy Out" game barely draws 20,000 fans. The school announced 20,181 last Saturday at the Houston game, but the Memphis press corps, which has seen bogus attendance figures bandied about widely over the past five years at a variety of minor-league and college sporting events, shook its collective head skeptically. It didn't look like 20,181.

This is the 33rd year the Tiger program has played football at the Liberty Bowl. Here are a few facts and figures:

* Since the Liberty Bowl opened in 1965, Memphis has averaged 30,000 or more per game only 12 seasons.

* The best season for attendance was 1976, when Memphis, playing seven games at home, went 7-4 and drew an average of 40,280. Visits from SEC rivals Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Tennessee helped.

* The worst season came in 1982, the second consecutive 1-10 campaign under head coach Rex Dockery. The Tigers broke a 17-game losing streak in the last game of the season. They averaged 17,000 -- the only season attendance has dipped under 20,000 at the Liberty Bowl.

* The six best years at the Liberty Bowl:

1976 40,280 7-4-0

1984 39,212 5-5-1

1992 37,408 6-5-0

1985 36,913 2-7-2

1983 36,734 6-4-1

1996 35,752 4-7-0

Of these six seasons, 1984 is the most amazing. Neither Ole Miss nor Tennessee, traditionally the biggest draws on the Tigers schedule, visited Memphis that year. The 39,212 is a testament to the faith and enthusiasm the late Rex Dockery had instilled in the program before his untimely death in December 1983.

* During the 1990s, Memphis has averaged 27,970 for games played at the Liberty Bowl.

* The Tigers averaged 37,619 from 1983 to 1985 -- the school's best three-year period for attendance. Those teams went 6-4-1 (under Dockery), 5-5-1, and 2-7-2 (under Rey Dempsey, who was fired after the '85 season).

Basketball Fix

We'll soon find out how good forward Omar Sneed is at the Division-I level. But if past performance is any indication, Sneed is a winner. His cumulative win-loss record from three years at Westbrook High School in Beaumont, Texas, and two years at San Jacinto (TX) Junior College: 151-19. New Coach Tic Price has put together one of the youngest coaching staffs in the country. Average age of assistant coaches Johnny Jones, Fred Rike, and Chip Sims: 31. Price's University of New Orleans teams set a school record for three-point shots in 1995-96, then broke the record last year. More importantly, perhaps, is this note: UNO led the Sun Belt Conference in field-goal percentage defense all three years Price was at the school.