By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With the Cincinnati Bearcats' chances of going to a bowl being a long shot - they'd have to win five of their six final games to be bowl-eligible - UC might as well go out today and win one for the "Gimper."

"The Gimper," in this case, is UC quarterback Gino Guidugli, who was gimping around after last week's 23-14 loss at Southern Miss. He had a bruised knee, nicked elbow and banged-up hand.

"He looked like a poster child for Blue Cross & Blue Shield," said UC coach Rick Minter.

Guidugli is expected to be back in there today (2 p.m. kickoff) against Memphis. It is Homecoming weekend, and the game is televised locally (WXIX-TV).

"Our kids ... like playing at home - and it's been a couple of weeks since we've had that opportunity - so we're looking forward to it," Minter said.

On his weekly conference call, Minter told the Conference USA media that the Bearcats are "not going to live in a fog and drown in self-pity. We're going to have to get up off the mat (and win some games)."

"There's going to come a day when we're going to play a more flawless game and have some good things happen to this team, and we always count on it being this next game," Minter said.

He noted that UC's and Memphis' attacks are mirror images.

"Our records are similar, our styles are similar - we each base out of 4-3 defenses and out of spread offenses with good, solid decision-makers at quarterback," Minter said.

No matter what else happens today, UC has to get its offense out of the doldrums. Football is a team game, but this was supposed to be a high-scoring offense with a hotshot quarterback and productive senior receivers. Some of Guidugli's interceptions have hurt; the veteran receivers aren't helping matters by dropping some passes. There were six drops in the loss at Southern Miss.

"We call on those guys (the receivers) a lot," Minter said. "If you drop a ball that you think is pretty high-percentage, you've given away the down ... There are going to be enough good defensive plays out there that you (have to catch the ball when you have the chance) ... If you say that of every time we throw the ball, we only have a 60 percent chance of catching it, then we have to say, 'Man, those ones that hit us right in the hands don't need to be part of that 40 percent failure rate.'"

The other thing UC has to do today is create some big turnovers on defense and get its kicking game out of its funk.

Turnovers by an offense are crushing, but they are part of the game. Crisp snaps on field goals and punts, and quickly delivered, booming punts, should be the rule. Too often this year, they've been the exception. UC is struggling to get its young kicking game up to speed. And the Bearcats offense has taken to short-circuiting itself with penalties.

All those things taken together makes one wonder how much of a down season this could turn out to be if the flaws don't get corrected soon.

Memphis coach Tommy West said the Tigers are playing with emotion and intensity but aren't executing, "especially at crunch time."

"We have to eliminate mistakes and give ourselves a chance to win," West said.

"The first thing we have to do (today) is not lose the game. Then, if we do that, we'll try to find a way to win it."

UC and Memphis are trying to break three-game losing streaks.

UC vs. Memphis
Kickoff: 2 p.m. today, Nippert Stadium (35,000).
Records: UC (2-5, 1-2 Conference USA), Memphis (2-5, 1-3).
TV: Ch. 19.
Radio: WLW-AM (700).
Series: Memphis leads 17-10.
Line: UC by 6 ½ .

UC	Team stats	UM
416.7	Offense avg.	360.2
131.6	Avg. by rush	125.9
285.1	Avg. by pass	234.3
338.4	Defense avg.	362.6
153.9	Avg. by rush	205.4
184.5	Avg. by pass	157.2
25.6	Avg. points for	26.6
28.3	Avg. pts. against	26.4