April 1, 2000

Memphis, TN - The University of Memphis Tiger football team held its first full scrimmage of the spring on Saturday, April 1, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and positive signs were seen on both sides of the ball. Despite being short handed due to some injuries, the U of M offense moved the ball with some consistency and the Memphis defense proved that last year's 23rd national ranking was no fluke. "I thought that we did some good things on both sides of the ball", said head coach Rip Scherer. "We made a few mistakes on offense but overall I thought that we moved the ball against a pretty good defense". Sophomore Jeff Sanders and junior Aaron Meadows led the team in rushing with Meadows gaining 60 yards and scoring one touchdown and Sanders pounding out 58 yards. Both lettered last season while backing up starter Gerard Arnold and Teofilo Riley. Junior quarterback Neil Suber, working with the number one unit in place of injured Travis Anglin, connected on 11-of-21 pass attempts for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Suber threw a 20 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Al Sermon and later connected for 54 yards with flanker Reginald Perkins for a second score. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Scott Scherer threw for 88 yards and one touchdown while completing eight passes. Scherer's touchdown toss was 35 yards to flanker Casey Rooney. Andre Arnold, Glenn Sumter and Keydrin Ward led all tacklers with eight each and Arnold added three quarterback sacks and two tackles for lost yardage. Strong safety Idrees Bashir grabbed two pass interceptions.