GREENVILLE, N.C. - Win or lose, tonight should provide vivid lifelong memories for University of Cincinnati football players. It is especially true for 18 UC seniors, who could be playing their last college game.
UC (7-3, 2-3 Conference USA) plays here at East Carolina (4-5, 3-2) at 8 p.m., with ESPN televising nationally. That alone is big, with UC in the rare position of being the sole game on national TV. Even bigger may be the fact that UC is fighting for its first bowl appearance since the 1950 season.
''We want to go out a winner, because you always remember that last game,'' said UC senior linebacker Brad Jackson. ''And being on national TV is exciting. There's a little more at stake.''
UC players agree that they must win tonight - and look good doing it - to have a chance at a bowl. The Bearcats rank only 62nd in the national Sagarin ratings, are 0-1 against Top 25 opposition (Southern Mississippi), and lack the large fan base that bowls seek.
The last time UC went 8-3, in 1993, it was not picked for a bowl.
''It's not over yet,'' UC coach Rick Minter said. ''We're not going to predict a win, but we'll do everything in our power to go to a bowl. But if that's not good enough, we can only blame ourselves.''
UC is a 2 1/2-point favorite, but ECU's Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium has been a Bearcat bummer since the program first played there in 1986.
UC is 0-5 in games played at ECU and has lost by an average of 20 points. The last visit, 1994, was a 35-21 Bearcat defeat.
This year, East Carolina team carries a three-game winning streak after a 1-5 start. ECU is new to Conference USA but was picked to win the league, based partly on its two bowl appearances in the past three years.
''They had a great quarterback coming back (Dan Gonzalez), the leading returning ground gainer in the country (Scott Harley in 1996) and a solid defensive unit,'' UC coach Rick Minter said. ''But they lost four offensive line starters from last year, and people failed to realize that.''
Harley and top receiver Larry Shannon have been hurt for much of the season. But ECU has rallied lately, most recently winning 28-27 at Houston - where UC lost last month 41-38 in double overtime.
''There is a lot on the line for us, and there is a lot on the line for them,'' Minter said. ''They have Cincinnati and North Carolina State to finish the season, and they feel like they can win both games and salvage their season . . . For us, we have to win to make life hard on the bowl people.''
Either way, it has been a good year for UC. The 7-3 record marks the most wins in Minter's four-year tenure, and the fact that the program can even talk about a bowl in Week 11 shows progress.
Defensive end Derrick Ransom said the program needs to make a statement while the country watches.
''It would do a tremendous amount for our school,'' Ransom said. ''To go from 2-8-1 (in 1994) to playing for a bowl game on national television . . . it shows what a good football program that Coach Minter has built.''
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