Injured senior Michael Scherer has ‘no regrets’ about Mizzou career

Missouri’s football team holes up in a hotel the night before each game — even for home games — and a staffer sends out a text alert Friday for players to place pregame-meal orders.

On the eve of Mizzou’s game against Kentucky last Friday, senior linebacker Michael Scherer’s phone buzzed as it had for the last three-plus seasons, a span of 47 games.

Only this time, Scherer didn’t see his name as he scanned the list of players needing to place an order.

“My name wasn’t on the list,” said Scherer, whose streak of 33 consecutive starts ended after he suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee during the first quarter Oct. 22 against Middle Tennessee. “That was tough, but I’ve got some good people helping me keep my mind off things.”

Scherer will have the knee repaired Thursday morning.

It’s been a rough 10 days since his Tigers career abruptly ended, but he insisted he’s coping during his first public remarks since the injury.

“Knowing you won’t be able to put on the uniform here again, it’s tough,” he said. “...But when I got a chance to sit back and look at it, I’ve got a chance to do a lot of pretty cool things here. I made it to the SEC Championship (Game) twice. I had a lot of fun, and I think I have somewhat found peace in knowing that I did absolutely everything I could while I was here.”

Scherer, whose 53 tackles rank second for Mizzou this season despite missing basically the last two games, said he has “absolutely no regrets” about his career. He’s also admitted processing the fact that it’s finished.

“I’m still convinced that they are going to go in on Thursday, open up my knee and say everything’s fine, then close it back up,” said Scherer, who hasn’t and won’t ever watch video of the injury.

First-year coach Barry Odom brought Scherer along Monday for his weekly news conference, praising the fact he hasn’t checked out despite the injury.

“He’s trying to talk Rex into coming back and trying to get a couple snaps,” Odom joked.

“The hard part is, even right now, it doesn’t really hurt that bad,” Scherer said. “I feel like you could tape me up and put me in, but the reality is that wouldn’t work.”

Odom boasted that Scherer still pops in on the Monday coaches meetings to get a sneak peek at the weekly game plan.

“Nothing’s changed,” Odom said. “It’s amazing. He comes in today and checks out the board and sees what new calls we’ve got going in. He’s a special guy to me and a special guy to our program. He means the world to me with all the things he’s done for this place.”

Odom reiterated that he hopes his sons, J.T. and Garyt, grow up to be like Scherer and said he’ll show video of Scherer coaching up teammates on the sideline against Kentucky as an example of leadership to future Tigers.

Scherer, who will still be hospitalized when the team charter leaves Friday for South Carolina, hopes to travel with Mizzou to Tennessee on Nov. 19 and continues to serve a valuable role as a veteran and leader.

“The defense we are running right now, I’ve played a lot of snaps in and know a whole lot about it,” Scherer said. “My job now is just to help where I can and give those guys some confidence going into Saturdays. Hopefully, they play well.”

He hasn’t given up his NFL dream, either.

“It’s just a little bump in the road for me,” Scherer said. “It’s going to be really difficult, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, but … this is nothing I can’t overcome.”

Scherer doesn’t have to look far for inspiration.

“I’ve known (Chiefs wide receiver and former Mizzou star) Jeremy Maclin for a really long time,” Scherer said. “My dad, that’s one of the first things he told me, ‘If Jeremy can come back from multiple of these and do what he’s doing, there’s no reason you can’t.’ ”

When Scherer saw that Maclin had tweeted him after the injury, it gave him hope. The two later exchanged texts in which Maclin offered encouragement

“Basically, he told me I could get through it, and he would be there to help me if I ever needed anything,” said Scherer, who also heard from former Mizzou teammates Evan Boehm and Markus Golden, among others.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Injured senior Michael Scherer has ‘no regrets’ about Mizzou career."