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g _ THE GAMECOCK + Friday, September27,2002 GAME SCHEDULE —I V IN ’V w ■ ^ / NJ MEN'S GOLF at Carpet Capital Collegiate in Dalton, Ga., I ■ m \ I III Friday-Sunday CONTACT IIS I_" I 1 I / I ’ VOLLEYBALL vs. Auburn, 7 p in. Friday uuiuavjl U J I ■ ■ I ^ I i WOMEN’S TENNIS at Furman FaU Classic, Friday-Sunday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I B III 111 CROSS COUNTRY at The Citadel Invitational, 9 a.m. Saturday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com I , I I FOOTBALL at Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. Satiu-day USC football team to bring momentum into Music City USC at Vanderbilt 7 p.m. Saturday Vanderbilt Stadium TV: Pay-per-view only BY KYLE ALMOND THE CAMECOCK According to offensive coordi nator Skip Holtz, the USC football team is riding high after its 42-21 win over Temple this past weekend. “We’ve had a good week of practice,” Holtz said. “The tempo has been upbeat and good. Coming off of a win is much bet ter than coming off of a loss. A loss stings and bums.” The Gamecocks will try to car ry that momentum over on to the playing field Saturday when they take on Vanderbilt in Nashville. USC (2-2, 0-1 SEC) dropped its conference opener to Georgia two weeks ago in Columbia, but it is a heavy favorite to earn its first SEC win this weekend. Vanderbilt (1-3,0-2) hasn’t had a winning season since 1982, and the Gamecocks routed the Commodores 46-14 last season. Carolina head coach Lou Holtz is wary, however, after seeing Vandy play Ole Miss close last weekend in Oxford. The pesky Commodores put up a serious challenge before losing by only a touchdown, 45-38. “Vanderbilt has an excellent team,” Lou Holtz said. “They rolled up a lot of yardage against Ole Miss. They had a couple of missed assignments in the secondary, but that was about it. Ole Miss could not run the ball effectively against them. I think Vanderbilt and Kentucky are the surprise teams in the SEC so far this season.” The Commodores are led by first-year head coach Bobby Johnson, .who has ties to South Carolina. Johnson was previous y the head coach at Furman, and le is a Columbia native who played at Clemson. “I used to sell drinks during :he games at the old Carolina Stadium,” Johnson said, looking lack. “We would sell drinks for ibout a quarter then watch the ;ame the rest of the way. It was lust a way of getting in free.” Johnson has brought to Vandy an option offense, led by quarter back Jay Cutler. Cutler, a redshirt freshman, has scored eight touch downs this season—four passing and four rushing. “He did a good job, making bet ter decisions and waiting for things to develop,” Johnson said of Cutler’s performance against Ole Miss. The Carolina coaching staff is also pleased with the progress of its starting quarterback, Corey Jenkins. Jenkins leads the team in both rushing (335 yards) and passing (663 yards), and he was 18 for-23 last weekend versus Temple. “Corey has done an amazing job for as little experience he has playing in a sophisticated of ♦ FOOTBALL, SEE PAGE 9 Corey Jenkins braces for a collision against Georgia two weeks ago in Columbia. Jenkins and the USC football team take on Vanderbilt this weekend in Nashville. Who has the edge in Saturday’s matchup? Check out our Web site to see how the two SEC East foes stack up against each other’s strengths and weaknesses. PHOTO BY TRAVIS LYNN/THE GAMECOCK SEC FOOTBALL Arkansas defense wants some respect FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. (AP) - Arkansas leads the nation in rushing defense and scoring defense and it ranks high in sever al other statistical categories. But who has noticed? The Razorbacks’ 2-0 start says more about what they haven’t done. Alabama (3-1) comes to Fayetteville to play its fifth game as the two teams open SEC play Saturday. The Razorbacks aren’t starved for re spect. They would settle for a little atten tion. Arkansas gets it this week with a na tionally televised game against the first team to truly test its run defense. Alabama has averaged 244.3 yards per game on the ground. “I know, as a linebacker corps, we’ve been ready for a running team to come in here forever,” starting inside linebacker Caleb Miller said. “We’re excited, and they (Alabama) have been like, ‘They better get ready for us to run,’ and we’ve been like, ‘Man, we wish you all were running us.’ We love that stuff.” Elsewhere in the SEC KENTUCKY AT NO. 7 FLORIDA: Kentucky (4-0), off to its best start since 1984, travels to Gainesville to play a Gators team (3-1,1-0) that is in good spirits after soundly beating Tennessee 30-13 on the road last week. SYRACUSE AT AUBURN: Auburn (3-1,1-0) plays a nonconference home contest against Syracuse and hopes to avenge last year’s loss to the Orangemen (1-2). MISSISSIPPI STATE AT NO. 22 LSU: LSU will have history on its side as it pre pares for its game against Mississippi 1 State. The Tigers (2-1) are 5-0 in confer ence openers against the Bulldogs (1-2,0- i i \ cinpp 1QQ9 ( RUTGERS AT NO. 11 TENNESSEE: After ! being upset by Florida last week, ( "ennessee (2-1,0-1) welcomes Rutgers (1-3) o Knoxville. NEW MEXICO STATE AT NO. 8 GEORGIA: Ifter crushing Northwestern State, Jeorgia (3-0,1-0) plays host to New Mexico !tate (1-2). The Aggies are playing their sec rnd SEC opponent this year. Volleyball action highlights busy weekend for USC BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK USC’s volleyball team returns to action this weekend looking to stay undefeated on its home floor. The Gamecocks are 6-0 at home this sea son and will face a pair of tough SEC opponents in Auburn and Alabama. Carolina (8-3,1-0 SEC) begins the weekend against Auburn on Friday night at 7 p.m, and the Gamecocks face Alabama on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Both games are at the Volleyball Competition Facility. The Tigers (1-11) have had more than their fair share of trouble this year as they begin their confer ence schedule. Auburn dropped a trio of matches last weekend at the Comcast Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M. Senior Grace Boyd is leading the way offensively for new head coach Laura Farina. Boyd is hitting .245, which places her as the best on a team collectively hitting .140. Alabama (9-5) continues SEC play against the Gamecocks after facing Kentucky in its SEC opener on Friday night. The Tide went 2-1 at the Georgia Tech Invitational this past weekend. Sophomore Erin Heffner is one of Alabama’s main threats, aver aging just over four kills per game. She’s also hitting .245 and is tops on the team with 117 digs. “We are glad to be home again this week,” USC head coach Kim Christopher said. “We really en joy the rivalry between Auburn and Alabama. It is important this weekend for us to focus on playing sharp and continue to get better each match.” . Women’s soccer The Carolina women’s soccer team, fresh off Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Furman, comes home Sunday to open SEC play against the Florida Gators. Florida (3-4-1) is reeling after a 4-0 loss to No. 2 Stanford this past weekend. USC (7-2) is playing well as of late, receiving strong perfor manrpQ from a number of players. Morgan McInty re, who scored two goals against the Paladins, leads the team with seven tallies on the sea son. ivnuneiuer McIntyre Jessica Julin was named to the Soccer America Team of the Week with two goals and an assist against Charleston Southern and N.C. State last week. The five-time SEC champion Gators have scored a total of only 10 goals in 2002. Sunday’s kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at the Graveyard. Other sports MEN’S SOCCER: The USC men’s soccer ^eam, ranked No. 3 by the NSCAA. hits the road Sunday for a matchup against Davidson. Led by goalkeeper Michael Bachmeyer’s 0.49 goals-against-av erage, Carolina (7-0-1) is tied for the nation’s longest unbeaten streak. Jordan Quinn has four game-winning goals for the Gamecocks. TENNIS: This weekend, the men’s and women’s tennis teams find themselves on the road in their first action of the fall season. The women head to Greenville to play in the Furman Fall Classic, while the men will take part in the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C. MEN’S GOLF: The men’s golf team will be in Dalton, Ga., this weekend at the Carpet Capital Collegiate. Martin Rominger leads the Gamecocks with a stroke average of 73.8. CROSS COUNTRY: USC ’s cross country team returns to Charleston on Sunday to partici pate in The Citadel Invitational. Carolina took part in the College of Charleston Invitational last weekend, and Gamecock run ner Jenny Lake won the race. EQUESTRIAN: The equestrian team begins its season Saturday with a competition at the Irish Oaks Equestrian Centre in Irmo. It will compete against Georgia and Auburn in an SEC showdown Sunday. Commentson this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Berna Dwyer and the Carolina volleyball team take on Auburn and Alabama this weekend at the Volleyball Competition Facility. Nine different sports teams from USC will be In action this weekend. ESPN not the No. 1 sports network MATTROTHENBERG GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Last week, while flipping through the channels late one night, I discovered that the best sports programming isn’t on ESPN. Not even on Fox Sports, either. It’s on The Learning Channel. You’re probably thinking that the only worthwhile shows on TLC are about dates, makeovers, babies, weddings, people who redecorate homes, and the world’s most dan gerous drivers or police chases. But there are indeed sports shows — ones that provide much more reality than “Survivor.” I saw two of them myself: “Sports Disasters” and “Sports Collisions and Crackups.” Just imagine you’re riding a racehorse and, all of a sudden, it rears up and flips you off. And when you’re on the ground, other horses are hitting you as they trot by. Not pretty, huh? Well, in my occasionally warped mind, some of these things that go wrong are the most amus ing items to watch on television. It makes me glad to say that I don’t ride horses or race ultra-fast cars, because that could be me on that show getting into all sorts of mis chief. What I enjoy even more, though, are the scenes from Europe and South America of when soccer matches go awry. I see that and think that I’m proud to be American, because we don’t take our soccer seriously enough to bash someone’s head in with a lead pipe in the middle of a mass riot. I have to give those people — the ones who overrun police and cause massive upheaval — credit because I find it somewhat pleas ing to see how far some people will go to disrupt an organized sport ing event. (On that note, I condone neither the actual performing of the dis ruption nor the participation of fans in the action of what happened at Comiskey Park last week.) in most cases, I say leave it up to the people on the field of play. Wouldn’t you know that you could see a lot of that on these programs? Let’s face it, some people go to hockey games to see fights, but the fights on these shows aren’t just simple one-on-one affairs — they’re all-out slugfests, with nu merous guys from both teams wail ing on each other, even the goalies! It got so bad, the referees had a dif ficult time controlling the situa tion and just let some of them go at it. The fisticuffs were so great that the radio announcer couldn’t con trol himself while broadcasting. Even minor league baseball has its fair share of brouhahas. College baseball does, too. One clip showed two umpires fighting each other because one of them couldn’t make up his mind on a call. Umpires versus umpires, umpires versus managers, umpires versus players, players versus players — these shows have them all. In a rather weird instance, Victor Page, a minor league bas ketball player, was so incensed about rough play that he chased an opponent all over the court with a broom. It just doesn’t get any better than that, does it? Yet, there are also the typical rodeo segments where riders get gored and kicked around by a huge bull or bronco and still live to tell their stories. Somehow, it makes one wonder how there’s always someone out there with a video camera to catch all this on tape. I think that as long as I live, I’ll always have a weakness for the 10 year-old (at least) clip of minor league outfielder Rodney McCray running straight through the wooden outfield wall in Portland, Ore. He didn’t make the catch, but he did break his nose. That shot just doesn’t get stale, no matter how often I see it shown. ♦ ROTHENBKRG, SEE PAGE 9