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| Pep Talk By Kevin Adams ' USC overcomei Met Life Classi j USC's 23-7 victory over North '[Carolina State was important to the iGamecock program in a lot of ways. After the recent swirl of controversy surrounding the team, the Gamecocks went out and played, aside from the 23-10 win over Georgia, their most complete game of the season. | The 34-0 loss to lowly Georgia Tech in their last outing, the arrest of three team members in Five Points after the game for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct (one player was charged with assault), the < recent allegations of widespread drug i use on the USC squad by former player Tommy Chaikin and some j rather critical comments about team discipline by new athletic director King Dixon all had to be weighing heavily on the minds of the < Gamecock players and coaches prior to the game in Raleigh. i Whether the Gamecocks were motivated by all of that or whether they simply blocked it out of their i minds, I don't know. But whatever I approach they took, it worked. The USC coaching staff, under j trying circumstances, simply came in I with a beautiful game plan, concen- i trating on the running game and getting the ball to a rejuvenated Harold Green. It worked. 1 The Gamecock running attack 1 gradually wore down the Wolfpack t defense, ranked No. 1 nationally i coming in, by constantly working the i short side of the field with outside pitches to Green and backup Mike 1 Dingle. The improved running attack ( also made quarterback Todd Ellis { more effective as he was able to keep 1 the N.C. State defenders off-balance. i The Wolfpack had to play the run, I enabling Ellis to pick his passing spots and set up the screen. He did so 1 effectively, completing 13 of 23 s passes, including his last, seven in a c row, for 172 yards and a touchdown. \ In the past three games, with no run- j ning attack to speak of, Ellis had t thrown 12 interceptions. s The defensive game plan was ^ brilliant, too. Defensive coordinator a Joe Lee Dunn, known for timely ad- s justments, devised a zone pass defense, partly because of the speedy c Wolfpack receivers and partly c because the Gamecocks' leading t tackier, free safety Ron Rabune, was C :f ' 1 ' ,.s. ,?xrt , #*wvw ^ 4 USC sophomore forward Clark Brisson : player in the Gamecocks' 1-0 victory Sund the Metropolitan Life Classic soccer Graveyard. GIVE BLOOD, PLEASE ppf"*" $&, | S-Jr&f f controversy; c this weekend injured. The defensive scheme surprised the N.C. State coaches because the Gamecocks had used man-to-man coverage since Dunn's arrival last season. Wolfpack head coach Dick Sheridan admitted it was a key to the Gamecock defensive dominance of his team. And don't forget the players. The defense, led by Patrick Hinton's fumble recovery and three interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) and the play of David Taylor and Kevin Hendrix, was stifling. For his efforts, Hinton was named national defensive player of the week by The Sporting New-:. And the offense, after a slow first half, had several long scoring drives in the second thirty minutes, led by Green, Dingle, and Ellis. Eddie Miller caught his first eareer touchdown pass and Collin Mackie had three fie"(d goals, while the offensive line blocked superbly. In other words, it was a team effort. The Gamecocks seemed to come together as a group and put the past behind them. It's been said that overcoming adversity is the sign of a good team. Saturday night, the Gamecocks did more than their share. Now let's talk soccer. Mark Berson's Gamecocks are losting their second annual Metropolitan Life Soccer Classic at hp riraypvarH thic u/pphanH Thm? will be joined by collegiate powers \ir Force, Indiana and Stanford. Berson, the only coach USC soccer las ever had, has also molded the jamecocks into a true national ^ower. This year, the Gamecocks are 11-3-3, nationally-ranked and comng off a big win over region rival ^.C. State Sunday. Since 1983, when the Gamecocks 'inished 8-11-2 (Berson's only losing ;eason), USC has compiled a record )f 78-17-9 (.821). They've made the ^JCAA tournament the last three fears and have also finished in the op ten each of those years. Last eason, the Gamecocks finished No. ! in the final regular season poll. And ill this against one of the toughest chedules in college soccer'. So hats off to Berson, assistant :oach Trevor Adair and the USC soc:er team. And if you want to see the >est in college soccer, be at the jraveyard this weekend. DAS A PURSER/1 he UamecocK shields the ball from an N.C. State lay at The Graveyard. USC will host tournament this weekend at The + American Red Cross Pleased M By KEVIN ADAMS Sports editor USC head football coach Joe Morrison saic Monday at his weekly press conference that hi: team showed a lot of character in last Saturday': 23-7 win over North Carolina State in Raleigh. But he warned that they'll have to play even bet ter this week at Williams-Brice Stadium agains No. 5 Florida State. The victory over the Wolfpack was Morrison': 100th as a college coach, and it couldn t have comi at a better time, as the Gamecocks were reeling from a 34-0 loss to Georgia Tech two weeks ago ii Atlanta, the arrest of three football players tha same night and recent allegations of widespreac steroid use in the USC program by former playei Tommy Chaikin. Morrison, however, preferred to talk football. "They were a good, good football team," Mor rison said of N.C. State. "There's no doubt abou that. But we felt good about our young men anc the way they played." "I think any time that you take a group of young men into a stadium that was loud and certainlj noisy, and they play like they did and come awaj with a win, I think that they showed a lot ol character," Morrison said. "And they showed a lot of character to me, par ticularly there in the fourth quarter after North Carolina State had come back and made it a 13-" ballgame, to take the ball and march down the fielc and get it in the endzone for a touchdown. Because I think we all know there's been a lot of funny en dings up there to some of the ballgames that we've played, and that kind of eliminated that. I tolc them after the ballgame that I was very proud ol them ... for their efforts." HH " ^ i ^ v' i; ^ :>?* ... ?5-v ~ r . , " V .. ' ' ' , . . -: " USC quarterback Todd Ellis hands off to Keith Bi the running game helped the Gamecocks against tl against No. 5 Florida State. ( JACKETS?CAPS "Anything Textile" I Lhmhihh ^^^KiTiiMflRVvul iwi1^ ifi^BWPl iiw^ a vW ifkiMlWprHlii>^^ orrison look USC had lost 23-22 in Raleigh in 1986, when " Wolfpack quarterback Erik Kramer completed a we'1 1 33-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Danny yeai s Peebles with no time remaining. An offsides penal- didi s ty against the Gamecock defense had given the that Wolfpack one more play even though time had said already run out. usee t Morrison said the defense, which held the \ Wolfpack to 27 yards rushing; linebacker Patrick Setr s Hinton, who had three interceptions and a fumble " t recovery; and the Gamecock running attack, led by said I Harold Green's 85 yards, were obvious keys to the . Floi l win, but he said quarterback Todd Ellis and the of- tion t fensive line greatly contributed as well. offe i "I thought Todd played well the whole " r ballgame. He started making the right decisions as ball far as the running game goes. Throwing the ball, I moi thought he threw the ball well, except on the one a lo interception. aeit t "I think Todd plays well. I've got a great deal of T 1 faith and a great deal of confidence in him. shoi "I can't say enough for our offensive line. I Moi I thought they played well. I thought they came off " / the ball well and I thought they blocked well. Late and ! in the ballgame, they started knocking them off the onlj f ball a little bit." prol Morrison said he thought that the win over N.C. tricl State marked the beginning of the Gamecocks' com 1 return from the loss to Georgia Tech. F ' "I would think so. I think we can continue to im- to d I prove. We're certainly not where we want to be, T ; but I think that the game last week certainly helped beat get us started back." " : In Raleigh, USC won in garnet pants for the first no < 1 time since 1986. Morrison, admittedly hav< f superstitious, said there were a couple of reasons emc for that. type ft \ 1J Jj '-3^ *|| | ^ | jWWLJK | , . jjpfl 5 ^ J v ^ . --X.m,. * JKMr* Jr % -ssJfC TEDDY LEPP/Tht O ng in Saturday's 23-7 victory over N.C. State. The rejuvenatic he Wolfpack and will be just as important in this Saturday's $ ? _Cl COCKS! ;hamp 15? "SF 791-5638 *>" Come By Our New Location 1 36 State Street, West Columbia . . . just across Gervais St. Bridge, S min from (ISC ?| LOOKING FOR mk lis RI VERB E N] For Additional Ir P= COLLEI Put your cduc Lawye "The Car. at The National < Oldest and largest program in the Soi Employment assist states have hired o 3 month day progi 7 month evening f Diversified Currict Corporations, or R m Computers in the Meet v Wednesday, Ic< ThcNai SSp^9Hk| 800-2 Please sent Name Address City College s to FSU We really hadn't worn those garnet pants, and ve had them around for the better part of a r, I'd guess," he said. "Hell, the black ones just 1't work very well over there in Atlanta. I guess was probably the deciding factor," Morrison I, adding that the garnet pants will probably be 1 again "in two or three weeks." lorrison then turned his attention to the linoles. Florida State is an excellent football team," I Morrison. "I think when everyone thinks of -ida State, they think of their offensive produc ana wnai iney ve accompnsnea over ine years :nsively. I think they're an outstanding defensive footteam. It looks like they're blitzing a little bit e than what I remember in the past. They have t of talent, and they have a lot of speed on the rnsive side of the football." he Seminoles were idle last week, and that aid give them an extra advantage, said rrison. They've got a lot of weapons in their arsenal I'm sure that having the week off . . . will not 1 give them a chance to get healthy again, but bably give them a chance to practice on any cs that they may have had already or will have le Saturday night," he said. lorida State used a fake punt in the last minutes efeat Clemson earlier this year, ricks or no tricks, USC must be in top form to : the Seminoles this week, Morrison said. They're a doggone good football team, there's ioubt about that," he said. "We're going to 2 to be at our best physically, mentally and itionally ? all the way around ? to play the : of game that we want to play." |jj| Iiu. Wyoming 11. Arkansas asr *"" 14. Michigan 15. South Carolina 16. Syracuse 17. Clemson 18. Alabama 19. Georgia 20. Brigham Young (tie) 20. 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