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' i n.£j UAiviriL.uv^j\ ▼ weunesuuy, uuiuuer ou, - <v T^| i^w ”| \ m rN GAME SCHEDULE CONTACT US I } I I I J' I ’ SWIMMING AND DIVING vs. Kentucky, 5 p.m. Friday I ■ ■ I A I i MEN’S SOCCER vs. Coastal Carolina in Charleston, 5 p.m. Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I \ #1B 111 VOLLEYBALL vs. Ole Miss, 7 p.m. Friday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com rV_y WOMEN’S TENNIS in Southern Intercollegiate (in Columbia), Friday Latest practice worries Holtz PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Andrew Pinnock and the Gamecocks return from their bye week to take on Tennessee this weekend at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Student Gamecock Club is urging Carolina fans to wear garnet for the game as part of Its “Garnet Gameday” promotion. BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK Tuesday’s practice for the USC football team left a lot to be desired for head coach Lou Holtz. “I was convinced, walking off the practice field, that practice was every bit as bad as I thought it was,” Holtz said. “I'm positive of ~ that.” Holtz said the passing game was n't crisp and the execution of the of fense was poor. “You need to have a sound prac- Holtz tice on Tuesday, and we didn't,” he said. “I'm going to look at the film tonight and find out why.” The Gamecocks, perhaps rusty from a week off, are going to have to turn things around by Saturday, when they play host to No. 25 Tennessee at Williams Brice Stadium. The Volunteers, a national title contender in August, have had a disappointing season. UT is 4-3 overall, 1-3 in the SEC. But Holtz is still worried. “You don’t want to play a team that is used to winning when they are wounded,” he said. “Last year, we did not convert on third and 6 inches. They converted on third and 24. The year before, they con verted on third and 17, and 111 nev er forget it. I know they are going to be right mentally.” Brewer won’t play Senior wide receiver/tailback Ryan Brewer, one of the toughest players on the team and perhaps the most versatile, will not play this weekend because of a sprained left ankle. His absence forces the coaching staff to find a suitable replacement at punt returner. “I kept hoping Ryan would be back,” Holtz said. “We are.not very good at punt return.... Every time I put someone (new) back there, we fumble the ball.” Holtz said the leading candi dates for the job are Jared Farabee and Dunta Robinson. But he added that James Adkisson, Matthew Thomas and Troy Williamson are also options. “Garnet Gameday” The Student Gamecock Club is sponsoring “Garnet Gameday" .for Saturday’s game and asking all Carolina fans to wear as much garnet as possible to the stadium. “We want to support our foot ball team in every way possible, and we hope by doing this, it will show unity and support for our football team,” Student Gamecock Club President Chris Odom said. Saturday’s game will be broad cast nationally on CBS. “We can show the nation that the best college football fans are at Williams-Brice Stadium every Saturday cheering on the Gamecocks to victory,” Odom said. The Student Gamecock Club also sponsored the “Blackout” last season when Carolina played Florida on ESPN. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com SPORTS EDITORS SOUND OFF No excuses left for Vo Is after the Alabama fiasco KYLE ALMOND GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM The Crimson Tide put on a clinic and showed the country how to beat UT. OK, Tennessee fans, what’s your excuse this time? The Florida loss was a fluke be cause you guys were playing in a monsoon. You lost to Georgia be cause “Surfer Dude” didn’t play. I’ll be nice and give you those two. But 34-14 to ’Bama? What hap pened there? Sure, Clausen’s col larbone might still be sore and Kelley Washington was out. But there’s no excuse to get embar rassed like that when you’re play ing for your SEC lives. The fact is, Tennessee is mediocre at best this season, and the Vols are lucky to even be where they are now — one missed field goal away from being 04 in the SEC. I’m not claiming that my Gamecocks are world-beaters. We’ve got our problems, too. But after the Tide exposed your team’s weaknesses for all to see, I’m confident that USC has a great chance to come out on top Saturday when it battles the Vols in Williams-Brice Stadium. ♦ WEAKNESS NO. 1 - NO RUN DEFENSE The Vols historically are solid here, but they got pushed around last week by the Tide. And a few weeks ago, Arkansas’ Matt Jones was running circles around your guys for four quarters and six overtimes. That doesn’t bode well for UT this weekend. If Jones can do what he did, imagine what Corey Jenkins —the hardest-working quarterback in college football — is capable of doing. The old man is just licking his chops right now, waiting for the chance to wear your boys out. “The fact is, Tennessee is mediocre at best this season, and the Vols are lucky to even be where they are now - one missed field goal away from being 0-4 in the SEC." And you can bet Andrew Pinnock is ready to redeem him self for last season, when he came up short on 4th and goal from the 1. He’ll get that yard this year. ♦ WEAKNESS NO. 2 - NO ESTABLISHED TAILBACK It looks like you can recruit al most too well. The Vols are miss ing a No. 1 tailback — a clear-cut starter like Travis Stephens and Jamal Lewis—and it’s hurting an offense that is dying for continuity. How many guys want to be the mail in Knoxville? I count four — Jabari Davis, Cedric Houston, Derrick Tinsley and Gerald Riggs. I guess it doesn’t help, though, that your offensive line is one of ♦ ALMOND, SEEPAGE 12 Neither Carolina nor UT playing up to its potential JEFF HAWS BEACONSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM The Vols have gone from contender to pretender and could be in trouble. I said before the season started that the Gamecocks would beat the Vols this year. It looked like the perfect spot for a letdown — the week before the big showdown with Miami where two top-five teams would go at it, possibly for a spot in the national championship game. But, oh, how things have changed. Amid injuries, mistakes and team turmoil, Tennessee has be come an also-ran — a team searching to find itself, not a na tional championship. South Carolina, meanwhile, doesn’t look much better. The best team it has beaten is Kentucky, somehow holding “The Round Mound of Touchdown,” Jared Lorenzen, and the Wildcats offense to 12 points. Having been hammered 38-14 by an LSU team two weeks ago that was dominat ed by Auburn 31-7 last week, the Gamecocks aren’t exactly playing their best ball. Offensively, they rank in the bottom half of the SEC in every category except for rushing of fense, where they stand an unim pressive sixth. Corey Jenkins hasn’t had a 100-yard rushing game for several weeks now, and South Carolina needs him to make some plays, especially against a banged-up Vols defense. However, offense might not be necessary for the Cocks on Saturday. Tennessee hasn’t done much right on offense since week one against Wyoming. It has struggled in every aspect — rushing, pass ing, personnel, blocking, fum “Offense might not be necessary for the Cocks on Saturday. Tennessee hasn’t done much right on offense since week one against Wyoming.” bling and avoiding penalties. Besides that, though, the UT of fense has been outstanding. The one part of the offensive game that the Vols hadn’t had problems with through the first six games went out the window against Alabama when Casey Clausen tied a career-high with three interceptions. And then there’s Kelley Washington. The sophomore wideout, who looked poised to add to the lega cy of “Wide Receiver U.,” has turned into a problem child — a cancer tearing this team apart rather than leading it to promi nence. He was surprisingly scratched from the lineup just before the 34 14 loss to ’Bama with a “concus sion,” supposedly suffered two ♦ HAWS, SEEPAGE 12 Women’s soccer nips Wofford Carter scores game-winner in 5lst minute W Wofford o (5-11-2) eusc 1 (12-5-2) BY JOEL DODSON TIIEUAMKCOCK Defense continues to shine fo the USC women’s soccer team. After holding the Alabami Crimson Tide, the SEC leaders u scoring, to one goal Saturday, th Gamecocks managpd to shut ou the speedy Wofford Terriers oi Tuesday night l-o. The shutout i the eighth for the Gamecocks (12-5 2) this season. “Defensively, we played very solid," USC head coach Shelley Smith said. “The only chance they had was a long-range shot in the second half.” In the first half, however, the Gamecocks struggled offensively. Except for one shot by senior for ward Morgan McIntyre that was knocked over the net by Wofford goalkeeper Katie Menegaz, USC never threatened. “We started off really slow,” said senior midfielder Melinda Carter, who scored the game-win ner in the 51st minute. “Wofford i came out really tough and wanted i to get after us. The first 20 minutes ; we were playing well, and then we t dropped off. The second half, how i ever, we picked it back up.” s The second half, indeed, was a different story. After an unin spired first half, the Gamecocks came roaring back offensively. “We had our same game plan, but we just got behind them better, ” Smith said. “We were forcing the ball down the middle of the field too much, but we stretched them out.” USC outshot the Terriers 13-1, with eight of them on goal. At the 50:23 mark in the match, Sarah Lentz made a diagonal cross to Carter at the far side of the goal, and Carter managed to slip it past Menegaz for the game’s only score. It was her sixth goal of the season. “At halftime, our coaches were talking about how we needed to run behind them and watch for long passes,” Carter said. “I wasn’t trying to do anything spectacular —just frying to get it in there.” ♦ SOCCER, SEE PAGE 12 USC senior Jessica Julin, left, played her last home game on Tuesday night, and the Gamecocks came out with a 1-0 victory. Fellow senior Melinda Carter notched the game winner and improved USC’s record to 12-5-2. PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK