The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 29, 2003, Page 10, Image 10
J_Q THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, October 29, 2003
GAME SGHEDULF>
-£■»,'/ 1 I 1/ \ I ■fllLl MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING vs. Virginia, 3 p.m. Friday
PDNTArT m I_" fl I B ^ 1 I ' MEN’S SOCCER vs. Davidson, 7p.m. Friday
DUD rnui UU ^^S***^^ I I I I \ I i VOLLEYBALL at Auburn, 8 p.m. Friday
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? , 1 I 1 V I I ILf WOMEN’S TENNIS at Southern Intercollegiate
E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com rV_/ . r\^/ in Columbia, Friday
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning, right, has thrown for 8,791 yards and 70 touchdowns and looks to increase those numbers against USC on Saturday.
Manning has followed in family’s
footsteps into SEC’s record books
BY BRAD SENKIW
THE (1AMBC0CK
USC head coach Lou Holtz
isn’t just hyping up another op
ponent this time. The player that
Holtz offered up so much praise
to at Monday’s press conference
might just be deserved this sea
son. Ole Miss quarterback Eli
Manning is storming through the
SEC and its record books, plac
ing the Rebels at the top of the
Western Division heading into
Saturday’s contest with the
Gamecocks.
“He is the son of Archie and
the brother of Peyton and looks
just like them,” Holtz said. “Eli is
a great ball handler, carries out
his fakes well and is very smart
and accurate.”
Manning said he isn’t going to
let Holtz’s good words divert his
attention from the game.
“I don’t read the papers much,
so I don’t even know if I’ll see any
thing he says,” Manning said.
“I’ve known Coach Holtz’s quotes,
and he’s always very complimen
tary. He’s been doing that forev
er, and it’s a great strategy, so I’ll
probably try not to read his
quotes.”
With quarterbacking blood
running through his system,
Manning has Heisman candidate
written all over him. With his
own Web site for the Heisman
race and as a finalist for the
Johnny Unitas Golden Arm
Award for the top quarterback in
the country, he hasn’t let the hype
cluttqr his mind.
“I am not worried about the
Heisman. I am worried about Ole
Miss winning games, and we
have been doing a good job of
that,” Manning said. “I think
when you win games, everything
becomes better. Your school gets
on television more. I guess in that
way it helps, but the biggest thing
is winning games and playing
smart football.”
. And winning is just what this
Rebel team is doing. After knock
ing off Arkansas last week, Ole
Miss became bowl-eligible for the
seventh-consecutive season.
Manning has been a major part of
that over the past four years, and
Rebel head coach David Cutcliffe
said he “wouldn’t trade Eli for
anybody.”
Cutcliffe has also been im
pressed with how Manning has
handled himself on and off the
field this season.
“Eli’s got all the tools it takes,”
Cutcliffe said. “He’s just a very
gifted player mentally and physi
cally. The way he practices and
the way he leads on the practice
and game field, he’s been tremen
dous to this point.”
With large shoes to fill be
cause his father is a Rebel legend
and his older brother sits atop
several all-time SEC records, Eli
hasn’t allowed the shadows to
keep him from getting his name
in those same books, Although
he probably won’t catch Peyton
for the all-time career passing
yards leader, Eli’s 8,791 at this
point in the season is compara
ble to Peyton’s 11,201. However,
the younger Manning will likely
finish in the top five in nearly ev
ery passing category in the SEC
by the year’s end. And statistics
aren’t the only places to compare
the two.
“I think we’re pretty similar
quarterbacks,” Manning said.
“We are not known for running
the ball; we like to stay in the
pocket. We know what to do
with the ball quick and not sit in
the pocket and hold it a long
time.”
Eli also hasn’t done a bad job
passing his father, Archie, in the
Ole Miss record books. The son
holds 45 school records, includ
ing 70 touchdown passes and 1,197
passing attempts.
And he still has at least four
more games to increase those
numbers and contend for the con
ference championships.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksports@hotmail.com
SEC FOOTBALL NEWS AND NOTES
Week 10 features
2 important games
This Saturday, the SEC fea
tures three conference games
and three nonconference
games, while Alabama,
Mississippi State and
Vanderbilt are all getting a
needed week off.
The star attraction of this
weekend is The Largest
Outdoor Cocktail Party, with
No. 4 Georgia and No. 23 Florida
butting heads in Jacksonville,
Fla. Florida has won 12 of the
past 13 games, including last
year’s 20-13 win in Jacksonville.
Georgia’s loss to Florida was its
only loss of the season last year.
One interesting fact about
the coaches who will face off at
the game is that Florida head
coach Ron Zook graduated from
Miami. University in Ohio,
while Georgia head coach Mark
Richt graduated from the
University ofMiami in Florida.
The game will be shown on
CBS at 3:30 p.m.
USC travels to No. 20 Ole
Miss to face quarterback Eli
Manning and the Ole Miss of
fense at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
The only other SEC intra
conference game is between
Arkansas and Kentucky at
Commonwealth Stadium in
Lexington, Ky. In other action,
UL-Monroe plays at Auburn,
Duke goes to No. 19 Tennessee
and Louisiana Tech tries to
upset No. 7 LSU in Baton
Rouge, La.
Clausen, Lavalais
and Abney honored
Tennessee quarterback
Casey Clausen, LSU defensive
tackle Chad Lavalais and
Kentucky wide receiver Derek
Abney were each honored as
SEC Players of the Week on
Monday.
Clausen was 23-of-43 for 283
yards and four touchdowns in
Tennessee’s 51-43 quintuple
overtime victory at Alabama.
The Northridge, Calif., native
also had a rushing touchdown
Interested in taking The Gamecock’s Sports Challenge?
If you can beat the editors, you’ll win a free Gamecock T-Shirt. Send in your picks to
gamecocksports@hotmail.com by 2 p.m. Thursday. We’ll select ONE person at random to be our
reader of the week, whose picks will appear in Friday’s issue.
This week’s games:
Arkansas at Kentucky
Virginia at N.C. State
12 Nebraska at 16 Texas
11 Michigan at 9 Michigan State
6 Washington State at 3 Southern Cal
2 Miami at 10 Virginia Tech
14 Oklahoma State at 1 Oklahoma
4 Georgia at 23 Florida
Clemson at Wake Forest
USC at 20 Ole Miss
Rankings are from
The Associated Press.
♦ FOR TIE-BREAKING PURPOSES, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SCORE FOR THE USC-OLE MISS GAME.
AND DON’T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME!
in the fifth overtime to give
Tennessee the win.
Lavalais, in winning De
fensive Player of the Week, had
eight tackles, including three
for loss and one sack in LSU’s
31-7 thrashing of Auburn. The
Tiger lineman also stopped
Auburn running back Camell
Williams for a five-yard loss on
a fourth-down play, which led
to an LSU touchdown.
In Kentucky’s victory of
Mississippi State on Saturday,
Abney ran back a punt return
for 80 yards that culminated in
a touchdown, and he won the
Special Teams Player of the
Week award. His punt-return
touchdown was his eighth and
ties an NCAA record.
Manning named
a finalist for award
Ole Miss quarterback Eli
Manning was named to the fi
nalist list for the Johnny Unitas
Golden Arm Award. The
Unitas Award is annually giv
en to the best senior quarter
back in the nation. Other final
ists include Texas Tech’s B. J.
Symons, Michigan’s John
Navarre, Oklahoma’s Jason
White, N.C. State’s Philip
Rivers, Tulane’s J.P. Losman
and Virginia’s Matt Schaub.
The award is named after
quarterback Johnny Unitas, an
NFL Hall of Fame inductee who
played football at Louisville.
CLUB CORNER
■ ____
uoo uicn team
The USC crew team took
medals at the 28th-annual
Head of the Tennessee Regatta
on the Tennessee River in
Knoxville on Oct. 25. The
men’s club 4 finished in third
place out of 22 collegiate en
tries with a time of 0:17:53 for
5000-meters.
The team finished ahead of
in-state rival Clemson, which
placed 12th. Rowing in the
men’s club 4 were Etai Eshel,
Daniel Ungeheuer, Michael
Pickard, Giampaolo Paggi and
Jessica Greene. If interested
in joining the team, check out
http: / / ww w. geocities .com/
southcarolinagamecockcrew
for more information.
Send us your club info
Feel free to send at least 75 words about your club's happenings to
gamecocksports@ihotmail.com by 2p.m. Wednesday.
American
Dream is
alive in
the NBA
TYLERJONES
GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM
Pro basketball is full of
young, exciting talent.
I have a confession to make.
Don’t worry, I’m not Catholic.
And, no, I’m not going to say that I
was impressed with Dondrial’s
play this past weekend—although^
I was. My confession is that I am --
big-time NBA fan.
That’s right, I am a worshiper
of spoiled millionaires who are glo
rified thugs that smoke drugs,
cheat on their wives and adorn
their bodies with garish jewelry
and equally absurd tattoos. In fact,
I look up to them, both figuratively
and literally. I sit on my couch and
marvel at the physical prowess
they possess — streaking through
a forest of 7-footers before tossing
up a backboard-kissing score —
and think how much more I would
want to score 50 points in an NBA
game than run for 200 in an NFL
game or hit three home runs
dgeuiiM uic laiiivcca.
Sure, I love the college game.
Who can honestly say that March
Madness isn’t the most excitir
sporting phenomenon in America.
I, for one, can testify to some of my
happiest moments being the first
Thursday afternoon of March
Madness with a bevy of beverages
in the fridge and an absent check
by my name when roll was called
in class. But I digress.
The NBA is not an old man’s
game. There are a few old men who
play it, but for the most part, the
NBA is young, urban and aggres
sive. It is a game of individual tal
ent, a place where the American
Dream lingers on for poor, ghetto
youth and a game that created the
greatest sporting icon in the 20th
century.
The problem is that Stem and
the rest of the league seem irr
mutably resolute that only one
man can fill Michael Jordan’s
Nikes. First it was Kobe, now it is
LeBron. The strength of the NBA
is such that for the first time in
decades there is a wealth of talent
that, as a collective whole, rivals
any other era in the history of pro
fessional basketball. Why, then,
does the NBA not market its
plethora of depth instead of re
mainino cfparlfact in it« «parr*h fnr
the next messiah?
You like a smooth swingman
that can score at will? I give you
Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter,
Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Latrell
Sprewell, Ray Allen and Caron
Butler. You say you want powe
and defense? Ben Wallace an
Jermaine O’Neal. What about
heart, guts and hustle, all in a
body that barely hits 6 feet? My
hero, Allen Iverson, fits that mold.
What about an all-around player, a
classic if you will? Tim Duncan,
Chris Webber and Kevin Garnett
come to mind.
The list can go on and on, but I
still know what you’re saying: •
“The NBA? Are you kidding me?”
Want more proof then? OK, I’ll
pull out the big guns. The NBA is
better because it has the best an
nouncers in sports. I’ll take Bill
Walton’s acid-inspired ramblings
over Dickie V’s senile rants any
day. And what about Charles
Barkley’s never ending opinion,
or the derriere-biting wit of Marv
Albert?
Damn this word limit! I need f
talk about tattoos and weed. I nee.
to talk about the Clippers and the
Sixers. I need to talk about how
Mark Cuban is the greatest owner
in sports. I certainly need to talk
about how I watched two games last
night and I’ll watch two more
tonight and that my Halloween is
wrecked because Iverson is play
ing Sacramento on Friday.
Jones is a graduate student in the
College of Journalism and
Informadon Studes.