The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 14, 2003, Page 7, Image 7
I . ■ 7
GAME SCHEDULE
CONTACT US MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? VOLLEYBALL vs. Florida, 7 p.m., Friday;
E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com FOOTBALL vs. Florida, 12:30 p.m., Saturday;
USC looks to surprise Gators
BY JONATHAN HILLYARD
THE GAMECOCK
For the third straight week, the
^ Gamecocks (5-5,2-5 SEC) will try
W to become bowl-eligible with a win
against the No. 15 Florida Gators
(7-3,5-2) on Saturday at Williams
Brice Stadium.
The Gamecocks will take on a
hot Florida team that’s on a four
game winning streak. The streak
includes a three-game stretch in
which the Gators defeated three
top-11 teams in a row—LSU, then
No. 11 ranked Arkansas and then
No. 4 ranked Georgia.
These three teams defeated
Carolina by a combined total of 92
20. The streak also put the Gators
back at a tie for the SEC lead, but
they will need to defeat USC and
get a little help from Tennessee
and Georgia to reach the SEC
championship game.
lrue-iresnmau yuaneruacK
^ Chris Leak leads this edition of the
? always-dangerous Florida offense.
Leak is now 5-1 as a starter for the
Gators and ranks sixth in the con
ference in pass efficiency.
“Chris Leak is special, and we
all knew that coming out of high
school,” USC head coach Lou
Holtz said in a news release. “He
has 60 percent accuracy, great
poise, runs the team and has as
good a touch on the ball as anyone
I have seen.”
Including Leak, 14 true fresh
men have played for Florida this
season. This also includes stand
out linebacker Channing
Crowder, who ranks second in
the SEC in total tackles.
Freshmen lead Florida in
rushing, passing, kick returns
and punting.
While the Gators will have all
their freshmen weapons at their
disposal, the Gamecocks will be
without freshman phenom
Demetris Summers, who suffered
a concussion against Arkansas.
Summers’ headaches subsided as
of Wednesday’s practice, and he
was participating in light running.
Summers is also questionable for
next week’s game against arch ri
val Clemson.
Summers’ absence will mean
more carries for running backs
Daccus Turman and Cory Boyd
but also means another shot for
Kenny Irons, who has had only
one carry since the loss to
Georgia. According to Holtz, Irons
had a good week of practice and
deserves to get some carries.
While the shuffling of runners
is nothing new for Carolina this
season, another offensive change
could greatly affect the
Gamecocks on Saturday. After
quarterback Dondrial Pinkins
committed a career-high three
turnovers, Holtz said on Monday
that another quarterback,
whether it be Bennett Swygert or
Mike Rathe, will play some
against Florida.
“You can take that sucker to the
bank,” Holtz said. “I don’t care
what the score is, what the situa
tion is, somebody else is going to
play a couple series.”
Offensive coordinator Skip
Holtz said Wednesday to look for
a backup quarterback in the third
offensive series.
Whoever is under center for
USC will have to be sharp against
the Florida defense, which is led
by former Carolina defensive co
ordinator Charlie Strong. Strong
spent the previous four seasons
at USC under Holtz, in which he
produced three defenses that
ranked in the nation’s top 30.
“USC is a special place for
me,” Strong said this week.
“Nobody knew who Charlie
Strong was until I was at South
Carolina. That’s where it all
started for me.”
Strong’s ultimate goal of be
coming a head coach fueled his
decision to make the move to
Florida last December, since five
of Florida’s last seven defensive
coordinators have become head
coaches. Strong was very popular
among the players at Carolina
and made a personal phone call
to all of his defensive players
when he decided to leave for
Florida.
The toughest part wiu oe
standing on the visitors’ side
line,” Strong said.
His new defense has been
playing tremendously well as of
late and is lead by a secondary
with four senior starters. The de
fensive unit is ranked second in
the conference in pass defense
and is lead by Keiwan Ratliff,
who leads the league in inter
ceptions with eight.
South Carolina has lost 12
straight to Florida and will look
to end that streak Saturday at
12:30 p.m. The game will be tele
vised regionally by Jefferson-Pilot
Sports.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksports@hotmail.com
* Exhibiting a new team
W PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK
Newcomer Josh Gonner, who scored 18 points, drives down the court in last night's exhibition
game against the Inter Hoop team from Lithuania. The Gamecocks won the contest 81-62.
USC will play again Monday against Gardner-Webb In the first game of the season.
SPORTS CHALLENGE
THE CHALLENGE:
The Gamecock’s readers and
staff test their sports knowledge
with predictions of the
weekend’s games. (Rankings
are from The Associated Press.)
Brad
Senklw
Sports
Editor
(64-46)
Wes
Wolfe
Asst. Sports
Editor
(61-49)
Charles
Tomlinson
Editor in
Chief
(64-46)
Adam
Beam
Managing
Editor
(74-36)
Shawn
Rourk
Head
Designer
(69-41)
Michael
Shiriey
Reader of
the Week
(61-49)
Auburn at 7 Georgia _ Georgia GeorgiaGeorgia Georgia Georgia Georgia
3 LSU at Alabama _LSU _Alabama LSU LSU LSU LSU _
Kansas St. at 18 Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Kansas St. Nebraska
19 Minnesota at 20 Iowa Minn. Jowa_ Minn. Jowa_Iowa Minn.
11 Purdue at 4 Ohio St. Ohio St. Ohio St. Purdue Purdue Ohio St. Ohio St. __
^ 21 Michigan St. at Wisconsin Wisconsin Mich. St. Mich. St. Mich. State Wisconsin Mich. St.
* Texas Tech at 6 Texas Texas Texas_Texas Texas Texas Texas
N.C. State at13 Florida St Fla. St. Ha. St. Fla. St. Fla. St. Fla. St. Fla. St.
Duke at ClemsonClemson Duke Clemson Clemson_Clemson Duke
15 RoridaatUSC USC USC Florida USC USC USC
20-17 27-24 27-10 35-24 26-23 24-21
SPORTS CHALLENGE'S 11TH-WEEK OUTLOOK: Photo Editor Morgan Ford pulled out a big victory, with a 7-3
record, for the selected staff member, keeping Managing Editor Adam Beam and Editor in Chief Charles Tomlinson
at bay. Reader of the week Jonathan Couch, who went 6-4, tied the overall bottom spot with Assistant Sports Editor
Wes Wolfe, who has fallen drastically in the standings. Wolfe finished at 3-7, while Sports Editor Brad Senkiw only
bettered him by one game for the week. Beam continues dominance with only a couple of weeks left in the year.
WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail your selections next week to gamecocksports@hotmail.com. If
you’re picked and^hpve the best record, you’ll win a free Gamecock T-shirt and be able to talk all the trash you want.
FILE PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
USC’s Cory Boyd will be asked to carry more of the load
against Florida on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Two of SEC’s
best to take on
volleyball team
BY WES WOLFE
THE GAMECOCK
The USC volleyball team (12
14,6-8 SEC) has its work cut out
for it this weekend when it plays
host to two of the best teams in
the SEC, Florida (26-1,14-0) and
Georgia (15-12,8-6).
Florida, ranked No. 3 in the
USA Today/AVCA poll, arrives
in Columbia riding a 26-match
win streak and an unbelievable
128-match regular-season win
streak in conference play. The
SEC streak includes Florida’s
3-0 win over Carolina in
Gainesville, Fla., on Oct. 26. The
Gators’ only loss this season
came at the hands of No. 1
Southern Cal, and Florida
hasn’t lost a game since the
third game of its match with No.
15 Kansas State.
Florida shut out its next 25
opponents leading up to the
match with USC. These
shutouts include wins over
ranked opponents like No. 7
UC-Santa Barbara, No. 4
Stanford and No. 20 Minnesota,
along with the Kansas State
victory.
The dominance that the
Gators have had over their foes
this season cannot be overesti
mated. Florida destroyed
Auburn in a Sept. 28 match in
Gainesville, holding the Tigers
to just six points in the third
game. Also, the Gators’ SEC win
streak is the longest ever in
NCAA women’s volleyball, as is
Florida’s 76-game win streak,
which extends from game four
of the Kansas State match.
Florida has also won 12 consec
utive SEC regular-season
championships.
Not only have previous
Florida teams been good, but
this squad has been playing ex
ceptionally. The Gators are cur
rently hitting .348 as a team on
the season, which puts them at
a pace to break the school’s sea
son hitting record of .318.
Individually, outside hitter
Aury Cruz broke the school
record for aces in the match '
against USC, and middle blocker
Batavia Jenkins recently
became the second player in
Florida history to have 1,000
kills and 500 blocks in a career.
Jenkins is out for the season,
however, because she injured
her right knee in the first game
of the Florida-Carolina match in
October.
Two days after USC plays
Florida, Georgia comes to town.
The Bulldogs are 4-2 in SEC road
matches this year, beating
Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss and
Mississippi State in four straight
matches. The two losses came as
a result of shutouts by Florida
and Tennessee in consecutive
matches.
Georgia has some hope of
beating Carolina because it will
bring outside hitter Julia
Petruschke, who was named
SEC Volleyball Player of the
Week on Monday, to the match.
The sophomore from Germany
played excellently in matches
against LSU and Arkansas last
week. Against LSU last Friday,
Petruschke hit 14 kills and had
only one error, while against
Arkansas she notched her 15th
double-double of the year by nail
ing 23 kills and getting 10 digs.
In Georgia’s 3-1 victory over USC
on Oct. 24, Petruschke had 12
kills, six errors, 12 digs and one
block.
The Bulldogs are coming off
a 1-2 homestand going into the
match against Carolina, beat
ing LSU and then losing to
Arkansas and No. 6 Georgia
Tech. The 3-0 loss on
Wednesday against the highly
ranked Yellow Jackets featured
tough play by Georgia. Even
though the Bulldogs were shut
out, they played well enough to
win the match, only losing by
three points in games two and
three.
Florida and USC go at it at 7
p.m. tonight, and the
Gamecocks take on Georgia at
1:30 p.m. Sunday. These two
matches will be the last
Carolina plays before the SEC
Volleyball Tournament starts
in Columbia next week.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksportsfajwtmailcom
Football
season
not over
yet, fans
JAY POU
GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM
There’s still a lot to play
for in last 2 games.
With the 2003 USC football sea
' son looking more and more like
2002’s disappointing season, many
Carolina fans are starting to lose
faith in the Gamecocks. With our
last two games against Florida and
Clemson, many have already writ
ten this season off, expecting an
other mediocre 5-7 finish. There’s
no need to chalk this season up as
a loss. We can beat Florida and
Clemson.
Everyone knows we’ll give the
Tigers all they can handle, but
most people are scared stiff of the
Florida Gators. After all, you have
to go back to 1939 to find the last
Gamecock win in the series. Many
of you are probably still smarting
from the 54-17 thumping the Cocks- -
took the last time the Gators came
to Columbia.
But things have changed.
Florida doesn’t dominate the SEC
like it did two years ago. Since
Steve Spurrier’s departure, the
Gators have struggled against op
ponents they used to throttle. Just
last week they squeaked out a 35
17 win over the lowly Vanderbilt
Commodores. In fact of Spurrier’s
12 seasons as "Florida head coach,
he only lost three or more games
on three occasions, which Zook
has already done twice in less than
two seasons. This isn’t the same
Florida that SEC teams used to
have nightmares about.
The Gators start a true fresh
man at quarterback, for crying out
loud. Granted, Chris Leak was one
of the top high-school quarter
backs in last year’s national re
„ cruiting class, but it is still his first
year playing in the ultra-tough .
SEC. Leak is vulnerable, especial
ly if he has to face a hostile crowd ;
of83,000 when he steps on the field •
Saturday. Let’s help make his first -
trip to Williams-Brice look like
Quincy Carter’s last.
We’ve only lost one game in the
Cockpit this year, and that was to
an LSU team that deserves to play
for the national championship.
Remember the thrashing we gave
to Virginia? That’s exactly the kind
of atmosphere we need Saturday
afternoon.
as ians, li is our jod to maae it
as difficult as we can for the op
posing team. If we can help level
the playing field with crowd
noise and intimidation, the game
will come down to a battle of
coaching. Even Gamecock fans
can have faith in this aspect of
the game. Everyone knows the
legendary Lou Holtz will out
coach Itonny-come-lately any
day.
There is no reason not to think
the Gamecocks will get their first
win over the Gators as a member
of the SEC this Saturday. We all
saw last weekend that a less-tal
ented team, such as Clemson, can
beat a team that grossly outmatch
es it. It all comes down to which
team comes prepared to play and
which one plays with intensity and
confidence. Determination will
beat talent every time.
Mot ice that l have not guaran
teed a Gamecock victory this
weekend, nor have I even made a
prediction. I just wish to point out
to the Gamecock nation that this
game is very winnable, and we
still have a lot to play for. There’s
no need to adopt a perpetual wait-; -j
’till-next-year attitude. Why not
this year? There’s no time like the-.
present to show the nation that we !
are contenders in the SEC, and we '
are a football power that isn’t sat- --
isfied with losing.
----—» *,
Pou is a third-year print
journalism student.