Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Solich CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 and that Steve (Pederson) would be contacting us^” Cotton told the Lincoln Journal Star. Solich took over after Osborne retired after the 1997 season. The Comhuskers won at least a share of the national title in three of Osborne’s final four seasons. Solich was 42-9 in his first four seasons. He was Big 12 coach of the year in 1999 and 2001, won the ’99 conference title and his team played for the national championship after the ’01 sea son. But Solich’s success was downplayed because critics said he won with players recruited by Osborne. The Cornhuskers went 7-7 in 2002 — the team’s worst season since 1961 — and struggled against quality opponents this season. Their three losses all were by more than 17 points, capped by a 38-9 loss to Kansas State — Nebraska’s worst at home since '! 1958 — in the final home game of the season. The last Nebraska head foot ball coach to be fired was Bill Jennings, who was removed and replaced by Bob Devaney in 1962. Solich played fullback for Nebraska from 1963-65. He was assistant to Osborne for 19 years beginning in 1979. www. dailygamecock. com v. - rjii- - -j*.. ■ ■ . >1 - 1 j £We* 0*U*e.: www.dominosusc.com j MONDAY MADNESS l 1 fiBBO ! I ALaffle 1 T°PPm® 3 P«-ta* j (Valid only at Devine St. store & after 9pm J Use order code*: MON °Zl^oX'oT J McNabb overcomes errors at Carolina i#*' BY JENNA FRYER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLOTTE, N.C- Donovan McNabb was an easy target to blame for Philadelphia’s 0-2 start. Now that the Eagles have rallied for a share of the NFC’s best record, he wants little of the credit. McNabb overcame an inter ception on the first play — his first in six games — to throw for a touchdown and 182 yards, hit ting nine receivers while lead ing the Eagles to their seventh consecutive victory, 25-16 over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. The win kept the Eagles (9-3) tied atop the conference with St. Louis and stalled Carolina’s (8 4) attempt to wrap up the NFC South. What the Eagles had to do was play mistake-free football and get better production out of McNabb. They did, going four consecutive games without a turnover while McNabb went 127 attempts with out an interception. That ended on the first play when McNabb looked left, then right, and tossed the ball straight into Mike Rucker’s hands. It took McNabb all of two min utes to forget about it. “You can’t harp on mistakes,” he said. “The guys want to see how you adjust to mistakes.” The Eagles made several against Carolina — Brian Westbrook also fumbled away a punt and they failed on a 2-point conversion — but the Panthers made more. i John Kasay, who came into the game 24-of-27 on field goals this season, missed three — and an extra point. The 10 points he failed to put on the board was the difference in the Panthers not en suring their first winning season since 1996. “I just missed the kicks and it’s my fault,” said Kasay. “Usually when something like this hap pens you’re not doing this any more — you’ve moved on to an other career. So hopefully I’ll keep this to a minimum.” The Panthers refused to place all the blame on Kasay, the only player left from Carolina’s inau gural 1995 team. He made a 20 yarder after Rucker’s intercep tion but missed on attempts of 32,38 and 49 yards. “John is a guy who has been very reliable for us, and for whatever reason didn’t get it done today,” coach John Fox said. “I don’t think that is the en tire reason we lost.” Although Philadelphia contin ued its turnaround from an 0-2 start — its seven straight victo ries represent its best single-sea son streak since 1980—the Eagles did it without any flash and need ed David Akers’ four field goals and a 2-yard touchdown run by Duce Staley for the win. Akers, who made field goals of 35, 48, 38 and 29 yards, em pathized with Kasay after the game. The two battled in 1999 for a spot on Carolina’s roster. “Nobody taught me more than John Kasay,” he said. “I would have taken him over any kicker in the league coming into today.” -1 Take a Hit. k *m r All Day • December 3 Russell House Sponsored by NORMl* Sweep CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 ten team, we need to be a better de fensive team, ” Walvius said. Honda A&M 66, USC 96 The USC offense poured it on again Nov. 29 against Florida A&M. The last time the two teams met in December 2001, Carolina won 82-29. The Gamecocks didn’t mirror that exceptional perfor mance on Friday but still domi nated the Rattlers. Ciocan had a standout performance against A&M by breaking the school record in assists with 18. The pre vious record of 14 assists was shared by Ciocan and three other players. Guard Lauren Simms led the Gamecocks with 19 points, but the entire USC team was seem ingly able to contribute. Every starter and forward Larissa Kulscar scored in double figures. The only Gamecock on the court that didn’t score was guard Shannel Harris and she still got on the stat sheet with a rebound. The team also continued its im provement from the free throw line, hitting 84 percent from the charity stripe and having four players hit every shot. A&M couldn’t stop USC from under neath the basket with the Gamecocks outscoring the Rattlers by 20 points in the paint. “We felt that we could run down and take advantage of our post speed,” Walvius said. “Our transition game looked very good. The penetration was there and I thought our team did a good job.” A&M wasn’t able to halt the shots from outside the paint either, with Carolina making an amazing 73 percent from the field in the sec ond half, hitting 22-of-30 shots. USC goes on the road against the Stetson Hatters at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night before heading to play in the Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout at Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com BRIEFLY Volleyball ends year with loss to Tar Heels The USC volleyball team (12 18, 6-10 SEC) dropped its final match of the season with a 3-0 loss to North Carolina, 30-19,30 16 and 30-24. The Tar Heels (20 12,104 ACC) had lost to USC by a score of 3-1 on Sept. 7. Outside hitter Shonda Cole led USC with 14 kills and a .273 hit ting average. Middle blocker Lauren Ford was second on the team in kills with 11 and hit for .250 on the match. The Gamecocks had a good shot at winning the first game, cutting the lead to one, 20-19, be fore UNC scored 10 straight points to win. Game two wasn't as close, with the Tar Heels hitting 19 kills and only two errors to win by 14. The loss ends the Gamecocks' first losing season in 10 years and the first season without 20 wins since 1999. Softball announces 2004 signing class The USC softball team has an nounced the signing of seven new players who will enroll at Carolina in fall 2004. Two players, outfielder Whitney Wierzbicki and pitcher Kate Pouliot, are from South Carolina. Wierzbicki played for Battery Creek High School in Beaufort and was All-Region Player of the Year for 2003. Pouliot, who played for Hillcrest High School, was 2003 All-Region Player of the Year and 4A All-State Player of the Year. The five other players joining the team are Jessica Barnes of Denver; Stefanie Norman of Fayetteville, Ga.; Becky Mar tinez of Weston, Fla.; Jessica Josker of San Jacinto, Calif.; and Lisa Longo of Valley Stream, N.Y. I I ( I mmzmj'y