The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 17, 2004, Page 15, Image 15
GAME SCHEDULE
u i c VOLLEYBALL vs. Florida, SEC Tournament 7 p.m. Friday
rage JO MEN’S SOCCER vs. College of Charleston, 7 p.m. Friday
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Everyone’sdnternet, 7 p.m. Friday
-Cpuntdow to
CTemso
FILE PHOTO/THE GAMECOCK
A Clemson receiver catches a touchdown against USC in their 63
17 win over the Gamecocks last season. Clemson and USC have
reversed roles in many aspects over the course of the last year.
Tigers fail to meet
lofty expectations
By STEPHEN FASTENAU
STAFF WRITER
Clemson head coach Tomm]
Bowden and his team are feeing a tougl
situation this weekend against USC. A
5-5, The Tigers must win to ensure bow
eligibility, a mark Bowden has reached it
each of his five previous seasons.
Bowden’s job has not been ir
question as it was last season because h<
signed a contract extension in th<
offseason that will keep him at Clemsor
through 2010. However, the Tiger
have fallen well short of expectation
this year after being tanked No. 1 ‘
nationally in the preseason. Clemsor
started 1-4 with losses to nationall)
ranked Florida State and Virginia and
after reeling off four consecutive wins
fell last week to Duke.
“We’re sitting here with five wins,’
Bowden said. “That’s not the objective
It’s not the preseason goal.”
One of the main reasons for thi
Tigers’ plight can be attributed u
offensive woes. Quarterback Charlii
Whitehurst entered the season as a fringi
Heisman Trophy candidate but has no
shown any of the flash he did last season
He’s thrown 16 interceptions and sever
touchdowns this season and has thi
worst quarterback rating in the ACC.
“We’ve struggled more offensivelj
than since I’ve been head coach in eigh
years,” Bowden said. “We’ve player
good teams, but everybody’s playinj
good teams.”
Saturday’s loss to Duke surprisec
Bowden and 10,000 Tiger fans whe
attended the game. Clemson fens saw thi
Duke game as an automatic ticket to ;
bowl. As the final seconds ticked off thi
clock, Bowden was left searching fo
answers.
“After the game, after the loss, usualh
I hurt for the players because of the
amount of time and effort they put into
this, but getting into the car going home
I had a unique feeling,” Bowden said. “I
felt that I had let a bunch of people
down.”
Down is the direction Bowden’s
program has gone after last
season when they finished
with five straight wins and a
No. 22 ranking. Other / JF
than their strength of
schedule, the Tigers .
have been victimized
primarily by
turnovers, none more
glaring than
Whitehurst’s
interception last
week that led to
the Blue Devil’s
winning drive.
“One of the '* • .
things, the
difficulties we’ve "
had are ^
turnovers,”
Bowden said.
“After four
games, I think : ,
we were leading
the nation with
14 giveaways. I * t 0 ■'X
n e v e r ■'
envisioned dM~* *.%,{ '
that.” '
If nothing
else, the Tigers ^
will have recent
history on their
side. Clemson has ^^B
won the past two
times it has played the
Gamecocks when facing 1
♦ Please see CLEMSON, page 17
Clemson, USC reverse roles
By JONATHAN HILLYARD
SPORTS EDITOR
It seems like only yesterday that the
Gamecock football team was preparing
to face a Clemson squad coming off a
huge upset over Florida State and a
blowout win over Duke. USC was
coming off a heartbreaking loss to
Florida and needed one final win to
reach postseason play. One year later,
the Carolina program is going to its
first bowl game since 2001, and
Clemson is the one who needs one last
win.
“For ourselves, the last time we lost
like this, we did not respond well,”
Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden
said Sunday. “How the loss will affect
them, I am anxious to see.”
A year ago, Bowden was wondering
whether he would be returning for an
eighth season as head coach in the
upstate. Many Tiger boosters were
calling for the coach’s head after an
embarrassing loss to Wake Forest.
Now, it is the USC head man’s future
in question. Ironically, the man looking
over Lou Holtz’s shoulder is the very
same one said to be a candidate for
Bowden’s job a year ago — Steve
Spurrier.
Holtz has been asked in recent
weeks about his plans and about
“For ourselves, the
last time we lost like
this, we did not
respond well. How
the loss will affect
them, I am anxious to
see.”
TOMMY BOWDEN
CLEMSON HEAD COACH
Spurrier. He confirmed Tuesday that
he has indeed talked to the 01’ Ball
Coach.
“I’ve talked with' Steve,” Holtz said.
“We’ve talked about how to cure a
slice. That’s about it.”
In 2003 Clemson entered its
annual game with the Gamecocks with
a bowl game secured but fighting for
position. A 63-17 win over Carolina
boosted them into Atlanta’s Peach
Bowl, a game they won over the
overwhelming favorites, the Tennessee
Volunteers.
2004 is a whole new story, one that
sees the Gamecocks bowl-eligible and
fighting for a berth in, guess what, the
Peach Bowl. Should USC defeat
Clemson, and Florida and Alabama
♦ Please see REVERSED, page 16
Holtz’s eye on Clemson
■ Coach refuses to allow
future to affect preparations
By STEPHEN FASTENAU
Staff writer
Lou Holtz began what might be
his final week as USC head coach
by popping the tab on his Diet
Coke and taking a sip at the start of
Monday’s news conference. Before
| addressing his future with the team, Holtz said
something that came as a surprise to many in
the room.
“This Coke is stale, whoever put it up here
(on the table). I know I don’t deserve a fresh one,
but this is stale.”
Holtz did speak of something fresh — the
I memory of last year’s 63-17 loss to
Clemson. The loss ended a disappointing
season in which the team went 5-7 after
L dropping its final four games and
failed to reach a bowl game for the
^R second consecutive season.
^R “We play them up there, and
M we play them early (in the day),”
Holtz said. “I don’t know about
I ' our football team, but this one
3; has bothered me for a year.”
’" ' When asked about his
^R future, Holtz made it clear that
^R his focus this week was on
4^R Clemson and did not want
^R the speculation to be a
■ distraction to his team.
%\ Rumors escalated before
, ■ last week’s game at
■ Florida that Holtz would
' retire following the season
and that Steve Spurrier
would be his likely
_ .7 replacement. USC then
suffered its worst defeat of
r, 3; ' the season.
“1 don’t want to go down
',,Tf3V that road, because there’s
4,V,;4 only one thing on my
V . .iRfe mind right now and only
iTTV one thing important in this
world and that’s Clemson,”
Holtz said.
USC has the opportunity to
avenge last year’s loss and keep
^R Clemson from becoming bowl
; ^ eligible. The Tigers had an
opportunity to reach the
HR required six win plateau last
|R, week but lost on a last
second field goal to Duke. It was the Blue Devils’
first win against a conference opponent this season
and their first against a Division I-A school in 2004.
Despite the loss, Holtz does not see it as a reason to
take Clemson lightly.
“Duke played well,” Holtz said. “Guy kicks a 53
yard field goal — that’s crazy. But (Clemson) had
won four in a row and beaten N.C. State, Maryland
and Miami in a tow, and that’s pretty impressive.”
Last year’s loss to the Tigers changed the face of
the USC football team this season. Holtz said the
primary reason for making widespread changes in
his coaching staff this season was that his team had
lost so badly. In his 33 years as a head coach, Holtz
could not think of an instance where a rivalry game
has haunted him as much as it had last year. When
asked how badly he wanted to win this week, Holtz
tried to keep the game in perspective.
“It’s still a game, and it’s still not a matter of life
and death,” Holtz said. “It’s still not important
when you compare it with somebody’s health or
somebody’s personal, serious problems ... but I’ve
never wanted to win a game as much as I do this
one.”
The prospect of this being Holtz’s final year
seems to be more palpable as Holtz continues to
reflect on this season and his tenure at USC. The
67-year-old coach said he considered stepping down
after last season’s loss to Clemson but that it was
normal thinking under the circumstances.
“When that happened, you always think about
leaving,” Holtz said. “It’s a sanity test. I wasn’t going
to leave the program in that condition. 1 didn’t
think that would be fair. I do think the program is
pretty solid (now). We’ll find out Saturday.”
Regardless of the outcome Saturday, the
Gamecocks will still be playing in a bowl game this
year after qualifying with a win against Arkansas.
Clemson, at 5-5 on the season, will need a win to
avoid failing to reach a bowl for the first time in
coach Tommy Bowden’s tenure. Despite the heated
rivalry, Holtz’s goal is to uplift his school rather than
bring down the Tigers’ program.
“This isn’t about you hate somebody but that I
love South Carolina, and I want to see us on top,”
Holtz said. “It’s not about getting even with
somebody. It’s about putting your school, your
people, where they belong.”
With the pressure of this week’s game against his
team’s biggest rival, Holtz was still able to find some
humor in the situation.
“I tried to get my wife to leave town this week
because I’m not a good guy to be around,” Holtz said.
“I wanted her to leave, and she wouldn’t leave, and she
has me on a suicide watch. Other titan that, I’m fine."
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu
w
CAROLINA
CLEMSON j
connections
Links abundant in
/Palmetto rivalry
■ Former
teammates
andfriends
to face off in contest
By ALEX RILEY
THE GAMECOCK
The 102-game-old rivalry between
USC and Clemson has always divided
the state into two factions on game
day: Tigers and Gamecocks, with no
middle ground.
Many in the state grow up cheering
for one or the other based on their
surroundings, including living in a
family or town that is either orange or
bljck. \
That loyalty is what has made the
rivalry one of the most prominent and
rivalries in all ot
_college football.
South Carolina has
produced a major portion of both
teams’ talent during the years, and this
season is no exception.
Fifty-eight of the 106 players on
the Gamecocks’ roster are from the
Palmetto State, while 45 of the 104
players on Clemson’s team have ties to
South Carolina.
While players like Demetris
Summers (Lexington) and Jamacia
Jackson (Sumter) have stayed close to
the Midlands, other players have
gone to Tigertown. Players like
Tramaine Billie (Columbia) and
Airese Currie (Columbia) were
heavily recruited by the Gamecocks.
Carolina has had its share of upstate
grabs, though. USC picked up Noah
Whiteside '(Greenville) and Ricardo
Hurley (Greenwood) from the
upstate.
Beyond taking players from other
areas, both squads feature players that
were teammates in their high school
days. Jabari Levey and Brent Smith
graduated from Berkley High School
in 2003, while Gamecock David
Smith will be across the sideline from
fellow Union High School graduate
Kyle Browning.
While players are always the
biggest part of a rivalry, there is
something to be said for the men who
are leading them. Both USC and
Clemson have coaches with ties to the
other, as USC features wide receivers
coach Rick Stockstill, while Clemson
has former Gamecock head coach
Brad Scott.
Stockstill, added to the coaching
staff in 2004, was an assistant coach
at Clemson from 1989-2002 before
leaving to take on offensive
coordinator duties at East Carolina.
Stockstill was the receivers coach at
Clemson also, and his most legendary
player could be Washington Redskin
standout Rod Gardner, also known
by longtime USC fans as “The Push”
during the 2000 contest at Clemson.
Scott was USC’s head coach from
1994-1998 and led the Gamecocks to
their first bowl win in his first year, a
24-21 victory over West Virginia in
the CarQuest Bowl.
That season, USC was 5-5
coming into the rivalry game at
Death Valley and went on to beat
the Tigers to become bowl-eligible.
Scott, who was fired prior to the
1999 season, was 2-1 in Death
Valley and is one of only seven
coaches in history to have a winning
record against Clemson at Tiger
stadium after three games.
r~
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu
j CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECC^pK
Sophomore running back Demetns Summers, left, stiff arms an Arkansas
defender on his way down field in the Gamecocks’ 35-32 win.
talked-about