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USC football assistant returns to Death Valley By PETE IACOBELLI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CLEMSON — Rick Stockstill knew this day was coming when he shook hands with USC head coach Lou Holtz to join the Gamecocks staff. After 14 years of bleeding solid orange, the longtime Clemson assistant would have to return to the school’s Death Valley wearing the garnet Gamecock logo he taught others to detest. “No, NO, NO,” Stockstill shouted into the cell phone last winter when asked if he ever imagined switching sides in the Palmetto State’s fiercest rivalry. On Saturday, Stockstill will walk into Memorial Stadium when the Gamecocks face the Tigers. He says the emotions won’t overwhelm him. His current colleague, USC quarterbacks coach Skip Holtz, said Stockstill won’t be able to stop the feelings he had for so long from returning this weekend. “I imagine it’s going to be quite an emotional time for Rick walking back in that stadium and looking around it,” the younger Holtz said. “He’s got a lot of good years up there.” But once the whistle blows, Holtz and Stockstill say it will be a regular football game like all the others they’ve coached. Stockstill, who lasted through three Clemson head coaches, is a prized recruiter whose techniques of peppering high schoolers with personal notes is widely discussed. “I wasn’t as close to him as some of the other guys here,” Clemson quarterback Charlie Whitehurst said. “But you knew what he meant to them.” When Stockstill saw his progression to offensive coordinator stalled at Clemson. because of former head coaches Brad Scott and Mike O’Cain already on staff, he left for the coordinator’s job at East Carolina in 2003. After one season, Stockstill was offered the receivers coach position and returned to the state. “This is a profession, a job that we have to support our families,” Stockstill said. “A lot of times you make decisions that are best for your family. I’m here now, but it’s not like I’m consumed by it.” There have been several Clemson-USC swappings during the century-old rivalry. The most noteworthy in recent memory was Scott, who was let go as Gamecocks head coach in November 1998 and hired days later by incoming Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. The following year when the Tigers came to Williams-Brice Stadium, Scott said he kept his emotions under wraps until the bus to the game took a familiar route and the Clemson assistant knew this game would be different. After the game, USC players hugged him and Scott could finally relax. “That was a tough one,” he said. Just a few weeks ago, longtime Clemson defensive assistant Reggie Herring returned to Death Valley as defensive coordinator at North Carolina State. Stockstill said he doesn’t expect this to equal those. Scott was fired, and Herring left in a disenchanted state after getting on the wrong side of some fans, while Stockstill left, on his own to advance his career. “You have a different feeling,” he said. Bowden said such decisions like Stockstill made after the 2002 season are commonplace in college football. There are no hard feelings. The two might talk before the game or after. “Those 14 years, he probably made a lot of friends up here,” Bowden said. Skip Holtz says you can see Stockstill’s excitement at practice. “I don’t think it’s an emotional game where he’s got a tear in his eye,” Holtz said. “He wants to win. There’s no doubt. He’s been emotional about it because he’s excited about it.” Stockstill says he has talked to several former Tigers like Rod Gardner, Patrick Sapp and Kevin Youngblood, who wished him well and looked forward to seeing him on the sideline. Stockstill said those relationships didn’t change when he left for East Carolina, “and they won’t change this year” even though garnet does clash with orange. CHARLIE DAVENPORT/THE GAMECOCK Troy Williamson is one of many receivers that have sung the praises of USC receivers coach Rick Stockstill, who is a former Clemson assistant. Frisby goes from walk-on to TV star PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Tim “Pops" Frisby, USC’s 39-year-old walk-on receiver, participates in a practice earlier this season. By PETE IACOBELLI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS He could be on his way to get coffee or to pick up one of his six children. Someone will inevitably stop Tim Frisby and ask, “Hey, aren’t you the guy Yes, Frisby, affectionately known as “Pops” by his USC teammates, coaches and seemingly anyone who follows college football, is the guy. Since the tale of the 39-year-old U.S. Army veteran got out this fall, Frisby has shared quips with David Letterman, Jay Leno and the gang at ESPN’s “Cold Pizza” morning show. Still on the table are potential offers from movie studios to turn him into the game’s newest, “Rudy.” “These things have been great,” Frisby said this week. “I look at it as ambassadorship for the school. I’m glad to do it.” There are more appearances on the way. On Thanksgiving Day, Frisby will be the subject of a CBS Sports feature before their NFL game. Next month, Frisby will receive the Keith Jackson Award for Excellence at the Cingular Wireless/ABC Sports postseason awards program in Orlando, Fla. Frisby thought coming into the season that a 20-year Army vet making the Gamecocks as a walk-on receiver was good for a photo or two in the local newspaper. “You never imagine it would get to this level,” he said. For those who don’t know Frisby’s story, here it goes: Frisby served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Desert Storm and the conflict in Kosovo. With military retirement on the horizon, Frisby enrolled at USC. He had been a decent high school player in Allentown, Pa., 20 years earlier and still felt in playing shape when he tried out for the Gamecocks. Frisby was among 60 walk-ons trying for a spot. He worked out with the players during winter drills, attended spring practice and kept it up through the sweltering days of a South Carolina summer. Finally in August, Frisby made the team. He was cleared by the NCAA in September and saw his first, and so far only, action two weeks later with four plays in a 17-7 victory against Troy. This week, Frisby has practiced with the second unit on special teams and will likely get to play when the Gamecocks face state rival Clemson on Saturday. “I can’t wait,” he said. While he hasn’t made headlines on the field, Frisby’s publicity tour has taken him from Broadway to Hollywood. Isn’t it enough to swell someone’s head? “Maybe if I were younger,” Frisby said. “My career before this has given me a sense of perspective. ” USC quarterbacks coach Skip Holtz, at 40, only a few months older than Frisby, said the receiver hasn’t acted haughty or out of control with all the attention. “I don’t know that I could handle things like he has,” Skip said, laughing. “He’s the same person he’s always been.” His teammates haven’t begrudged him an appearance or acted jealous of what he’s done. “They’ve been great through it all,” Frisby said. There have been some snags. When his 8-month-old son, Tar, was recovering from bronchitis, Frisby had to juggle a school day with picking up the baby for a few hours, then rushing back for practice. He made it. “It gets tough sometimes,” he said. Frisby said he still plans at least a second season of football at USC. He will keep working with the scout team, taking the hits that might bruise and batter someone 10 years younger and helping his college-age teammates who bring him questions about life and managing time. What makes it more remarkable is that a movie deal, which would nullify his NCAA eligibility, might set his family up nicely for the future with two of his six children already in high school. “All that is for after the season, after I’m done with this,” he said. “I’m still having fun.” Students burn Clemson tiger in effigy during annual pep rally By ALEX RILEY THE GAMECOCK Burn, baby, burn. As the 102-game old rivalry between USC and Clemson draws closer, a large contingent of Gamecock faithful gathered around the front of the Colonial Center on Thursday to see a papier-mache tiger catch fire and burn to a crisp. Hopefully for the Gamecocks, the Tigers’ bowl hopes will suffer the same fate. The tiger stood 10-feet tall but was no match for the flames that engulfed it. After watching the outer skin disappear, the tiger couldn’t hold its head up any more. The tiger’s head came crashing to the ground, and Gamecock Nation let out a unified crow as everyone is set for Saturday’s showdown in Death Valley. Gamecock fans heard an earful from the night’s speakers, relating Clemson’s recent defeat at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils and that this game makes or breaks the Tigers’ season. While this year’s game is the biggest issue, many USC faithful have made this part of their rivalry week tradition for decades. “I’ve been coming since 1971,” USC alumnus John Sharpe said. “It’s a spirit builder.” Student Government President Zachery Scott sees the annual blaze as a chance to get fired up for the big game. “It’s a starting point for the weekend’s festivities,” Scott said. “We want everyone to have a gpod time. The objective is to win.” “Everyone hates the Tigers, and that’s the one thing you have in common.” CREIGHTON MCCARLEY FQURTH-YEAR PHARMACY STUDENT The in-state rivalry not only brings out the school spirit in its fans, but the anti-school spirit in its opposing team’s fans. People choose sides and rarely waver, especially within families. “My brother-in-law is a Clemson alumni, so I hate them with a passion,” fourth-year criminal justice student Katerina Momiroska said. She wore a T shirt to Tigerburn that said “A House Divided.” Hatred for Clemson springs all the way back to the early 1900’s, when Carolina students carried a transparency of a* gamecock riding a tiger through the streets of Columbia, almost forcing a riot between fans. Police forced the students to burn the transparency before a major conflict occurred. That hatred and events like the Tigerburn only fuel the fire between the schools. Fourth-year pharmacy student Creighton McCarley couldn’t agree more. “Everybody hates the Tigers, and that’s the one thing you have in common.” Comments on this stony? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu Auburn V BCS talk surrounds Iron Bowl match-up with Bama By JOHN ZENOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tommy Tuberville is taking it one championship game at a time: state, conference and, with two wins and some outside help, perhaps even national. The Auburn coach wants his Tigers, tied with Oklahoma at No. 2, to forget about the muddled Bowl Championship Series and focus on what really matters in this football mad state: winning the Iron Bowl. Nevertheless, the Tigers (10-0, 7-6 SEC) are stumping for national championship votes every time they step on the field these days, including Saturday’s game at Alabama. “This is the most important game of the year and this is the championship game,” insists Tuberville, whose team already has secured a spot in the Southeastern Conference title game. “There is no other like it and we approach it like that.” The Auburn-Alabama game is among the great rivalries on Saturday’s schedule. Other meetings of traditional enemies with national implications include Ohio State Michigan, BYU-Utah and Stanford California. The Iron Bowl is a 365-day-a-year borderline obsessive topic within the state. But, this year, it’s also got an .abundance of national allure. The Tigers are fighting for a spot in the Orange Bowl at the BCS title matchup. They’re ranked third in the BCS standings behind Oklahoma and No. 1 Southern California. Alabama (6-4, 3-4) would love to clear up that mess and erase some of those giddy feelings down on the Plains, boosting its own bowl standing in th£ process. If the Crimson Tide can end the Tigers’ bid for No. 1, “I’d feel real happy,” tailback Kenneth Darby said, “r think the whole team would feel happy.” The game hasn’t featured a national championship contender since 1992, when Alabama won the title. Last year, both teams were unranked. Two years ago, the Tide was ranked No. 9 but ineligible for the league title because of NCAA sanctions. “It’s one of the greatest rivalries in college football history,” Alabama safety Charlie Peprah said. “You can throw out the rankings, you can throw out our non-ranking. This is Auburn-Alabama. That’s what we keep talking about. That’s all it is: It’s just Auburn versus Alabama.” It’s also a chance for the Tide to reverse a troubling trend for a program that had grown accustomed to being the team vying for national titles in this state. Alabama has lost 17 of its last 20 games against ranked teams in Tuscaloosa, dating back to 1997. “I’m riot trying to ruin Auburn’s season or anything like that," Tide free safety Roman Harper said. “I just want to get another win for Alabama. That’s a better way to look at it for me. I’m not trying to be mean or anything like that. We just need a win.” The Tigers haven’t been ranked so high heading into this game since 1958. But tailback Carnell Williams said Auburn players have tried to block out the BCS buzz in class and around town. “It’s chitchat here and there, but we kind of squashed that really quickly,” Williams said. “Once we complain about polls and how we re not getting done right in that one, that’s usually when you get knocked out.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville cheers his team during a gam?. Auburn's national title hopes hinge on a win against Alabama