The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 19, 2004, Page 5, Image 5
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