Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Victory signifies success to come Same old Spurrier leads Carolina to brand-new territory against Vols KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Have you ever heard the sound made by 1 0 7,0 0 0 orange-clad people all reliving the same old nightmare at the same time? Jake Well, I have, Broom and it is Third_year absolute silence, political Beautiful, science glorious silence. stu^ent The 107,000 people were Tennessee fans coming to watch their favorite son Peyton Manning’s jersey be retired and to cheer their Volunteers on to another victory against lowly USC. The nightmare came in the form of Stephen Orr Spurrier, and it was all too familiar for Vol fans. Welcome back to Knoxville, Steve. It’s a great time to be a Gamecock. Carolina came into this game facing an opponent who was bigger, stronger, faster and more talented than they were. And after the game was over, Tennessee had not only lost to the Gamecocks — they had beeh flat-out beaten. Spurrier put his mark on this game before it even started. After winning the coin toss, instead of deferring to the second half like most coaches, Spurrier’s Gamecocks said they wanted the ball first. In front of 107,000 screaming Tennessee fans in Neyland Stadium, behind an inconsistent offensive line and without Syvelle Newton, Steve Spurrier wanted his offense on the field. I love this guy. Although Spurrier was the focus of most of the attention in Knoxville, one guy that needs a little more attention from the media is Sidney Rice. “He (Rice) is close to unstoppable,” Spurrier said after the game. “Everybody’s stoppable, but he’s some player.” Calling Sidney Rice “some player” is like calling Phillip Fulmer “a little husky.” If Rice isn’t the SEC Freshman of the Year and a First Team All-SEC wide receiver at the end of the year, don’t be surprised if I dedicate about 73 straight columns to bashing whoever beat him out. Without Rice, I’m not sure how many games Carolina would have won at this point, but I do know that without him, I wouldn’t have walked into the Knoxville Krystal wearing a Carolina T-shirt with a goofy USC-just-beat Tennessee-in-Knoxville-and-I was-there-to-see-it smirk on my face. I was hovering at about a nine on the Terrell Owens Smugness Scale, and it was easily one of the top two or three meals of my life. As well as Rice and the offense played down the stretch, the defense played even better. Since UT punter Britton Colquitt was carrying on the family tradition of absolutely demolishing Carolina’s field position, the defense was constantly put in a position where giving up a single first down would mean putting Tennessee in scoring range. And time after time, the defense came up big. Linebacker Dustin Lindsey, who has only had two career starts, led the defense in tackles for the second game in a row. He is absolutely all over the place. The defensive line played about as well as they have this year, the corners stepped up and hit people, and Ko Simpson did what Ko Simpson does. The defense had Tennessee quarterbacks Rick Clausen and Erik Ainge looking like they ate one burrito too many at Taco Bell. And to top it off, in the final few minutes when it mattered most, Josh Brown delivered one of the best pressure kicks in Carolina history. “We wrote the record book,” Brown said. “I don’t think any other (Carolina) team has won here at Tennessee.” That was certainly a chapter in the book that I enjoyed, but I think the book is a long way from being finished. Have you ever heard the sound of 107,000 orange-clad people all reliving the same old nightmare at the same time? Well, I have. And although it was the first time I’ve ever heard it, I don’t think it will be the last. UICTORV • CODTIIIIICD FROIR 10 only to see Foster fumble the ball into the end zone. Gamecock freshman Stoney Woodson recovered the fumble to keep Carolina within a touchdown at halftime. After a stagnant third quarter of play, the stage was set for a fourth quarter filled with fireworks on both sides of the ball. After being pinned inside their own 5-yard line three times, the Gamecocks finally saw a Britton Colquitt punt sail into the end zone for a touchback, and they took advantage of it. Mitchell, who finished 22 of-36 for 242 yards, guided his team on a 12-play, 80-yard drive that stalled on a third down and goal from the Tennessee 5-yard line. Mitchell burned two timeouts, leaving USC fans grumbling. The result of the confusion was more than could be expected. Mitchell found Rice on a hitch and go in the back of the end zone to put the Gamecocks back on top and give Rice the , season touchdown catch record. Rice again finished smelling like a rose, catching eight passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns. But Tennessee again answered the call, driving right back down the field before the Gamecock defense held them at the USC 26-yard line. Wilhoit, already one of two on the day, put the pressure back on Carolina with a 43-yard field goal to put the Volunteers back on top, 13-13. Enter Mitchell and the Cock ‘n’ Fire offense. Without the services of the injured Syvelle Newton, Carlos Thomas and Noah Whiteside, a depleted receiving corps was left on the field. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to faze the seemingly poised Mitchell. The drive sped along with three catches from true freshman Kenny McKinley and two from veteran senior Kris Clark. But the drive stalled at the Tennessee 32, where Brown took over and made sure USC fans will have something to remember him by. “(I was thinking) please make it,” Mitchell said. “I knew he could do it. We’ve seen him doing it in practice; it was just a big-time kick.” Indeed, God must have been smiling on the Gamecocks. Comments on this story? E-mail gameco^ksports@gwm. sc. edu Juan 5WTIIE GAMKQQCK The Gamecock men's soccer team defeated SMU on Sunday to clinch the No. 2 seed in its first-ever Conference USA Tournament. Soccer upsets No. 9 SMU Offense thrives as Carolina secures No. 2 seed in C-USA Brian Davis FOR THE GAMECOCK USC’s men’s soccer team drilled Conference USA opponents Tulsa and No. 9 Southern Methodist this weekend to secure the No. 2 seed in the C-USA Tournament at SMU two weekends from now. “Seven goals against those two teams and allowing only one goal on the course of the weekend is a good performance,” USC coach Mark Berson said. The Gamecocks (8-6-1, 5 1-1) stunned SMU (10-5-2, 8-0-1) 3-0 Sunday on goals by junior defender Makan Hislop, junior striker Ayo Akinsete and senior forward Josh Alcala. Hislop’s goal just inside the 18-yard box was the game winner 21 minutes into the contest. “Makan has just emerged this year in terms of his confidence, both in attack and in defense,” Berson said. “When he comes forward, he’s a force.” USC and SMU then bobbled many missed opportunities until junior forward Mike Sambursky threaded the ball to Akinsete, who chipped it over SMU goalkeeper Matt Wideman in the 78th minute. Alcala’s goal came in the 83rd minute, when Wideman threw an errant pass following a save, which Alcala took on the rise and belted into the goal’s right corner from 30 yards out. USC’s three goals are stunning after SMU has outscored its opponents 25-6 in the eight-game win streak preceding Sunday’s match. The crowd of more than 500 at Stone Stadium was captivated at the performance by Alcala and his fellow seniors on Senior Day. “I want to recognize the seniors; they’ve had an outstanding career,” Berson said. “They represent everything that we want here at South Carolina.” On Friday, the seniors also won their last game under the lights. Alcala scored the first goal in the 24th minute, and the flood began as Sambursky, Akinsete and junior midfielder Rob Charest manhandled a competitive Tulsa team. “I can’t explain their record, but if you look at some of their results they’ve had against nationally-ranked teams this year, they’re outstanding,” Berson said. The team will ride its high to Miami this weekend, where it will confront Florida International on Friday and UCF in Orlando on Sunday. The team’s momentum has emerged at a defining instance as the conference tournament awaits. “They’re the first seed in the conference tournament, so this is a win that will give us some confidence going into that,” Berson said. “There aren’t many teams right now that are playing a lot better than we’re playing.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gum.sc. edu DEFEnSE • COflTMUCD FROdl 10 the Volunteers’ next drive and didn’t do much better. Tennessee was forced to attack a Gamecocks’ run defense that had suddenly found a way to contain the run. From there, the game turned downright ugly for Volunteer coach Phil Fulmer and Tennessee’s offense. “We came in here and did enough things to come out victorious,” said USC co defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix. In a change from every other game this season, Nix called the' shots on defense. Fellow defensive coordinator John Thompson had handled defensive play-calling duties up until Saturday’s game. Among the changes made on defense were moving junior cornerback Tremaine Tyler to safety and moving safety Brandon Isaac to cornerback. The changes came after freshman Carlos Thomas, who had spent the majority of the season at defense, was moved to receiver to compensate for the lack of depth at the position following an injury to Syvelle Newton. Sophomore Dustin Lindsey started his second consecutive game Jt linebacker in place of senior Ricardo Hurley. For the second consecutive game, Lindsey led the team in tackles. Lindsey had nine tackles Saturday, while Simpson tallied eight. In his first start against Vanderbilt on Oct. 22, Lindsey racked up 10 tackles. The Gamecocks allowed Arian Foster to run for 148 yards and a touchdown, but the Volunteers’ running back was limited by injury in the fourth quarter, and Tennessee couldn’t match its first-half output on the ground. “I think, for the rest of the night, our offense kept them in a catch-up situation so they couldn’t run it as much or they didn’t choose to run it as much,” Nix said. “Fortunately for us, when they did run the football, (the defense) played better.” Nix’s defensive unit had to survive one final push by the Volunteers’ offense. Tennessee took over with 4:45 left in the game and gained a first down before Simpson’s break-up killed the drive at the Volunteer 40-yard line. Clausen connected on only two passes on the drive, before which Nix said he issued his team an Encouraging Katie Kirkland/THE GAMECOCK USC’s defense held the Tennessee offense out of the endzone for the last three quarters of the game, leading to a 16-15 victory. statement. “I can’t really recall the exact words, but it was something to the effect of ‘It’s in our hands, we have to go out and make a play, win the ball game, he said. “We didn’t do it tjke series before that and we knew we’d get another chance because the offense was going to take it down and score.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu