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Head ball coach:

October 2, 2013 • Volume 35 • Issue 27

‘we got some work to do’

You asked for it:

Complete recruiting roundup

week 6: victorious gamecocks ready for kentucky

2 • Spurs & Feathers October 2, 2013

by mike [email protected]

ORLANDO, Fla. - A big second half from 12th-ranked South Carolina led to a 28-25 victory over previously undefeated Central Florida on Saturday. Gamecock running back Mike Davis led the way with a three-touchdown, 167-yard performance on the ground.

South Carolina (3-1) went into halftime trailing 10-0. It marked the first time that they had been shutout in an opening half since the 2010 Papa John’s Bowl against Connecticut.

South Carolina commenced the second half by scoring 28 straight points - 21 in the first 16 minutes of the second half - to put the game out of reach despite a late charge from the Knights.

“UCF is a good team. I thought that we

would be a little bit better offensively. They were controlling a lot of clock in the first half,” head coach Steve Spurrier said. “I’m very happy that we won the game. It should not have gotten as close as it did, but it did.”

Davis opened the scoring for the Game-cocks in the game with a 53-yard touch-down run and then put in two more 13-yard scores as well, showing off both speed and power at different times. Davis ran for 150 yards in the second half on 21 carries after only getting his number called five times in the first half. Davis also had two catches for 11 yards.

“Mike Davis had a heck of a game and the line blocked well. That was very en-couraging,” Spurrier said. “In the second half Coach (Shawn) Elliott said let’s just get in I-right and I-left, the way we used to play 20 years ago … just run straight

at them to see if that will work and fortu-nately it did.”

After the Gamecocks pushed out to a 28-10 lead in the fourth quarter, the Knights were able to score 15 straight points to cut the score to 28-25 with 1:54 left in the game. UCF recovered a fumble at their own five-yard line with 3:18 remaining, then went 95 yards to score a touchdown, highlighted by a 79-yard catch and run.

Bruce Ellington was able to recover the ensuing onside kick and the Gamecocks ran out the clock to seal the victory.

The Gamecocks were forced to utilize backup quarterback Dylan Thompson after Connor Shaw injured his shoulder in the first quarter. Thompson filled in by going 15-for-32 for 261 yards. He also rushed for a touchdown in the game. Much of Thomp-son’s success came after Davis softened the defense in the second half as he went

6-for-10 for 146 yards after halftime. Spurrier said that Shaw should only be

out for two or three weeks with a bruised shoulder in the postgame press conference.

South Carolina’s defense was able to force four turnovers from UCF (3-1). Vic-tor Hampton, Jimmy Legree and TJ Hollo-man each had an interception and Gerald Dixon recovered a fumble.

The Gamecocks were able to control the clock in the second half by possessing the ball for 19:39 to total 30:49 time of posses-sion for the game. The offense also com-piled 490 total yards, 326 of that coming in the second half.

Blake Bortles had 358 passing yards with two touchdowns, but also threw two inter-ceptions to lead the Knights offense. Two Knights had over 100 yards receiving led by Rannell Hall who caught eight passes for 142 yards and the two touchdowns.

Second half charge leads Gamecocks to road win over UCF

photo by jenny Dilworth

Quarterback Dylan Thompson finished South Carolina’s 28-25 victory over UCF 15-for-32 with 261 yards passing. He also rushed for a touchdown in the third quarter.

October 2, 2013 Spurs & Feathers • 3

south carolina athletics media relations

The University of South Carolina Athlet-ics Department has announced the dates for the 2013 All Sports Reunion. The reunion will take place during Homecom-ing Weekend, November 1-2 in Columbia. To kick off the weekend, former student-athletes are encouraged to attend the 2013 All Sports Reunion Reception on Friday, November 1 in the Athletics Village. On Saturday, former student-athletes will join fellow alumni at the My Carolina Alumni Association Homecoming Tailgate in Gamecock Park (former Farmer’s Market) prior to watching the Gamecock football team take on Mississippi State.

“The Gamecock All Sports Reunion gives us a chance to honor former student-athletes who have worn the Garnet and Black and represented the University so well,” said Athletics Director Ray Tan-ner. “We have a long and storied history at USC and by honoring our past we hope to keep this tradition going so that Game-

cocks for years to come will be treasured in the memories of all that support Caro-lina.”

This year’s event will be open to all former student-athletes from all sports and all years. Please visit Reunion Reg-istration (www.gamecocksonline.com/reunion) to register. Registration deadline is Oct. 18.

For more information, contact: Jay Brown Gamecock club assistant director 803.777.5723 [email protected]

Athletics department to host All Sports Reunion


Spurs & FeathersPublished by Aiken Communications, Inc.

Contact Us:218 Richland Ave. W. Aiken, SC 29801(803) 335-1399

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Scott B. HunterPublisher & PresidentAiken Communications, Inc.

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Postal Information:Postage paid at 2001 Dixiana Rd., West Columbia, SC 29172.Periodical application pending.Spurs & Feathers is published 22 times a year, coming out weekly from Aug. 21 through Dec. 4 and bi-monthly from Jan. 29 through June 25.

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What’s Inside? - Table of Contents

Kentucky game preview ..............................................6

Hand Writing ....................................................................7

Recruiting Roundup ................................................. 8-9

Depth Chart ...................................................................10

Garnet Market Profile ................................................11

Gamecock pride mural ..............................................12

Men’s soccer profile ....................................................13

Where are they now? - Anthony Wright ..............14

Inside the Chart ..................................................... 18-19

Checking in with cross country ..............................20

Assistant coach profile...............................................22

In the film room ...........................................................23

Sand volleyball .............................................................24

Brian Shah golf tournament ....................................27

In Memoriam.................................................................28

Ed Girardeau column .................................................31

South Carolina women’s basketball will enter the 2013-14 season ranked No. 13 in the nation, according to Lindy’s Sports Annuals Preseason top-25. The ranking, released in the Sept. 14 issue, noted that the Gamecocks have an “outside chance to emerge as the best team in a loaded SEC.”

South Carolina is coming off its second consecutive 25-win sea-son, advancing to the 2013 NCAA Tournament second round and the 2012 NCAA Sweet 16. The Gamecocks return their top scorer in junior Aleighsa Welch, who was also the second-highest rebounder on the squad. The Second-Team All-SEC selection averaged 12.0 points and 7.7 rebounds on the season while shooting 59.8 percent from the field.

The Gamecocks’ other returning starter from last season’s squad is sophomore Tiffany Mitchell, who earned SEC All-Freshman Team honors in her debut season. The do-it-all guard scored in double fig-ures in nine of her first 14 college outings, including her SEC debut against Tennessee, and snagged double-digit rebounds five times during the season.

South Carolina looks for junior Elem Ibiam, who averaged 11.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in the Gamecocks’ four postseason games in 2012-13, to continue her emergence in the post. She will mentor freshman Alaina Coates at the position as the Gamecocks hope to take advantage of the pair of 6-foot-4 centers. Coates is the third-straight South Carolina player of the year to sign with head coach Dawn Staley as the Naismith Hall of Fame player builds her program on the foundation of its home state’s talent.

Season tickets are on sale now for $50 for a reserved seat or a Fam-ily Four-Pack of four general admission tickets for $100. Fans can or-der at www.GamecocksOnline.com/tickets or by calling 1-800-4SC-FANS. (Story by South Carolina Athletics Media Relations)

Something to crow about!


South Carolina Athletics Media Relations

Game times and television details have been finalized for the 2013-14 South Carolina men’s basketball non-conference schedule. With the combination of all 18 Southeastern Conference contests televised, the Gamecocks will be featured in at least 30 broadcasts during the upcoming regular season.

Seven of Carolina’s non-conference games will be broadcast by the ESPN family of networks, including the Nov. 12 contest at Baylor and the Big 12/SEC Challenge con-

test at Oklahoma State on Dec. 6. Addition-ally, all of South Carolina’s contests as part of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic will be broadcast by the ESPN net-works. Several of Carolina’s other contests will be televised on SportSouth, Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Carolinas and one game will be shown on CSS.

South Carolina opened official practice for the 2013-14 campaign on Monday, Sept. 30, with a morning practice session at Colonial Life Arena. For season ticket information please visit GamecocksOnline.com/Tickets or call 1-800-4SC-FANS.

Game times, television details finalized for men’s basketball non-conference schedule

2013-14 Non-Conference Schedule

Nov. 3, vs. USC Aiken (exhibition), 2 p.m.Nov. 9, vs. Longwood, 1 p.m.Nov. 12, at Baylor, 3 p.m. ET, ESPNNov. 17, at Clemson, 5 p.m., ESPN3Nov. 24, Florida International, 1 p.m., SportSouth/Fox Sports CarolinasDec. 6, at Oklahoma State, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPNUDec. 17, Manhattan, 7 p.m.Dec. 19, USC Upstate, 4 p.m. ET, SportSouth/Fox Sports CarolinasDec. 22-25, at Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (1st round vs. St. Mary’s, 12 a.m. ET, ESPNU; 2nd/3rd rounds, TBA, ESPNU)Dec. 28, vs. Akron (non-bracketed game of the Diamond Head Classic), 4 p.m. ET, ESPNUDec. 30, vs. Marshall, 7 p.m., CSSJan. 3, vs. SC State, 7 p.m., SportSouth/Fox Sports Carolinas


It’s the thought that binds college football fans together from Miami to Honolulu, San Diego to Syracuse and everywhere in be-tween, at schools large and small.

Anything can happen.The NCAA would throw in that every game

counts, though that seems a bit of a stretch of common sense when Florida A&M receives a ferocious pummeling and a large check for a trip to Ohio State.

But it has meaning for the Gamecocks from AD Ray Tanner and the administration to the coaches, players and fan base.

Winning at Central Florida the other day under difficult circumstances that involved losing starting quarterback Connor Shaw for much of the game, then having running back Brandon Wilds lost with another injury tested the depth of the squad and the depth was shown to be solid.

But during the game, there was the recollec-

tion of something coach Steve Spurrier said earlier last week when he was talking about backup quarterback Dylan Thompson.

Spurrier mentioned Thompson is plugged in with everything happening to the offense this season, saying the junior from Boiling Springs knows “it will be his team next year.”

When Connor Shaw came back out to the field with shoulder pads off and a big ice pack on his throwing shoulder, the un-avoidable thought was that time just jumped forward for Thompson.

It wasn’t always what Thompson or the coaching staff expected from him -- 15-32-

261-1 figures to fewer than 50 percent of his passes completed – but it was good enough when it mattered and when you figure in drops, he could have had some help along the way.

If Shaw’s shoulder is better in two weeks, he would be available for the game at Arkansas, if it’s three weeks, he would be ready to get back on the field in Knoxville against the Vols.

Recruiting makes everything better when something unexpected happens and the work Carolina has done in that area makes this a different season the rest of the way than it might have been a few years back.

We all thought one of the big issues this sea-son would be replacing Marcus Lattimore’s production at running back, but Mike Davis has surpassed, through four games, what Lat-timore delivered a year ago.

Lattimore averaged 80 yards per game

through the first four of 2012, on an average of 4.6 per carry (69 rushes for 320 yards), but Davis is knocking defenders out of games while averaging 7.1 yards per carry (71 for 508) and 127 rushing yards per game.

It could be that this is the season Georgia finds a way to win improbably game after game, all the way to, well, it could go on for-ever if things continue to fall in line.

For a team that is 3-1 in the SEC, ranked in the top-15 nationally with its only loss to the SEC team that seems in this early part of the season to be living a charmed life, the injuries have not diminished the capabilities of the Gamecocks.

They still are who we thought they were, to borrow a phrase from Dennis Green.

Are they everything they wanted to be?That’s the question that will be answered in

the final two-thirds of the season, not in the first four games.

Anything can happen in college football

Bart WrightContributing

Writer

photo by allen sharpe

Not even a defender trying to take off his belt could stop Mike Davis in the victory over UCF. Davis ended the Gamecock win with 167 yards rushing. He had three touchdowns.


HandWriting

Spurs & Feathers receives calls and emails every day thanking us for what we do, but many times the calls and emails are prefaced with “but what about recruiting?”

In my second column of the year, I explained that this in-carnation of Spurs & Feathers was a little different than the past in that we fell within the framework of South Carolina NCAA regulations.

Nevertheless, we still kept asking the athletic department at South Carolina if there was any possible way that we could include recruiting in our pub-lication?

South Carolina Associate

Athletics Director for Compli-ance Services Chris Rogers took our inquiries to the SEC office and looked into if it was even a possibility.

Thanks to the hard work of Rogers, his staff and the SEC, eight issues (including the first-ever Spurs & Feathers’ maga-zine) into the athletic year we are absolutely ecstatic to have recruiting within our pages.

The recruiting section in our publication provided by Phil Kornblut in our opinion just adds to the in-depth look we are providing to Gamecock athletics.

“It’s great to be a Gamecock” is a term utilized all the time by

University of South Carolina coaches, administrators and fans.

Having been a part of Gamecock Nation all my life I have always thought that it is a perfect way to encapsulate just how blessed we all are to follow the athletic programs of the Palmetto State’s flagship institution.

We have noted many times since taking over Spurs & Feathers that it has been an absolute honor helping to rep-resent the Gamecock cause in our pages.

Keep your ideas coming our way. We would love to hear from you.

The South Carolina Women’s golf team is ranked 24th in the latest Golf World/NGCA Division I College Women’s Coaches’ Poll. The Gamecocks were not ranked on this year’s preseason poll. The last time they were ranked was Aug. 30, 2012 at No. 17.

The Gamecocks started off their fall sea-son strong with two top-10 finishes, taking sixth place at the season-opening Cougar Classic and second place at last week’s Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship.

Southern Cal and Alabama remain at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively and Oklahoma claimed the third spot in the rankings.

Along with South Carolina and Alabama six other SEC schools earned rankings in-cluding No. 5 Florida.

The Gamecocks return to action Oct. 11-13 at the Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Story by South Carolina Athletics Media Relations

Something to crow about


Florida State commitment DL Dexter Wideman of Saluda was among the pros-pects in attendance for the USC-Vanderbilt game. Wideman went with several of his Sa-luda teammates according to his coach Doug Painter. “It was a game he wanted to go to,” Painter said. “He’s still talking about Florida State. He’s still saying that. I don’t think that anything has changed along those lines.” Wideman committed to the Seminoles in July but has not totally closed the door on the Gamecocks according to Painter. “I feel sure he’ll go back to Carolina again. I’m just guessing that there is still a chance there.” Wideman has not set any official visits at this point.

Latta OL Donell Stanley may have an idea about where he wants to go at this point but he plans to take his four official visits before making that decision final. Those visits will be to USC, Clemson, North Carolina and Alabama. The dates have not been set but he will work on that this week since this is an offer week for his team. The visits will come during the season. “He was going to go ahead and commit but he wants to make sure that where he goes everything is good,” explained Latta assistant Chris German.

“He’s going to take his four officials and af-ter he takes the last one he said he’s going to commit.” But there was a recent time when it appeared Stanley was ready to make his call. “I think he was wanting to but he came back to me and said I want to make sure this is the place for me to go, so let me take my officials so I can get into it so I can spend the weekend somewhere and really get to know the place,” German said. “I think he just wants to be sure. He’s still playing it close to the chest.” German confirmed that Stanley has a good idea about where he wants to go but wants to be sure and he has not told any schools what he’s thinking. USC offensive line coach Shawn Elliott scouted Stanley last Friday night.

WR Braxton Berrios of Raleigh has taken official visits to USC, Oregon and Miami. He plans to visit Tennessee for the Georgia weekend October 4th and will announce his college decision October 12th. “He’s getting tired, I think he’s ready to make his deci-sion,” Leesville Road coach Chad Smothers said. “He enjoyed his visit to South Carolina. They did a great job, pulled out all the stops. He enjoyed his time down there. He’s told South Carolina and everybody else that in

four weeks or so he will make his decision on where he’s going to go.” Smothers added that USC has always been a strong player for Berrios. “South Carolina has always been in high regard by Braxton,” he said. “They’ve done an outstanding job recruiting him. He’s been there four or five times. They are up there one, two, three. He’s strongly consider-ing South Carolina. He just wants to take his time and do his due diligence and make sure he’s choosing the right place.”

DB Kendall Randolph of Tallahassee thought his days of involvement with USC were over last month when the Gamecocks turned their attention to another cornerback, Chris Lammons. But Lammons commit-ted to Florida and the Gamecocks have reopened the lines of communication with Randolph. “From what I know, they are still interested,” said Randolph who is hearing from recruiter Kirk Botkin. “Coach Botkin was checking in on my season. I’m focusing on school and my team right now and will do recruiting after the season.” Randolph has not been to any games yet but will go to nearby Florida State for some, and he will go to the LSU-Alabama game. He also wants to get to Louisville and Miami. As for

USC, Randolph said he remains interested. “I haven’t really moved on,” he said. “But I haven’t really evaluated where I’m at with the schools.” Randolph said he’s hearing a good bit from Stanford, Louisville, Miami and North Carolina. They have also offered along with South Florida, Florida State, Au-burn and Georgia.

USC recruiter Deke Adams stopped by Dillon High School last Monday to check in on the Wildcats, in particular Gamecock commitment LB Joe Blue and sophomore QB Avery McCall. Coach Jackie Hayes said Blue remains firm with his commitment and McCall continues to draw plenty of major interest. He now has offers from USC, Clemson, LSU, North Carolina, East Caroli-na, Ohio State and Tennessee. McCall hasn’t made it to any games this season but Hayes said he will start going to games later this month and in October. Hayes said Clemson also is very strong on McCall. “He’s kind of like the guy they’ve got up there now,” he said. “I think Avery throws the ball a little bit better than (Tajh) Boyd does but he’s still young and has a long way to go and a lot of work to do.”

Some updates on 2015 prospects:

South Carolina GamecocksReCRuitinG Roundup

by phil koRnblut

Joe Blue LB 5-11 230 Dillon, SCBryson Allen-Williams LB 6-3 220 Ellenwood, GAKalan Ritchie TE 6-6 226 Goose CreekMalik Young OL 6-4 295 Woodmont, SCKevin Crosby Jr. TE 6-2 240 Bamberg-Ehrhardt, SCDarin Smalls DB 5-11 175 Summerville, SCJhaustin Thomas DE 6-7 275 Trinity Valley JC, TX Shaq Davidson WR 6-1 175 Gaffney, SCAl Harris Jr. DB 5-11 170 Fort Lauderdale, FLTaylor Stallworth DE 6-3 280 Mobile, ALAbu Lamin DL 6-5 310 Fort Scott JC, KSTerry Googer WR 6-4 210 Atlanta, SC

USC is well down the road to completing the 2014 recruiting class. The Game-cocks are sitting on 12 commitments for the class right now and will probably cap the class at 16 or 17. Here’s the commitment class to this point:

The number of commitments was up to 13 until DB Wesley Green of Lithonia, GA decommitted last weekend. Green remains interested in USC but will look at other options. He plans to be at Georgia this weekend.

Also last weekend, the Gamecocks lost a 2015 commitment in Green’s team-mate, DE Arden Key. Key will continue to consider the Gamecocks as he, too, checks out other potions.

Here are the other 2015 commitments the Gamecocks have at this point:

DJ Neal WR 6-3 175 Stone Mountain, GAShamiek Blackshear DE 6-5 230 Bluffton, SCChauncey Rivers DE 6-3 230 Stone Mountain, GAJerad Washington WR 5-11 165 Jacksonville, FLSherrod Pittman LB 6-1 215 Jacksonville, FL

More notes on Gamecock football recruiting for the 2014 class:2014 2015


DB Minkah Fitzpatrick of Jersey City, NJ has offers from across the nation includ-ing USC and has maintained contact with the Gamecocks. He attended a camp in Columbia over the summer. His other offers include Alabama, Ohio State, Penn State, Connecticut, Rutgers, Boston College, Stanford, Virginia, Maryland, Virginia Tech and Syracuse.

DB Rion Davis (6-0 180) of A.C. Flora is hearing from USC, Clemson, Georgia, Florida State, and Virginia Tech among others. Davis attended Clemson’s season-opener versus Georgia and attended a camp at USC this summer and also likes the Gamecocks. Other camps Davis attended included Tennessee and Georgia.

WR Markeyvious Adams (6-4 185) of Greenwood is waiting on his first offer and is getting interest from several schools includ-ing Clemson and USC. Adams has seen both teams play this season. Other schools showing interest are North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Florida State and Tennessee. Clemson is show-ing the most interest. This summer, Adams at-tended a camp at USC. Future visits this season include NC State, Tennessee and a return trip to Clemson.

DB Rashard Causey (6-0 185) of Fort Lau-derdale has a USC offer and the Gamecocks are one of his early leaders. “I don’t want to say I have favorites but I do like Miami, Florida and South Carolina a lot.” Causey visited USC

over the summer and had planned to come in for the Vanderbilt game but couldn’t make it. He planned to see the Gamecocks this past weekend at Central Florida. His other offers in-clude UCLA, Miami, Arkansas, Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee, Wake Forest, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Central Florida and Rutgers. He has 17 in all.

DB Mark Fields Jr. (5-11 184) of Cornelius, NC has Clemson and USC high up on his early list and he has seen both in person this season. Fields was at Clemson for the Georgia game and was at USC for the Vander-bilt game. “Both have similar things,” Fields said. “Not one stands out more than the other.” Fields, who is the son of former Carolina Panthers linebacker Mark Fields Sr., hopes to get to the LSU-Alabama game and he wants to go to Tennessee for a game. He has offers from Clemson, USC, Ten-nessee, NC State, North Carolina and Ohio State. He said he’s really not interested in stay-ing in North Carolina for college. “Of the offers I have,” Fields said, “USC and Clemson are right up there but I’m still open. I’m waiting on

more programs to pull the trigger (on offers).” Fields plans to make his decision next summer.

DB Tyrek Cole of Hollywood, FL has a top ten, in no order, of Clemson, USC, Miami, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Florida State, Georgia, Ole Miss and LSU.

Basketball News:The Gamecocks have two commitments

for the 2014 class in 6-1 Marcus Stroman of Keenan and 6-5 TeMarcsssus Blanton of Locust Grove, GA. Their primary remaining target is 6-7 Dante Buford of Jacksonville, FL. Frank Martin was back in Jacksonville last week to check on Buford according to Arlington Country Day coach Rex Morgan. And he’s expecting USC back to see Buford October 3rd. Morgan said Martin has made it clear to him and Buford what he thinks of the player. “He’s their number one guy at that posi-tion, so he said it’s imperative they get him,” Morgan said. “He said it’s important to him.” Morgan said Buford, a native of Simpsonville, still isn’t tipping his hand. “He’s enjoying being recruited a little bit,” the coach said. “I think he likes everybody. Does he want to stay close to home and play in state or go outside?” Buford is set with three official visits for sure. He will go to Oklahoma October 4th and Miami Octo-ber 11th. And he is set to visit USC November 1st. He is also scheduled to visit Oklahoma State and Southern Cal but Morgan is not sure

he will take those two trips. Morgan said Martin also remains interested

in 6-9 Ledamian Keys though Keys is partial to DePaul right now. Morgan said one of his former assistants is an assistant coach at De-Paul and that’s a big reason for Key’s affection for the Blue Demons.

The USC women have a commitment for the 2014 class from 5-11 Kaydra Duckett of Dreher.

Baseball News:SS Madison Stokes (6-3 195) of AC Flora

last Thursday committed to USC for the 2014 class. According to PerfectGame.com, Stokes had been committed to The Citadel. Clemson and North Carolina were two other schools he considered before choosing the Game-cocks. He made an unofficial visit to USC last weekend. Stokes helped lead Flora to the 3A state championship last season. Stokes joins his Falcon teammate 2B Everett Eynon as Gamecock commitments and gives USC 13 pledges for the 2014 class. Four other earlier commitments to the Gamecocks are now com-mitted to other schools. OF KJ Bryant of Wade Hampton switched to Clemson. OF DJ Burt of Fuquay-Varina, NC is now committed to NC State. SS Seth Lancaster of Hanahan is now a Coastal Carolina commitment. And LHP Nate Matheson is now committed to Old Dominion.

Phil KornblutContributing

Writer


Depth Charts for October 5, 7:30 p.m.South Carolina

Kentucky

*These depth charts are taken from the listings from each team’s previ-ous game. Spurs & Feathers goes to print shortly after each football game. Please visit www.spursand-feathers.com over the course of the week for updated depth charts.

OFFENSEWR: 4 Shaq Roland 6-1, 190, So. Lexington, S.C. 1 Damiere Byrd 5-9, 166, Jr. Sicklerville, N.J. 8 Shamier Jeffery 6-1, 207, So. St. Matthews, S.C.WR: 23 Bruce Ellington 5-9, 196, Jr. Moncks Corner, S.C. 80 K.J. Brent 6-4, 188, So. Waxhaw, N.C. 85 Kane Whitehurst 5-11, 179, So. Duluth, Ga.WR: 3 Nick Jones 5-7, 174, Jr. Moore, S.C. 11 Pharoh Cooper 5-11, 184, Fr. Havelock, N.C. 82 Kwinton Smith 6-4, 212, R-Fr. Hamer, S.C.LT: 53 Corey Robinson 6-8, 341, Jr. Havelock, N.C. 74 Mason Zandi 6-9, 293, R-Fr. Irmo, S.C.LG: 50 A.J. Cann 6-4, 314, Jr. Bamberg, S.C. 65 Brock Stadnik 6-5, 286, R-Fr. Greensboro, N.CC: 54 Clayton Stadnik 6-3, 281, R-Fr. Greensboro, N.C.-OR- 51 Cody Waldrop 6-2, 319, R-Fr. Seffner, Fla. 70 Alan Knott 6-4, 272, Fr. Tyrone, Ga.RG: 67 Ronald Patrick 6-2, 315, Sr. Cocoa, Fla. 75 Will Sport 6-5, 294, So. Milton, Fla.RT: 71 Brandon Shell 6-6, 323, So. Goose Creek, S.C. 78 Cody Gibson 6-7, 286, Jr. Tallahassee, Fla.TE: 81 Rory Anderson 6-5, 242, Jr. Powder Springs, Ga. 89 Jerell Adams 6-6, 237, So. Pinewood, S.C.QB: 17 Dylan Thompson 6-3, 218, Jr. Boiling Springs, S.C. 5 Brendan Nosovitch 6-1, 220, R-Fr. Allentown, Pa.FB: 41 Connor McLaurin 6-0, 237, Jr. Raleigh, N.C. 31 Jordan Diaz 6-1, 233, Jr. Hamilton, N.J.TB: 28 Mike Davis 5-9, 215, So. Lithonia, Ga. 7 Shon Carson 5-8, 219, So. Scranton, S.C.

DEFENSEDE: 90 Chaz Sutton 6-5, 263, Sr. Savannah, Ga. 34 Mason Harris 6-3, 218, So. Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. 44 Gerald Dixon 6-2, 268, So. Rock Hill, S.C.DT: 97 J.T. Surratt 6-2, 307, Jr. Winston-Salem, N.C. 92 Gerald Dixon Jr. 6-3, 318, So. Rock Hill, S.C.DT: 99 Kelcy Quarles 6-4, 298, Jr. Hodges, S.C. 52 Phillip Dukes 6-3, 315, So. Manning, S.C. 94KelcyGriffin 6-2,292,Fr. Buford,Ga.DE: 7 Jadeveon Clowney 6-6, 274, Jr. Rock Hill, S.C. 5 Darius English 6-6, 226, R-Fr. Powder Springs, Ga.MLB: 8 Kaiwan Lewis 6-0, 221, So. Mays Landing, N.J. 11 T.J. Holloman 6-2, 228, R-Fr. Stone Mountain, Ga. 28 Jonathan Walton 6-0, 234, Fr. Daphne, Ala.WLB: 21 Marcquis Roberts 6-1, 225, So. Powder Springs, Ga. 10 Skai Moore 6-2, 205, Fr. Cooper City, Fla. 18 Cedrick Cooper 6-2, 213, So. Lithonia, Ga.SPR: 9 Sharrod Golightly 5-10, 195, Jr. Decatur, Ga. 42 Jordan Diggs 6-0, 214, R-Fr. Fort Myers, Fla. 32 Larenz Bryant 6-0, 215, Fr. Charlotte, N.C.CB: 27 Victor Hampton 5-10, 202, Jr. Darlington, S.C. 4 Ahmad Christian 5-10, 189, So. Jacksonville, Fla.SS: 25 Kadetrix Marcus 6-1, 195, Jr. Stone Mountain, Ga. 20 T.J. Gurley 5-10, 196, So. Cairo, Ga.FS: 12 Brison Williams 5-11, 218, Jr. Warner Robins, Ga. 17 Chaz Elder 6-2, 199, R-Fr. Union City, Ga.CB: 15 Jimmy Legree 6-0, 187, Sr. Beaufort, S.C. 3 Jamari Smith 5-10, 183, Fr. Jacksonville, Fla. 1 Rico McWilliams 5-11, 187, R-Fr. Hampton, Ga.

SPECIALISTSKO: 19 Landon Ard 5-9, 172, So. Rock Hill, S.C. 29 Elliott Fry 6-0, 150, Fr. Frisco, TexasPK: 29 Elliott Fry 6-0, 150, Fr. Frisco, Texas 19 Landon Ard 5-9, 172, So. Rock Hill, S.C.P: 13 Tyler Hull 6-2, 206, Jr. Mount Airy, N.C. 18 Patrick Fish 6-0, 195, Jr. Shelby, N.C.KR: 23 Bruce Ellington 5-9, 196, Jr. Moncks Corner, S.C. 7 Shon Carson 5-8, 219, So. Scranton, S.C.PR: 27 Victor Hampton 5-10, 202, Jr. Darlington, S.C. 11 Pharoh Cooper 5-11, 184, Fr. Havelock, N.C.SSN: 58 Ryland Culbertson 6-4, 265, Jr. Laurens, S.C.LSN: 47 Drew Williams 6-2, 190, Fr. Irmo, S.C.H: 18 Patrick Fish 6-0, 195, Jr. Shelby, N.C. 5 Brendan Nosovitch 6-1, 220, R-Fr. Allentown, Pa.

OFFENSETE: 86 Jordan Aumiller 6-4, 232, Sr. Danville, Ky. 82 Anthony Kendrick 6-3, 233, Sr. Katy, Texas 85 Steven Borden 6-3, 237, Jr. Waxahachie, TexasLT: 77 Darrian Miller 6-5, 284, Jr. Lexington, Ky. 70 Jordan Swindle 6-7, 290, So. St. Johns, Fla.LG: 75 Zach West 6-4, 308, So. Lexington, Ky. 76 Teven Eatmon-Nared 6-7, 330, Jr. Bucyrus, OhioC: 72 Jon Toth 6-5, 285, R-Fr. Indianapolis, Ind. 57 Zach Myers 6-3, 277, R-Fr. Miamisburg, Ohio 64 Max Godby 6-4, 280, Jr. Louisville, Ky.RG: 79 Kevin Mitchell 6-6, 289, Sr. Winston, Ga. 71 Jack Gruenschlaeger 6-11, 350, So. Fort Thomas, Ky.RT: 70 Jordan Swindle 6-7, 290, So. St. Johns, Fla. 58 Shaquille Love 6-4, 313, So. Harriman, Tenn.WR: 9 Demarco Robinson 5-10, 158, Jr. Ellenwood, Ga. 13 Jeff Badet 6-0, 170, Fr. Orlando, Fla.WR: 1 Ryan Timmons 5-10, 185, Fr. Frankfort, Ky. 23 Daryl Collins 5-11, 205, So. Gadsden, Ala. 80 Ronnie Shields 6-5, 227, Jr. Stone Mountain, Ga.WR: 8 Javess Blue 6-0, 190, Jr. Babson Park, Fla. 17 Alexander Montgomery 6-2, 210, Fr. Weston, Fla. 6 A.J. Legree 6-1, 189, So. Fort White, Fla.QB: 11 Maxwell Smith 6-4, 218, So. Granada Hills, Calif.-OR- 2 Jalen Whitlow 6-2, 220, So. Prattville, Ala.FB: 39 D.J. Warren 6-0, 226, Jr. Alcoa, Tenn. 43 Cody Jones 5-11, 215, Sr. Williamsburg, Ky.RB: 4 Raymond Sanders 5-8, 187, Sr. Stone Mountain, Ga.

-OR- 3 Jojo Kemp 5-10, 190, Fr. DeLand, Fla. 25 Jonathan George 5-10, 209, Sr. Lincoln, Ala.

DEFENSE

DE: 2 Alvin Dupree 6-4, 252, Jr. Irwinton, Ga. 6 Jason Hatcher 6-3, 250, Fr. Louisville, Ky.DT: 99 Donte Rumph 6-3, 320, Sr. St. Matthews, S.C. 51 Tristian Johnson 6-1, 265, Sr. LaGrange, Ga.DT: 97 Mister Cobble 6-0, 338, Sr. Louisville, Ky. 50 Mike Douglas 6-4, 288, Jr. Largo, Fla. 92 Christian Coleman 6-3, 285, Jr. Milan, Tenn.DE: 94 Za’Darius Smith 6-6, 254, Jr. Greenville, Ala. 91 Farrington Huguenin 6-4, 262, So. Columbia, S.C. 60 Alvin Davis 6-4, 265, Jr. Jesup, Ga.SLB: 45 Josh Forrest 6-3, 233, So. Paducah, Ky. 34 Kory Brown 6-0, 203, Jr. Moncks Corner, S.C. 54 Malcolm McDuffen 6-3, 215, Jr. Hopkinsville, Ky.MLB: 40 Avery Williamson 6-1, 238, Sr. Milan, Tenn. 32 Miles Simpson 6-2, 225, Jr. Independence, Ky.WLB: 41 TraVaughn Paschal 6-4, 242, Jr. Odenton, Md. 22 Khalid Henderson 6-1, 218, So. Mableton, Ga.NICK: 24 Blake McClain 5-11, 190, Fr. Winter Park, Fla. 15 Marcus McWilson 6-1, 210, Fr. Youngstown, OhioCB: 21 Nate Willis 6-0, 180, Jr. Pahokee, Fla. 3 Fred Tiller 6-0, 171, So. Homerville, Ga.S: 5 Ashely Lowery 6-1, 211, Jr. Cleveland, Ga. 18 Glenn Faulkner 6-2, 193, So. East St. Louis, Ill.

S: 28 Eric Dixon 5-11, 187, Jr. Mobile, Ala. 7 Daron Blaylock 6-1, 214, So. Marietta, Ga.CB: 16 Cody Quinn 5-10, 170, So. Middletown, Ohio 19 Jaleel Hytchye 5-10, 175, Fr. Cincinnati, Ohio 38 Eric Simmons 6-0, 203, Jr. Atlanta, Ga.

SPECIALISTS

S: 59 Kelly Mason 6-3, 224, So. Rockton, Ill. 53 Matthew Adolph 6-2, 220, Jr. Dublin, Ohio 89 Tyler Robinson 6-3, 246, Sr. Friendsville, Tenn.H: 13 Jared Leet 6-3, 187, So. Powell, Ohio 9 Landon Foster 6-1, 208, So. Franklin, Tenn.K: 88 Joe Mansour 6-2, 189, Sr. LaGrange, Ga. 99 Austin McGinnis 5-10, 175, Fr. Prattville, Ala.P: 9 Landon Foster 6-1, 208, So. Franklin, Tenn. 88 Joe Mansour 6-2, 189, Sr. LaGrange, Ga.KR: 9 Demarco Robinson 5-10, 158, Jr. Ellenwood, Ga. 8 Javess Blue 6-0, 190, Jr. Babson Park, Fla. 4 Raymond Sanders 5-8, 187, Sr. Stone Mountain, Ga.PR: 9 Demarco Robinson 5-10, 158, Jr. Ellenwood, Ga. 8 Javess Blue 6-0, 190, Jr. Babson Park, Fla. 23 Daryl Collins 5-11, 205, So. Gadsden, Ala.



Community involvement is a core value of Charles and Judy Divita and for Firehouse Subs, which is why they have teamed up with the Gamecock Club as a Garnet Market member.

The Divitas run six Firehouse Subs restaurants in the greater Columbia area, including one located near the heart of the University of South Carolina campus.

“The campus is basically our community with regards to that restaurant and our constituents there are faculty, students and staff with a few people from the state capitol a couple of blocks away walking down,” Divita said. “Most of them are af-filiated with our campus and our commu-nity and we’re involved in every one of our communities with all of our restaurants, so we want to be involved with this one.

“We’re big Gamecock supporters and sports fans. We’ve gotten to know the ath-letes, trainers and coaches so we want to do everything that we can to be supportive of the athletic teams and their players and coaches,” Divita continued. “So when we were first approached by the Garnet Market we signed up our USC store … but then this year we thought, ‘you know what, there are Gamecock fans all over the community that we serve here’ … so we expanded it to all six of our restaurants.”

The benefit offered by the Divitas at their restaurants is a free drink with the pur-chase of a sub when patrons show an ac-tive Gamecock Club membership card. He said that if a few visits taking advantage of this offering will help offset the cost of the Gamecock Club membership and it is a way to thank people for supporting South Carolina.

The Divitas advertise with South Caro-lina in the Colonial Life Arena and have some spots on the radio and in print, but some of the advertising allocations are for the Gamecock Club. They have a a few spots on Coach Spurrier’s Thursday night call in show where they advertise for the Gamecock Club along with their restau-rants.

“We’re still going to be advertising Fire-house, so why not tie that into the Garnet Market as well,” Divita said. “It says something to this effect, ‘Judy and Charlie Divita invite you to join the Gamecock Club. The Divitas will somewhat offset the cost of your membership by offering a free drink every time you come in and have a delicious Firehouse Sub. Like the Game-cocks, Firehouse Subs are the very best. A small investment for a big return.’

“Then we say ‘join the Gamecock Club to join today’ and give the number. We give our locations in town and it gets our message across, but it also promotes the Gamecock Club … we’re going to spend the advertising money anyway, so why not promote the Gamecock Club. That’s why we’re doing it,” Divita explained.

The Divitas help to support the Universi-ty and Athletics Department in many ways including feeding the band, cheerleaders, some of the teams, both the Gamecocks and some opponents, whenever they are asked. They also take their employees to some football games, and the Divitas are basketball fans as well.

“We love the women’s basketball team and we’re proud of their accomplishments. We’re looking forward to the men’s team coming back around under Frank Martin. We were involved when Devan Downey played at the arena also,” Judy Divita said.

Community involvement has been im-portant to the Divitas since they decided to open their restaurants in the Columbia area. Judy received her graduate degree from Carolina and she met Charles about 40 years ago in Columbia, so they thought there would be no better place than on campus and around the city to open their stores. One of the first events that led them to become involved when opening their franchises was when seven students died in a fire at a beach house in October of 2007.

“We contacted Firehouse and said ‘what can we do’ … Firehouse and our founda-tion is about giving life-saving equipment to first responders,” Charles Divita ex-plained. “So we made contact with the city of Columbia fire department and found out which two stations primarily served the campus community. Then we arranged for an equipment donation … about $6,000 worth of equipment, to be made in the names of those seven students who lost their lives.

“We had a big event. Judy and I donated the equipment to the presidents of the fra-ternities and sororities that lost brothers and sisters in the fire … and they in turn donated it to the fire stations. It was a very moving event. That kind of just sealed us with the university community,” Divita said.

The Divitas have remained involved in the campus through similar ways and oth-er things as well and they are always con-scious of being good citizens to the com-munity, both on campus and in the city.

Their franchise have also receive mul-tiple awards for their work in the commu-nity and in the business world. They were

awarded as the National Franchisee of the Year and the National General Manager of the Year from Firehouse Subs in the past few years. They were also named the District 5 Business Partners of the Year by the school district in the greater Co-lumbia area and they were named as one of six companies in the nation as the Most Valuable Player Award from Multi-Unit Franchise.

“The big-picture reason of how we got here is part of our philosophy and Fire-house, and one of the reasons we like Fire-house Subs is because they are involved in the community the way Charlie described. So it was bringing a lot of points of inter-est together so we could provide service and also build a business in the university-type community,” Judy Divita said.

submitted photo

Charles and Judy Divita run six Firehouse Subs restaurants in the greater Columbia area.

Divitas make a difference in the community



A former football player is leading a pro-gram to help beautify the midlands and show Carolina pride by creating a Game-cock mural on the 88-foot tall water tank in Cayce, S.C.

The water tank is located near the Colum-bia Metropolitan Airport so recruits and vis-itors will fly over it and gain a sense of that they are near the heart of Gamecock Nation.

Former walk-on wide receiver and letter-man Will Bryan, who played for Lou Holtz as a member of the 2001 and 2002 Outback Bowl teams, is the founder of Public Works of HeART. This is a new company that partners with nonprofit organizations to help them raise awareness and money for their cause by using public art as the vehicle to do so.

The Lexington Gamecock Club initially came to Bryan saying that they wanted to celebrate the new golf practice facility’s location in Lexington county since it is the only Carolina practice facility that is in Lexington. They originally had the idea to

commemorate this on the water tank that is located so close to the facility.

“I am an undergrad and grad school gradu-ate of South Carolina and a former letter-man, so I love the fact that we’re getting to do this project to support the Gamecocks,” Bryan said. “We’re also able to let Game-cock fans contribute to the project.

“It’s going to make a new South Carolina landmark. It is going to give major publicity to the athletics department with it being tied into the University,” Bryan added.

The mural is going to be 20,000 square feet and the artwork is divided into 10,000 virtu-al squares that will be available for sponsor-ship for only $25 per square. There will be a landmark sign beside the mural listing the names of everyone that purchases a square. You can purchase one to 10 squares at $25 each online at www.GamecockMural.com.

Along with the recognition on the land-mark sign beside the painted water tank, Public Works of HeART is partnering with the local Harvest Hope Food Bank to help families in need in the area.

“If all the squares are sold by Nov. 1, we will be able to give $5 from each square to

Harvest Hope Food Bank. This means that we would be able to give $50,000 to Harvest Hope Food Bank to help families before the holidays,” Bryan said.

Bryan said that the project will need to be funded by Nov. 1 to have the mural complet-ed by the end of the year because the water tank can only be painted while it is empty. If it is not funded by then, the painting will have to wait until the next time the tank is emptied, most likely in the spring.

The artwork for the mural was designed by Bryan, who earned a BA in Fine Arts in 2002 from South Carolina. It is designed to reflect the state’s natural beauty and to be a highly visible marker for the new golf prac-tice facility.

“Basically we’re painting the whole thing as a big sunset with a Palmetto tree and cres-cent moon with the silhouette of a golfer. It has city name Cayce on it, but the “C” in the name is the Block C with the Gamecock in it,” Bryan described. “Because it is so close to the airport and the whole top of the tank is round, we’re painting a giant golf ball with a big Block C and Gamecock on top of it.

“This way all the planes flying into Co-

lumbia Metro will fly right over it. It will basically be a welcome to Gamecock coun-try as soon as they get to Columbia,” Bryan continued.

The painting of the mural will be done by Eric Henn, a nationally-awarded mural painter with 20 years of experience. Henn won the 2012 National Tnemec Tank of the Year Award and has done many fantastic murals on tanks like the one in Cayce for 20 years. He will hand-paint the design onto the tank.

This project will help to create a new Gamecock landmark in the midlands and benefit the community as well. It will be a source of pride for Carolina fans throughout the region and a celebration of the expansion of the Athletics Department.

To find out more about the project or to donate, visit www.GamecockMural.com and watch the video on the main page. You can also follow them on Twitter @Public-WrksOfHrt, or tweet them so questions and answers can reach a large audience. There is also an email form on the contact page of the website as well if you have more specific questions or need more than 140 characters.

Mural to celebrate Gamecock pride in Lexington county


photos by Allen shArpe

Berson and the Gamecocks enter Conference USA action undefeated at home at 2-0-2.


The Gamecock men’s soccer program has been buoyed by fan support, contributions from young players and leadership by the older players to put themselves in good position as they head into the Con-ference USA portion of their schedule.

“We’ve done very well. You know we do play a re-ally tough out-of-conference schedule and that is to get us ready for the conference. At this point in time, I think our team has done excep-tionally well …. I think overall, considering some of the injuries we’ve had and the youth of our team, we’re right on target,” head coach Mark Berson said.

Berson recognized that the team has gotten all positive results playing at home, a fact which he credits not only to the players but to the home atmosphere as well.

“Our record at home is outstanding, our fan support is unbelievable, the crowd has been tremendous and the student support has been outstanding. I want to es-pecially thank the students and Carolina fans that have come out and supported us at home because it really does power our players. It really does give us a big lift at home,” Berson said.

The players are learning the system and style of play that Berson wants to see from them and it has led them to positive home re-sults because of the environ-ment. He noted that every road trip is different for the team because soccer fields are not all uniform size and surface like you see in many other college sports.

“A lot of people don’t un-derstand that a football field is a football field, a basket-ball court is a basketball court, but soccer fields are different. They are differ-ent dimensions, different sizes and different surfaces, so the different places you play present different chal-lenges,” Berson explained. “Like at St. John’s we’re playing on a astroturf field on top of a parking garage, at Rutgers we’re playing on an entirely different field and same thing at Coastal.

“So we do have to ad-just when we go different places, but that is part of what we try to do with the team in the non-conference schedule is to try and get them ready for that,” Berson said.

The Gamecocks have many tough conference road trips on the schedule, but Berson believes that the team has seen many differ-ent styles of play and can adapt on the road. He again credited the tough schedule that the team played in the non-conference portion as serving for great prepara-tion for the competition they will see in Conference USA.

Berson is pleased with the direction of the team, especially the contributions from the freshmen and sophomore classes. There are some freshmen starting and playing well, including goalkeeper Marco Velez who had to step into the middle of the game and has played well since stepping between the pipes.

“I think number one that is the caliber of athlete that we recruit here, however, even with that, the first year is a complete adjustment. For the first time most of them are stepping out of their age

group,” Berson said. “Now they’re playing against 21 and 22 year old guys. The game is faster, everything is faster, so there is a learning curve going on simultane-ously in their development at this point and they’ve done great. We’re really pleased.

“We’re also really pleased with some of our older play-ers for their leadership and helping to bring these guys along, so that has been re-ally good,” Berson added.

Berson said that the he is happy with the way that the team has come together thus far, and he is looking forward to the continued development and success of the team. He noted that the players have come together and learned the system and expectations, now it comes to execution for the remain-der of the season.

“I think we’ve reached the point now where we have an identity, a style we’re play-ing in and everyone now understands the roles and responsibilities,” Berson said. “Now it’s about execu-tion. When you have chanc-es you need to stick them away. You need to limit the number of opportunities you give the opponent when it gets to that level.

“You can’t even really think about that level until you start to have all the pieces in play and now we do. So now we need to be able to take it and execute out of that. That is where we need to be better. We need to limit opportunities, we need to capitalize on the op-portunities that we get and in the quality of teams that we’re playing and the sched-ule that we have, there are plenty of great opportunities in there,” Berson concluded.

Gamecock men’s soccer looking to execute in conference play


by brian [email protected]

“No question about it. I think about it all the time. If I hadn’t gone to South Carolina, I probably wouldn’t have played in the NFL,” former South Carolina quarterback Anthony Wright noted last week.

“At the time, I was being recruited by a lot of schools in the ACC … a lot of the schools in the ACC were running the option at the time. You don’t really love the quarterback position running the option. They don’t really teach you how to read coverages … so being able to go to a school that allowed me to pass, which is what I wanted to do; I wanted to go to a school that was going to allow me to be able to pass, I was able to transfer what I learned in college over into the pros. That is how I was able to last so long (in the NFL), because I knew what I was doing. I was able to read coverages and I knew where to go with the ball,” Wright continued.

That ability and understanding of how to play the quarterback position allowed the Vanceboro, N.C. native to play in the NFL for a stout 10 seasons.

“Success is perceptive,” Wright remarked. “I look back on my career and I remember when I came out of high school going into my senior year I was the number three quar-terback in the country behind Peyton Man-ning and Josh Booty.

“When I think about where I came from, not having a father that played in the NFL, or not having a father that played sports period, coming from a small town of about 1,000 people – matter of fact, less than 1,000 people – and to be able to say that I played at a major university and to be able to say that I played in the NFL for 10 years, to be able to say that I was AFC Player of the Week, to be able to say that I’ve got a Super Bowl ring, to be able to say I have the ninth-best comeback in NFL history, to be able to say I played for the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, to be able to say what I did, that’s success,” Wright noted.

Wright obviously would love to have a career that resembled Peyton Manning’s, but after retiring from the NFL after the 2009 season, Wright is comfortable with his place in history.

“To see that I came from the situation I came from where I didn’t have a father that played or I didn’t have anybody around me to really teach me the game of football. I was just out there playing. I was just out there playing off straight talent. I just knew that I enjoyed what I was doing,” Wright said.

The West Craven High School product is

quick to point out that without former South Carolina quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator John Reaves, he would not have been able to be as successful as he be-came.

“Coach Reaves really showed me how to play the quarterback position, how to decipher what I was looking at. Without him, to be hon-est with you, I tell anybody … I give him all the credit for teaching me how to be a quarter-back,” Wright remarked.

The tutelage provided by Reaves, who left

prior to Wright’s senior season, allowed him to finish his Gamecock career that spanned from 1995-98 with 38 career touchdown passes and 432 career completions. Wright led the Game-cocks in passing in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Wright is fifth among the Gamecock career passing leaders with 5,681 yards passing.

Undrafted after his playing career at South Carolina was over, Wright was able to make the Pittsburgh Steelers roster as a free agent.

The one-year stint with Pittsburgh in 1999 was the beginning of a five-team odyssey for

Wright that saw him also play for the Dallas Cowboys (2000-02), the Baltimore Ravens (2002-05), the Cincinnati Bengals (2006) and the New York Giants (2007-08).

Wright’s best performance in the profes-sional ranks quite possibly came in the aforementioned game by Wright that was noted by the NFL as the ninth-best come-back in NFL history.

Down 41-24 to the Seattle Seahawks in the 2003 season with just seven minutes remaining, the Wright-led Ravens tied the game at 41-all to send it into overtime. The Ravens would go on to win the game, 44-41, in overtime. In one of the most pivotal expe-riences of his playing career, Ravens head coach gave Brian Billick gave the game ball to his wife, Nicole, who was giving birth to their second child later that day.

The comeback for the ages performance was part of a 2003 season that saw Wright go 5-2 as a starter for the Ravens. The Ravens won five of their last six games with Wright under center. Wright was the quarterback for the Ravens in their narrow playoff loss to Tennessee.

Wright would conclude his NFL career with 3,590 yards passing in 31 games played. He started 19 of the 31 games in which he appeared. He picked up a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Giants’ Super XLII championship team.

Since retiring, Wright has moved on to train quarterbacks in the Charlotte area. He does not work with a large grouping of quar-terbacks, but rather with those who have a lot of potential such as Hough starting quar-terback Josh Stilley, a pro-style quarterback who is being recruited by a number of FCS schools. He has also been working with Hough freshman Jackson Gibbs, who is Joe Gibbs’ grandson. Wright has been training Gibbs for three years.

The training is just a small part of Wright’s post-football life as he also owns a couple small businesses, including Main Street Ice Cream Café in his hometown.

Despite the numerous things going in his life, Wright is still extremely proud to be a Gamecock and thrilled at what head coach Steve Spurrier and people like Clyde Wrenn,

Special Assistant to Development, are doing to include former Gamecock lettermen in what is taking place currently within the program.

“I think it is something we should have been doing a long time ago. Makes the guys feel ap-preciated in what they’ve done and make them feel like they can come back and be a part of the program … I think what coach Wrenn is doing is very welcome by the former players. Everybody that is hearing about it is trying to take advantage of it,” Wright concluded.

Where are they now? – Anthony Wright

South carolina athleticS media relationS



South Carolina athletiCS media relationS

General notes• SouthCarolinadefeatedUCF28-25

toimproveto3-1ontheseason.TheGamecocksreturntoactiononSaturday,October5vs.KentuckyatWilliams-BriceStadiumwithkickoffsetfor7:30p.m.onFSN.

• CaptainsforSouthCarolinaweresopho-morelinebackerNo.21MarcquisRob-erts,sophomoretailbackNo.22BrandonWilds,juniorcornerbackNo.27VictorHamptonandsenioroffensiveguardNo.67RonaldPatrick.

• Withthevictory,SouthCarolinaisnow4-0againstUCFintheall-timeserieshistory.SouthCarolinaheadcoachSteveSpurriermovesto2-0againsttheKnightsasheadcoachoftheGame-cocksand3-0inhiscareer.Hisprevi-ouswinwashisfirstgameatSouthCarolina,a24-15victoryonSeptember1,2005.HealsodefeatedtheKnightsasheadcoachatFloridawitha58-27winonSeptember11,1999.

• Withthewin,SouthCarolinaextendswinningstreakagainstnon-conferenceopponentsto12games.SouthCarolina’slastnon-conferencelosscametoFloridaStateinthe2010Chick-fil-ABowl.SouthCarolina’sregularseasonnon-conferencewinningstreakincreasesto18gamesaswell.TheGamecockslastregularseasonnon-conferencelosswasatClemsoninthefinalgameofthe2008regularseason.

• TheGamecockshavenowbeenrankedintheAssociatedPresstop-25for53consecutivepolls.The53straightweeksisthefifth-longeststreakinthecountry.

• TheKentuckygameisthefirstofsixstraightSECgamesfortheGamecocks.SouthCarolinaleadstheall-timeseriesoverKentucky,16-7-1.

• SouthCarolinawelcomesKentuckyhavingwon13straighthomegames.TheGamecocksare29-3intheirlast32homegames.

• SouthCarolina’s13-gamehomewin-ningstreakisthethird-longestinthenation.The13straighthomevictoriesistiedforsecondinschoolhistorybehind15straighthomewinsfrom1978-80.

offensive notes• JuniorwidereceiverBruceEllington

surpassedthe1,000-yardmarkforcareerreceivingyardsatSouthCarolina.El-lingtonhadfourreceptionsfor88yardsvs.UCFandhas12receptionsfor199yardsinthelasttwogames.Henowhas71careerreceptionsfor1,040yards.

• JuniorwidereceiverDamiereByrd

caughtacareer-highfivereceptions.Byrdfinishedwith74receivingyards,hissecondhighesttotalofreceivingyardsinagameinhiscareer.

• SophomoretailbackMikeDaviscarried26timesforacareer-high167yards.Hispreviouscareer-highwas149yardsatGeorgiaonSeptember7,2013.Davis’53-yardtouchdownruninthethirdquarterwashisfourthcareercarryof50ormoreyardsaswellashisthirdoftheseason.Headdedapairof13-yardtouchdownrunsinthefourthquarterforhisfirstcareermulti-TDgameandhetiedaschoolrecordforrushingtouch-downsinagamewiththreethatisheldbymany.ThelastGamecocktohavethreerushingtouchdownsinagamewasMarcusLattimoreonSeptember17,2011vs.Navy.Davisnowhassixcareerrushingtouchdowns;allhavebeenre-cordedthisyear.

• JuniorquarterbackDylanThompsonwas15-for-32intheairfor261passingyards.Thatishisthird-highestpassingyardtotalinagameinhiscareer.

• SouthCarolina’s11-play97-yarddriveinthethirdquarterwasthelongestscor-ingdrivebyyardsintheseasonfortheGamecocksandthethirdscoringdriveoftheseasonof90ormoreyards.ThedrivewascappedbyDylanThompson’s3-yardtouchdownrun,hissecondtouch-downrunoftheseason.

defensive notes• SouthCarolinatalliedthreeintercep-

tionsinSaturday’sgame,themostinter-ceptionsbytheGamecockssincefourvs.EastCarolinaonSeptember8,2012.

• SouthCarolinalimitedUCFtojust69netrushingyards,thelowesttotaloftheseasonbyanopponent.ItisthelowesttotalbyanopponentsinceVanderbiltrushedfor62yardsonAugust30,2012.

• JuniorcornerbackVictorHamptonre-cordedhisfirstinterceptionoftheseasoninthesecondquarterandhisthirdcareerinterception.HislastinterceptioncameinOctober27,2012vs.Tennessee.

• SeniorcornerbackJimmyLegree’sinter-ceptioninthethirdquartermarkedthesecondstraightgamehehasinterceptedapass.Legreenowhasfivecareerinter-ceptions.

• FreshmanlinebackerT.J.Hollomantal-liedhisfirstcareerinterceptioninthefourthquarter.

Special teams notes• JuniorpunterTylerHullpuntedthree

timesfor141yardsincludingalongpuntof47yards.Twoofthreepuntshewascreditedwithwereinsidethe20-yardline.

South Carolina-UCF postgame notes

photo by allen sharpeSenior cornerback Jimmy Legree has now had an interception in the last two games.


Junior wide receiver Damiere Byrd had a career-best five catches for 74 yards.


08/29/13..... vs. North Carolina ...........Columbia, S.C. ...........W, 27-10

09/07/13 .... at #11 Georgia .................Athens, Ga. .................L, 41-30

09/14/13 .... vs. Vanderbilt ...................Columbia, S.C. ...........W, 35-25

09/28/13 .... at UCF .............................Orlando, Fla. ...............W, 28-25

10/05/13 .... vs. Kentucky ....................Columbia, S.C. .......... 7:30 p.m.

10/12/13 .... at Arkansas ......................Fayetteville, Ark. ................ TBA

10/19/13 .... at Tennessee ...................Knoxville, Tenn. ................. TBA

10/26/13 .... at Missouri .......................Columbia, Mo. ................... TBA

11/02/13 .... vs. Mississippi State ........Columbia, S.C. .................. TBA

11/16/13 .... vs. Florida ........................Columbia, S.C. .................. TBA

11/23/13 .... vs. Coastal Carolina .........Columbia, S.C. .................. TBA

11/30/13 .... vs. Clemson .....................Columbia, S.C. .................. TBA

South Carolina Gamecocks2013

football SCheduleTeam SEC Pct. Overall Pct. Home Away Neutral StreakEastErnFlorida 2 - 0 1.000 3 - 1 .750 2-0 1-1 0-0 W2

Georgia 2 - 0 1.000 3 - 1 .750 3-0 0-1 0-0 W3

South Carolina 1 - 1 .500 3 - 1 .750 2-0 1-1 0-0 W2Missouri 0 - 0 .000 4 - 0 1.000 3-0 1-0 0-0 W4

Kentucky 0 - 1 .000 1 - 3 .250 1-2 0-0 0-1 L2

Tennessee 0 - 1 .000 3 - 2 .600 3-0 0-2 0-0 W1

Vanderbilt 0 - 2 .000 3 - 2 .600 2-1 1-1 0-0 W2

WEstErnAlabama 2 - 0 1.000 4 - 0 1.000 2-0 1-0 1-0 W4

Auburn 1 - 1 .500 3 - 1 .500 3-0 0-1 0-0 L1

LSU 1 - 1 .500 4 - 1 .800 3-0 0-1 1-0 L1

Ole Miss 1 - 1 .500 3 - 1 .750 1-0 2-1 0-0 L1

Texas A&M 1 - 1 .500 4 - 1 .800 3-1 1-0 0-0 W2

Arkansas 0 - 1 .000 3 - 2 .600 3-1 0-1 0-0 L2

Mississippi St. 0 - 1 .000 2 - 2 .500 2-0 0-1 0-1 W1

standings


I never got the chance to ask Paul Dietzel.By the time I heard the story and contacted

his son about an interview, the coach’s health had begun to de-cline. Indulging the curiosity of a broadcaster was, understandably, a low priority.

Dietzel, the for-mer head football coach and athletic director at South Carolina, passed away last Tuesday at the age of 89. In his eight years at

Carolina (1966-74), Dietzel left a legacy that can still be felt today. He was the architect of a conference champion football team, the driving force behind the first facilities boom, and the man who hired Bobby Richardson to transform the baseball program. He also wrote the Carolina fight song and created the Gamecock logo that’s still in use today.

Therein lies one of the great legends of South Carolina athletics. For the past month, I had been trying to find the answer. Some people who have been associated with the Gamecocks for decades had never heard the story. Others thought they had, but couldn’t recall where. Most agree: knowing the coach, they wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.

Did Paul Dietzel hide his initials in the Gamecock logo?

If anyone knows the intricacies of the Gamecock, it’s Eddie Dunning. The grounds crew member has painted the logo at mid-field of Williams-Brice Stadium for the past 30 years. While describing his painting process to me last month, Dunning paused to ask a question.

“You know Coach Dietzel’s initials are in-side the Gamecock?” he said.

At first I thought Dunning was trying to pull a fast one. After all, I had seen the Gamecock thousands, if not millions of times. Then he traced the backside of the logo. Sure enough, where the top tail feath-ers curl and overlap, a “P” and “D” start to become visible.

Could Dietzel’s initials have been under our noses this whole time? Among his projects when he took office in 1966 was a makeover of the Gamecock logo. The previ-ous one, drawn by political cartoonist Jak Smyrl for $10, featured a fully open game-cock – a perfectly good emblem, but a far cry from the snarling tiger that Dietzel’s old school, LSU, used. Dietzel had a noted ar-tistic side, and took an active role in the new logo’s design.

“Coach Dietzel was very creative. He loved to draw and paint,” said Emily White, the athletic department’s longtime secretary.

My broadcast partner for baseball, Tommy Moody, says a hidden symbol would have fit Dietzel’s personality.

Andy DemetraContributing Writer


“Coach Dietzel might have wanted to put his stamp on it somehow, just because he was about originality,” he said.

But neither White nor Moody knew if the initials story was true. So I asked Don Barton, South Carolina’s venerable former sports information director, for insight. Barton, 89, worked closely with Dietzel and remains a walking encyclopedia of Game-cock history.

Barton said a man from Velvetex Incorpo-rated in Columbia, Martin Hyman, drafted the original version of the Gamecock. The bird faced right to left. Dietzel didn’t like that.

“It was in a fighting mood, but Paul Diet-zel thought it looked like it was retreating,” he said.

Barton said Dietzel rejected the logo, and asked Bill Smith, the team’s dentist and an amateur artist, to draw a more defiant-look-ing version. Smith’s Gamecock made its debut Sept. 24, 1966, when South Carolina opened its home football schedule against Memphis State. The logo - now framed by the Block C - remains in use today, with only minor touch-ups throughout the years.

But Barton didn’t know if the initials story was true, either. I finally asked Diet-zel’s son, Steve. Had his Dad ever told him about slipping a “P.D.” into the Gamecock?

“Dad vaguely remembered the initials and having placed them somewhere,” Steve wrote in an e-mail.

His account, though, varied from White’s and Barton’s. “I have always thought Dad actually drew the Gamecock himself and remembered he took other Gamecock pic-

tures and decided to trim it down to a more fierce bird! I remembered the trimming down process and again thought Dad actu-ally drew it himself,” he wrote.

Could Dietzel have taken Smith’s design and modified the feathers to form his ini-tials? Did Smith add them on his own as a sly tribute to his friend? Or was this all just a blissful coincidence?

Alas, only one person could tell us for certain. And he left us on Tuesday.

Sports are littered with tales like these, where the line between fact and fiction is blurred over time. Sometimes they get debunked. Other times the trail of confir-mation runs cold, and people assume they never happened. And sometimes we let these stories live in a beautiful in-between, never knowing if they’re true or not - and frankly, not caring to find out - happy to accept them as part of our shared sporting heritage.

The story of whether Paul Dietzel laced his initials into the Gamecock logo may for-ever be shrouded in mystery, its answer left in the eye of the beholder. Barton, weigh-ing the story against his own recollections, summarized it like this: “it’s probably somewhere between a legend and a myth.”

And perhaps it’s best to leave it at that. Whether done intentionally or not, fans should always see a little of Paul Dietzel in the Gamecock.

**Thanks to Tommy Moody for provid-ing the cover from the 1966 South Car-olina-Memphis State football program. Credit to USC archives for the 1964 Cen-tury Club logo.**

Photo caption here.



The South Carolina cross country team has been able to see some success thus far this season with the contributions from younger members of the squad.

Coach Andrew Allden said that he has en-couraged to see the youth on the roster mak-ing an impact in the meets, but also the up-perclassmen have competed well and helped to bring along some of the younger members.

“To me the biggest thing is that they (the underclassmen) have run up to their fitness level and run up to their ability level. As they get fitter and more mature, there is no reason to believe that they won’t continue to do that and progress,” Allden said. “One of the nice things is that they have stuck their nose in there and said ‘if I’m running number five in workouts I should be running number five in races’ … so they’ve not be deferential in that regard and that is good to see.

“I think the upperclassmen are in the mix and are going to continue to be in the mix. We’ve got someone who academically is a senior but eligibility-wise is a junior in Mer-edith Mill who is having what I can only de-scribe as a career year. She is running better than she ever has, so it’s kind of nice to have somebody mature up front,” Allden added.

The upcoming portion of the Gamecocks’ schedule has them heading to meets that are relatively large races and are good prepara-tion for the SEC Championship and NCAA Southeast Regionals in November. He said the team is getting used to seeing the com-

petitive atmosphere at the front and the sheer number of people competing at the meets, up to about 300 competitors at the Regionals.

“We have to not get overwhelmed by that and know that we’re doing well and run-ning well even if there are 50 or 100 people in front of us, whatever the case may be for our number five or number eight,” Allden explained. “That is kind of a big part of the experience that hopefully we will be able to gain over the next couple of weeks and carry with us going forward, not just into confer-ence and regionals, but into next year and beyond.”

The SEC Championship meet will be at the same course in Gainesville, Fla. where the team finished fourth out of 13 teams at the Mountain Dew Invitational hosted by the University of Florida. The Gamecocks were led in that race by Mill, a team co-captain, who placed seventh followed by freshman Mary Reiser finishing 12th.

“To me the exciting thing about Mary Rei-ser’s finish, in addition to it being 12th, is that she only got beat by two freshmen and one of those freshmen was literally the per-son right in front of her in 11th,” Allden said. “So I feel like she is setting herself up to make a run for the All-SEC Freshman Team if she continues to stay healthy and preform at the level that she is performing at now … that would certainly be a nice accomplish-ment for her.”

Allden said that the SEC will be a tough conference and it will be difficult for the team to replicate their ninth place finish from last season because they lost four of its top

five runners from that team due to gradua-tion and injury. Also all of the other teams in the SEC should improve throughout the season and some that the Gamecocks placed above last year have made big improvements as well, but Allden still likes their chances

“I think as we move toward the conference meet, those upperclassmen who at Florida ran seven and eight for us will kind of assert themselves a little bit more and be a little bit more in the mix with our younger top four or five,” Allden said.

Allden explained that the team has a good group running in the four through 12 posi-tions on the team and there is not much dif-ference between them, with a spread of only about 30 seconds separating these runners’ finishes. He said that this will help the team going forward because some runners may be able to take risks and knock other teams fur-ther back in the meets by penetrating others’ top-five competitors.

Another advantage of the grouping is the confidence that comes from so many team-mates running closely and competitively. That way, if one runner starts to move for-ward and improve, the rest of the group will see that and feel that they can do the same, Allden explained.

The team trains specifically for the 6K distance so that the younger runners who are transitioning from running 5Ks in high school will have the confidence to attack the distance. This is a big change from the last time Allden was a coach at South Carolina when the collegiate competitions were also 5K distances, but he has adapted his training

techniques to give the underclassmen con-fidence that they can handle the 20 percent increase in distance. He also said that the underclassmen have done well to make the transition from being the best athlete on their team in high school to understanding the team aspect of collegiate cross country and “pack running.”

Allden also recognized some of the Game-cocks who are South Carolina high school products for their contributions thus far. Sophomore Anna Tood is running in third position this year and freshman Anna Falta ran number nine for the Gamecocks at the meet in Florida. He noted that they have done well and helped to spark some of the early season successes that the team hopes to continue throughout the rest of the schedule.

“I feel like we’re not far away from where we ultimately want to be. So that’s where we are in the immediate past of the season, but moving forward we are headed to a pretty competitive stretch of our season with a couple of national-caliber meets with a num-ber of the top-30 teams competing,” Allden commented. “Again the challenge as we move forward is we’re going to be moving into races where it will be a major accom-plishment to finish 10th or 20th as a team in these meets.

“Confidence is certainly a factor and I think we’ve got a lot of confidence. The women have a lot of confidence in how they’re doing in practice and that has trans-lated well in our races so far. Hopefully we can keep that going throughout the rest of the season,” Allden said.

Gamecock cross country strides toward SEC, regionals meets

south carolina athletics media relations

The Gamecocks had a great showing at the Mountain Dew Invitational in Gainesville, Fla. The event was held on the same course that will host the 2013 SEC Championship meet. Junior Meredith Mill (left) finished in seventh individually at the event, while freshman Mary Reiser (right) finished in 12th.




South Carolina men’s basketball head coach Frank Martin recently promoted Matt Figger to the role of associate head coach.

Figger has been with Martin for the past seven years, including at Kansas State prior to joining Martin’s staff at Carolina shortly after his arrival.

“Basically it is just a new title and the same job is all it is. Noth-ing changes with the job and I don’t think that any more or less responsibility comes with the title,” Figger explained. “Being with Frank for so long, I guess it’s just that if you do your job the right way for so long, then people want to give you pro-motions.

“I’ve been around so many good people that it’s really a cred-it to the guys that I work with more than me,” Figger said.

Figger has been the recruiting coordina-tor for the Gamecocks, requiring him to help bring players into the program. This aspect has been especially important with the cur-rent youth movement on the team led by the seven freshmen on the roster. He said the biggest thing in the recruiting process is try-ing to find players that will fit the personali-ties and culture at South Carolina.

The recruiting objectives are easy for the program because Martin makes the require-ments known Figger said. He added that a player that fits at Carolina may not be right for other programs, but what works for other programs in the conference may not work for them.

The coaching staff works closely in con-cert with one another and Figger said that he doesn’t do any job alone. His job does not stop at recruitment, as he helps with the play-er development in practices and outside of basketball. He noted that the titles are a way to help with career advancement because Martin sees his whole staff with the potential to be head coaches in the future.

“As far as responsibilities go, it’s all divided up in thirds amongst us three assistants. We depend on each other to help one another and if we couldn’t do that then we would have problems,” Figger said. “We all have a hand in everything and that’s the reason that I have been with Coach Martin for as long as I have.

“You don’t leave situations where you have great chemistry unless it’s an oppor-tunity that you just can’t turn down … but I wouldn’t want to be an assistant coach any

other place. That’s because working for him allows me to be who I am and he allows everyone in this office to be who they are. That’s why we’ve had success in the past with what we’ve done,” Figger explained.

The coaching staff’s work on player devel-opment is not limited to basketball alone, as there is a strong focus on life skills and de-velopment as people off the court as well. Figger said that these lessons are not lim-ited to the players,

but the coaches also have the opportunity to learn from Martin.

“Frank has taught me as much about life and things like responsibility, loyalty and things like that. The life lessons are far more than the actual basketball lessons. It’s what makes him so easy to work for because it’s not a business relationship. It’s a personal friendship that has covered a lot of years … it’s been a friendship and a working partner-ship with him. He makes things easy for all of us.”

With the beginning of full team practices finally arriving, the excitement level in the men’s basketball offices are extremely high.

“We’re really excited just to see all of the new guys. We’ve been on the court with them for awhile, but just getting the chance to see these kids grow and where we can take things and develop,” Figger said. “I haven’t been excited to get on the court with a group of guys like this in awhile. They’re so im-pressionable and they want to learn.

“They’re so eager because they’re young

and to me that’s the biggest thing. Sometimes when you have young guys who don’t think they know it all, they’re clay and they’re go-ing to mold into whatever shape we put them into. So that’s what is going to make it fun,” Figger added.

The coaching staff, including Figger, is looking to the young players to help estab-lish a culture and identity with the program. The youth movement is the way to do this because these student-athletes can lay the groundwork for future players that come in.

Figger said that creating the culture of hard work and success is of the upmost impor-tance to the program at this point. He will

play a large part in helping to establish these practices in order to bring success to the Gamecocks on the hardwood.

“In the future, hopefully we’ve laid the culture the right way to where those guys can manage the new guys that come in,” Figger said. “That’s what we established at Kansas State was whatever new guys came in, we didn’t have to teach it because we already had guys in place who showed those players to do things the way we wanted.

“That’s what we’ve got to do here. Any program, if you want to win and have con-sistency, then that is how it has to be done,” Figger concluded.

Nothing but net for Figger

SOUTH CAROLINA ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS

Matt Figger was promoted to associate head coach last week by Frank Martin.

“They’re so eager because they’re young and to me that’s the biggest thing. Sometimes when you have young guys who don’t think they know it all, they’re clay and they’re going to mold into whatever shape we put them into. So that’s what is going to make it fun.”

- Matt Figger

Assistant pumped about work with young team



Many of us hear about coaches and players breaking down game tape or studying in the film room to improve, but this would not be possible at South Carolina without the video operations staff.

Heading the department is Assistant Athletic Director for Video Operations Joe Lisle and his responsibilities are not limited to football alone.

Football does take the majority of time for Lisle, especially when in season, but he said that they do take care of every sport. All prac-tices, games and opponent breakdowns fall under the responsibility of Lisle and his staff.

“I have actually three full-time assistants. I have one that does men’s basketball, I have one that does women’s basketball and I have one that is my assistant in football but he is also in charge of baseball,” Lisle explained. “I’ve got some GA’s and some part-time employees that do soccer for men and women and whatever else we’ve got to do.

“We can’t quite cover everything, but I will help the other sports purchase their equipment, get them set up for whatever they need to do and we have a manager take care of everything they need,” Lisle said. “We’re getting sand vol-leyball set up and softball with the new facility over there.”

The system used for swimming and diving and softball are based off time lapse cameras

that run on a delay. The cameras take high defi-nition video of the student-athletes and send it to a viewing station so that the student-athletes can see video of what they have just done to break it down better. The system was first implemented for the swimming team last year and now has been utilized in the hitting area at the new softball facility.

With technological advancements, the video delivery system is less time consuming than in the past because all the footage is made avail-able over a private network that Lisle manages which serves about 35 computers. The football players also received iPads which have an app that they can upload the video to for the players to watch.

“We make it available for them so they can watch when we travel. They can go home and watch stuff at night when they want to. Of course we do everything here (at the football facility) also,” Lisle said. “We have meeting rooms and they come in and watch stuff when they need to. We pretty much keep it open and keep the kids involved as much as possible.

“When I don’t hear anything back that means everything is good. I kind of get joy from hear-ing nothing because usually you only hear back when there is something bad. ‘Hey my computer is not working, this isn’t working or whatever.’ When you don’t hear anything it is pretty good for me,” Lisle added.

He said that he and the staff work seven days a week, sometimes with late nights following

a game, to get the video ready for the coaches and players. A typical day has Lisle arriving at 8 a.m. and working until about an hour after practice un-less there is extra work or something strange happens. He added that they are lucky to have understanding wives and children who support their work and all the hours they put must put in, but he also credits his staff for making his job easier.

“You’re only as good as the people you have around you and I have a tremendous staff. Paul Mc-Gee has been with me since 2000 and he is my full-time assistant with football and does base-ball. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have him helping me,” Lisle commented. “He takes care of the defensive side of the ball and he’s my sideline shooter. He does a phenom-enal job. I actually probably wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t have such great help.”

Lisle has been the football video coordinator for the Gamecocks for 17 years and has been twice honored as Collegiate Sports Video As-sociation’s Outstanding SEC Video Coordina-tor, most recently in 2011. He said that it has

been fun to be around and involved in some of the changes as the facilities and program have improved.

Ultimately like many other Gamecock and football fans throughout the Southeast, Lisle said that the highlight of his job is gameday on Saturdays.

“Really my favorite part is - everybody wants to go to the games - and I’ve been lucky enough to get to see every game since 1997, both home and away. You’ve got to look for-ward to Saturday. That’s what we do this for all week long,” Lisle concluded.

In the film room with the Assistant AD for Video Operations

by brian [email protected]

“Tracy Murphy is the face of the Game-cock Club.”

The statement is something in which Gamecock Club Assistant Tracy Murphy is not entirely comfortable, but according to Gamecock Club Executive Director Patrick McFarland that is exactly Murphy’s role.

“The Gamecock Club would not run with-out Tracy Murphy,” McFarland commented.

Murphy is the face you see when you first come into the Gamecock Club offices and her voice is likely the voice you hear when you call the Gamecock Club offices.

Murphy’s friendly personality is a wel-come sight or voice for Gamecock Club members.

Murphy has been with the Gamecock Club since 2007 after transitioning over from her spot working with former South Carolina Senior Woman Administrator Val Sheley.

Murphy has embraced every moment since joining the Gamecock Club staff.

“It’s been fun. I really enjoy what I do,”

Murphy said. “It’s not like a regular cus-tomer service job. We do solicit members, but for the most part people want to be a part of Gamecock Nation so it is not as dif-ficult as trying to sell a product that is hard to sell.”

Born in South Carolina, Murphy, due to her father being in the military, spent most of her formative years in Illinois at Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County, Ill.

Murphy would eventually return to her Palmetto State roots to attend the Univer-sity of South Carolina. She graduated from South Carolina in 1991.

Murphy double majored during her under-graduate years at South Carolina, obtaining a degree in Personnel Management and Finance.

During her time as a student at the Univer-sity, Murphy attended sporting events as a social event, but at the time she knew South Carolina “was the Gamecocks and that was about it.”

She of course never imagined that she would be working for the Gamecock Club.

“I had no idea what I would have been do-

ing, but fundraising would not have come to mind,” Murphy noted.

Things have changed completely for Mur-phy. Now her knowledge of what is going on within the athletics department is something in which she has to rely on daily. She is now even a sports fan.

“I enjoy it. I never thought I would say that. I have moved from collegiate to profes-sional football as well,” Murphy said.

Murphy is the mother of three: Ryan (25), Allyson (21, senior at South Carolina and former manager for the Track & Field team) and Madison (14).

The Murphy family are huge Gamecock fans with her husband, Duane, and her son attending all the Gamecock home football games.

It seems now that not only could the Gamecock Club not run without Tracy Mur-phy, but Tracy Murphy could not function without Gamecock athletics.

In fact, Murphy sees herself working in the Gamecock Club for many more years, main-ly due to the family atmosphere that perme-ates the Gamecock athletic department.

“It is a great job for me because it is very family-friendly,” Murphy said. “I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. As long as they will have me, I will be here.”

‘The Gamecock Club would not run without Tracy Murphy’


The efforts of Lisle and his staff allow players such as Clowney the opportunity to study film before and after games.



The University of South Carolina sand volleyball team continues to prepare for its inaugural season with team practices, highlighted by the team’s first rain prac-tice.

Head Coach Moritz Moritz said that despite the weath-er, the student-athletes still maintained the enthusiasm he has seen throughout the year thus far.

“We were doing a drill before I let them play and it started raining a little bit. They said ‘first rain prac-tice!’ and then they we’re fired up to go for it,” Moritz said.

Moritz added that it is good the team is getting to face more weather elements with wind and rain because it will help them learn more adaptability. He said that the wind may cause the

bigger adjustments than the rain and there are many interesting dynamics that the student-athletes may be seeing for the first time. He again added that being able to adapt to the environment is one of the paramount requirements to success in sand volleyball.

“You can play a particu-lar way when it is perfect and no wind, but there are places where it is swirling and things like that,” Moritz explained. “You just say ‘okay, we don’t want to pass the ball as high because now you have this 18 mile-per-hour wind and where you thought the ball was, it is now five feet away.’

“You have to adjust and tighten it up even more than you do initially and keep the ball at a lower trajectory. Not faster necessarily, but keeping the ball lower so we’re not succumbing to the wind as much. It is a game

of constant adjustments,” Moritz said.

One of the student-ath-letes, Litsa Darby, has had some experience playing in the sand from summer leagues and tournaments in her hometown of Charles-ton, S.C. She said that the weather in Charleston al-lowed her to gain experience of playing in rain and other less-than-ideal conditions.

“I love playing in the rain. I think I like playing in the rain sometimes more in competition than playing in the wind or sun. I am faster than some other players so I think that it gives me a com-petitive advantage, so I like the rain,” Darby said.

Darby has always played indoor volleyball thorough high school and club teams, but enjoyed her prior sand experience as well. She not-ed she had some familiarity with playing in the sand, but the work thus far with coach

Moritz has taken her game to the next level.

“It’s definitely different than playing indoors, that’s for sure. It has been tough on my legs, but it is fun and exciting being out here. It is definitely a change of momentum and a different sport,” Darby said.

An interesting aspect of playing in Columbia is the presence of trains and train whistles that run throughout downtown, which may be an advantage when the Game-cocks host teams at their facility.

The Gamecocks are cur-rently practicing on the sand courts at the Blatt PE Center for the most part which are located between two train tracks. Moritz said the team will be used to the extrane-ous noise, especially the train whistles, that some of their opponents may not be expecting when they visit Columbia.

Moritz said that he is glad for the opportunity to use the current courts, but is looking forward to moving the team to their own facil-ity when it is finished. There has been more progress on the new facility and Moritz said that he goes down to check out the progress every day and sees a little more done each day.

“We have a weekly meet-ing and the contractors and those people talk about stuff … I perk up when they start talking about the sand and the poles and things that I know,” Moritz said. “They’re knocking that thing out quickly. Another three, four or five weeks we’ll have our own facility and that will be awesome.”

Paralleling the daily prog-ress with the facility, there is progress with the team each day. Moritz said that he be-lieves the ‘game teaches the game,’ so the team is doing

a lot of scrimmaging against one another with different pairings all the time. He said that he has started to see them learn more about spacing and playing in the sand and they have begun to make adjustments in prac-tice on their own as well.

Moritz noted that this is all part of the process of getting the program where it needs to be and Darby echoed his excitement of being involved in creating the pro-gram from the ground level.

“It feels awesome and I’m so excited. It’s great to have a great coach, great staff supporting us, the team is great and the girls are great. It’s really exciting. It is defi-nitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I’m so happy to be a part of the program. I can’t wait to see how it goes this year. It is definitely a big opportunity for all of us,” Darby con-cluded.

Wet weather brings beach-like conditions to practicephoto by MIKE KUChARSKI


New York City Gamecock ClubWeekly Football Game-Watching EventSaturdays at The Mason Jar.The best place to watch Gamecock football if you can’t be at Williams-Brice!Located at 43 E 30th Street in Manhattan, with a Gamecock-inspired menu and discounts for Gamecock fans. Call them at: (212) 213-3587.For more information, check out the website at: www.nycgamecocks.com or email chapter president JR Buz-zelli at [email protected].

Darlington County Gamecock Club - Board meetingMonday, October 7, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. Heritage Community Bank206 South Fifth Street in Hartsville, S.C.Light hors d’oeuvres will be served.All Gamecock fans are invited to attend!

New York City Gamecock Club Tuesday, October 8; 6-8 p.m. at The Mason Jar Cost: $20.00 Please join us as we welcome USC Athletics Director Ray Tanner to NYC. Appetizers will be provided and a cash bar will be on hand. There will be a ton of great prizes and raffle items from the Gamecock Club. RSVP on NYC Gamecocks Facebook page or by emailing [email protected]. Schedule: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.: Gamecock Happy Hour; 7:00 - 7:20 p.m.: Coach Tanner talk and Q & A; 7:20 - 8:00 p.m.: Photos, autographs, raffle winners.

Spartanburg County Gamecock Club – October Meeting Thursday, October 17th 7 p.m. at Spartanburg Downtown Marriott Convention Center “Catching up with Yolanda and Vern”Guest Speakers: Yolanda & Vern Smith, parents of Marcus Lattimore.Come hear it from the parents’ viewpoint ... his years at Carolina, the injuries, the NFL Draft, his faith and his life with the 49ers.Admission is FREE and open to all Gamecock fans.

Spartanburg County Gamecock Club “Leave the driving to us!” First come, first serve so don’t wait; seats will fill up fast! Oct. 19 - Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.) COST: Early Bird (Before Sept. 15th) $50/seat; After Sept. 15th $55/seat) Departure Time & Place: Jason Deli’s Parking Lot (W.O. Ezell Blvd. Spartanburg), time:TBA (once gametime is confirmed) Please make Check payable to : Spartanburg County Gamecock Club Mail to:

P.O. Box 5146, Spartanburg, SC 29304 Please remember reserved bus seats DO NOT include game tickets. Please contact Glenn Cox, (864) 597-8380, with questions.

USC Aiken Men’s Basektball Tip-Off BanquetSpecial guest speaker: Gamecocks’ men’s basketball head coach Frank MartinOctober 29 at USC Aiken Convocation CenterMeet and greet session starting at 6 p.m. with the banquet starting at 7 p.m.Tickets are $50 for the meet and greet and banquet, $35 for the banquet only. Contact USC Aiken Athletics at (803) 641-3486 or USC Aiken men’s basketball head coach Vince Alexander at (803) 641-3438 for tickets.

Darlington County Gamecock Club - ElectionMonday, November 4, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. Heritage Community Bank206 South Fifth Street in Hartsville, S.C.wLight hors d’oeuvres will be served.All Gamecock fans are invited to attend!

Upcoming South Carolina Athletics Events

z October 2

Cross Country Gamecock Invitational #2 ..................6 p.m.

Men’s Tennis at ITA qualifying .................................................All day Women’s Tennis at ITA All-American Championships ...All day

z October 3

Men’s Tennis at ITA main draw ................................................All day

Women’s Tennis at ITA All-American Championships ...All day

z October 4

Women’s Soccer at Florida .........................................................7 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Arkansas ..............................................7 p.m.

Men’s Tennis at ITA main draw ................................................All day

Women’s Tennis at ITA All-American Championships ......All day

Equestrian at Deleware State ....................................................... TBA

Women’s Tennis at Duckworth Classic ............................... All Day

z October 5

Football vs. Kentucky ........................................... 7:30 p.m.

Equestrian vs. SMU ............................................................................ TBA



Men’s Tennis at ITA main draw ...............................................All day

z October 6

Women’s soccer at Tennessee ..................................................1 p.m.

Men’s soccer vs. Tulsa .................................................1 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Texas A&M ..................................... 1:30 p.m.



Men’s Tennis at ITA main draw ...............................................All day

Home events are .............................................................................. Bold

Don’t forget to check the calendar on spursand-feathers.com for all upcoming events.


South Carolina Athletics Media Relations

The Southeastern Conference last week announced its 2013 women’s basketball conference television schedule, which in-cludes seven South Carolina games among the 58-game regular-season package that spans four networks. The Gamecocks will be on the ESPN family of networks four times (two ESPN2, two ESPNU) in addi-tion to two games on SportSouth (SPSO) and one on SEC TV. South Carolina ex-pects to announce its non-conference tele-vision schedule in the coming weeks.

South Carolina kicks off its four nation-ally televised games when it hosts Vander-bilt on Sun., Jan. 5, at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. The network will also air the regular-season finale as the Gamecocks travel to Tennes-see for a 2:30 p.m. tipoff on Sun., March 2. ESPN2 will carry South Carolina’s games at Vanderbilt on Sun., Jan. 26, and at LSU on Sun., Feb. 16, at 3:30 p.m.

Fans can watch the Gamecocks at Au-burn, on SportSouth on Sun., Jan. 12, and

against Florida on Sun., Feb. 23, at 1 p.m. SEC TV, which is aired locally in Columbia by WOLO (ABC Columbia), will broadcast South Carolina hosting Arkansas on Sun., Feb. 9, at 2 p.m.

Most of the Gamecocks’ regionally televised games will be available as part of ESPN Full Court, the pay subscription college basketball out-of-market service, and on ESPN3.com. All programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will be avail-able on computers at WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the Wat-chESPN app to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider. Information on both will be available the week of the game on GamecocksOnline.com.

In addition to the regular-season slate, all SEC Tournament games will air live. In South Carolina, SportSouth will air all games of the first three days of the event (March 5-7). ESPNU will carry the semifi-nals, and ESPN will air the championship game.

SEC announces seven women’s basketball games to be televised

South Carolina Televised Games

Sun., Jan. 5 - vs. Vanderbilt - 1 p.m. - ESPNUSun., Jan. 12 - at Auburn - 2:30 p.m. - SPSOSun., Jan. 26 - at Vanderbilt - 2 p.m. - ESPN2Sun., Feb. 9 - vs. Arkansas - 2 p.m. - SECTVSun., Feb. 16 - at LSU - 3:30 p.m. - ESPN2Sun., Feb. 23 - vs. Florida - 1 p.m. - SPSOSun., Mar. 2 - at Tennessee - 2:30 p.m. - ESPNU



The bonds of fraternity brotherhood and football have remained strong throughout the years to now help a family in its time of need.

Brian Shah is a Carolina graduate from 1998 and a Sigma Nu brother who ran the Gamecock Gear in Williams-Brice Stadium from 1997-99 and worked in the ticket office as a student.

Shah was diagnosed with ALS, often known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in 2007 and two of his fraternity brothers, Eddie Dowling and Matt Goddard serve on the committee that set up the Brian Shah Classic. The Brian Shah Classic is a golf tournament which held its sixth annual edition on July 26, 2013. The golf tournament is an annual event organized by his friends and colleagues with all pro-ceeds of this tournament going directly to Shah and his wife, Ashley, to assist with the medical costs associated with ALS.

“He was diagnosed in November of 2007 and it was that winter that Eddie and Matt called him … asking if the tournament would be something that Brian would mind if they did for us,” Ashley Shah said. “We had a lot of help from a variety of fraternity brothers.

“One was a realtor so he helped us look-ing for homes with the expectations that we would have to plan for … a real estate attor-ney to help us with closing and those kinds of things,” Ashley continued. “They have always played a part throughout all of this in different ways and aspects. Different brothers have come to a head at different times based on what their strengths are, what they offer and what we needed.”

The brothers who have helped with the

tournament have been a huge help and the support surprised both Brian and Ashley.

“I thought it was going to be 10 or 20 guys getting together the first time,” Brian Shah said. “It’s unbelievable what they have done for us. Over the years they have come by to help with things the we, or Ashley, cannot do on our own.”

Shah said that the guys really got back in touch together once they moved back to Co-lumbia, getting together for football games and tailgating. Other than football, the only way a lot of the brothers previously were able to see each other was at weddings because it can be hard to stay in touch, especially before social media and email became as prevalent as they are today.

“Brian and Ashley moved back in February or March of 2007 and that is when he started to see symptoms,” Goddard said. “Even though they were back here, a lot of us had dispersed at the time … so realistically, for a lot of the first time that we got to see Brian at a non-wedding was that first football season they were back.

“I got married in January of 2008 and the night of our rehearsal dinner Eddie and I kind of hatched this idea. It was based on us seeing some of the symptoms after not seeing them for a couple of years. It was kind of fortunate that it all came back to us getting together for Carolina football,” Goddard continued.

Dowling said that the commonality that they all had was the Gamecock football games that brought them all back together af-ter college. He also said this is not surprising because the Sigma Nu fraternity has always been associated with Gamecock football.

“We did the game ball run every year, we stormed the field in Clemson in the 1960s

wearing Clemson jerseys as the ‘Clemson Caper,’ Todd Ellis was a Sigma Nu when he was at Carolina as was Tommy Suggs. It’s funny because the football games for us, even though we weren’t great during those lean years, have always been the common bond for us to come back together,” Dowling said.

Shah said that some of his favorite memo-ries from Carolina are based around the foot-ball team including watching the Gamecocks earn the program’s first bowl victory in the Carquest bowl led by Steve Tanneyhill. He also recalled traveling to Baton Rouge, La. to watch the Gamecocks take on LSU in their first trip there as members of the SEC and the many times tailgating with the brothers at Tally Ho.

Other great college memories included liv-ing on the hall with his fraternity brothers be-hind the library and some of the special par-ties like casino night. He also said that Darius Rucker played on the hall and they were able to watch him during his heyday with Hootie and the Blowfish and they once set up a slip-and-slide in the hall with garbage bags, dish soap and water. He added that he would not change a single thing about his college ex-perience and the lifelong friendships he was able to make.

These friendships have helped to create the committee that coordinates the Brian Shah Classic every year, on the hottest day in July according to Shah, to help with the medical expenses the Shahs face from the disease. Ashley noted that they also use the tourna-ment as a platform to help raise awareness for ALS.

“First of all we love Brian and we love Ash-ley. The best thing to ever happen to Brian was Ashley, but it was also someone that we

were all close friends with and it was our first friend that had really run into something like this,” Dowling said. “We’re all still young and sort of immortal … when Brian was diagnosed we didn’t know much about it. We just rallied around and said how can we help him and what can we do.

“The thing that Matt and I love to do is we love to get people together and play golf. We did a golf trip for guys that Brian went on and we thought it would just be those same guys. Really the first year we were all a little amazed. We made over $12,000 the first year and now we’ve made over $100,000 over six years. We give every dime to Brian and Ash-ley … we give them everything we get. It’s all for them,” Dowling explained.

One of the points of pride for Goddard and the committee is that they put the benefit tournament together on their own as a group of people who are close to the Shahs. He said it is a team effort with lots of people pitch-ing in, including wives, parents, friends and coworkers.

“The cool part is it is not a 501c3 that cor-porate people do. This is out of the generosity of our time. We love Brian and Ashley, but a lot of other people do too,” Goddard said. “It just takes a little rallying point to get everyone together for support. It’s gotten to be such a regular thing that people ask about the date to plan vacations around the tourna-ment.”

If you would like to have more informa-tion about how to get involved, you can visit the website at www.brianshahclassic.com or email the committee at [email protected]. You can also like the Brian Shah Classic on Facebook or follow @BrianShah-Classi on Twitter.

Fraternity bonds help brothers drive for a good causeSUBMITTED PHOTO

The Brian Shah Classic held its sixth annual edition on July 26, 2013. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Brian and Ashley Shah pose with Gamecock great Marcus Lattimore.


SOUTH CAROLINA ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS

Former University of South Carolina head football coach and athletics direc-tor Paul Dietzel died early Tuesday, Sept. 24. He was 89.

Dietzel served as the Gamecocks’ director of athletics (1966-75) and head football coach (1966-74). He compiled a 42-53-1 record in his nine seasons at the helm of the Carolina football team. He is the only football coach in school history to win a conference title, as his 1969 squad captured the ACC crown.

Dietzel, who was inducted in the Car-olina Hall of Fame in 2012, was credited with changing the culture of South Car-olina Athletics. He initiated the upgrade plan for all athletic facilities, including “The Roost” athletic dorm and enlarg-ing the football stadium. He is credited

with writing the Carolina Fight Song, which is still used today. He mandated the recruitment of black athletes in all sports at Carolina and signed the first black athlete to a football scholarship in 1970. In addition, he hired Bobby Rich-ardson, a move that vaulted South Caro-lina into national baseball prominence.

Dietzel served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and became an All-American center at Miami (Ohio) University before getting into coaching. He worked under legends Paul “Bear” Bryant at Kentucky and Earl “Red” Blaik at the U.S. Military Academy.

He took over the LSU program in 1955 and three years later guided the Tigers to the national championship, earning National Coach of the Year ac-colades. He gained fame with that squad by developing three “teams” to comply with the single-substitution rules of the

time. His starters played both ways, the Gold (Go) Team specialized on of-fense, and the Chinese Bandits focused on defense. Dietzel was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame 2010.

Dietzel left LSU to become head coach at Army, where he was the first non-Army graduate to hold the position, then moved to Carolina after Marvin Bass’ resignation in 1966. After his USC tenure, he served as director of athletics at Indiana University and LSU as well as commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference. He also served as president of the American Football Coaches Association and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

In retirement, he became an accom-plished artist, specializing in watercolor prints.

Gamecocks mourn the passing of Paul DietzelIn Memoriam

photos by allen sharpe

Paul Dietzel and current South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier shared a moment at the 2012 Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Spurrier opened his weekly press conference last Tuesday by noting that Dietzel was one of the best to coach college football and that he lived a wonderful life.




As we enter October, it becomes fair sea-son in this area. I do not frequent fairs often anymore, but my favorite ride was the roller coaster (if they had one). That being the case, you would think that Saturday’s foot-ball game would have been very enjoyable. What else would you call it, but a roller coaster ride, ultimately ending happily with a win!

Well, not exactly fun. What a miserable first half. Not only did the Game-cocks trail 10-0, Conner Shaw was injured and out for the game, and the of-fense just did not have it. Dylan Thompson was con-sistently off on his passing and when he was on target, there were some uncommon drops. I do not think it is a stretch to say that most of us were very concerned at the half.

But along came the second half and, obvi-ously, someone, if not the whole offensive staff, decided, “let’s give the ball to Mike.” Boy did that work, as Davis put on a show! Over 150 yards rushing in the second half alone that led the Gamecocks to a 28-10 lead.

The third quarter was not without its own problems. Chiefly, an injury to Brandon Wilds, and he was out for the game. But with 28 unanswered points, we could all breath much easier.

But like all good roller coasters, just when you think it over, it takes off again. Along comes the fourth quarter and similarly to the Vandy game, USC could not put the

Knights away. Two long pass plays led to the Gamecocks losing the 18-point lead and hanging on for a three-point, 28-25 win.

Yeah, it was not pretty. Injuries are the biggest concern. Post game, none appear to be too serious, but bruised shoulders could linger on. The defense continues to struggle. Like the Vanderbilt game, there were flashes, but poor coverage and poor tackling and missed assignments continue to cause some distress.

However, looking at the bright side, three interceptions by the defense was very big and good to see. Offensively, 167 yards rushing and three touchdowns by Mike Davis put him in line to win league player of the week honors. Damiere Byrd had a breakout game with five catches for 74 yards.

But best of all, it’s a WIN! These are NOT the Gamecocks of old. I don’t even want to remember all the games like this we have lost in the past. Granted, we are not dominant at this point. Will the team, particularly the defense, get better? Time will tell. But if recent history indicates any-thing, South Carolina’s defenses get better as the season progresses. So it would not be a complete surprise if progress was made.

The offense, at this point, is top-10 wor-thy. Injuries could screw that up, but there is depth and the injuries from this past weekend do not appear to be season-end-ing, so here’s hoping that the offense will continue to hum.

This game will pay dividends in a couple of weeks. Yes, it’s not a SEC opponent or venue. But it was packed, and hot, and it rained, and the crowd was loud, particu-

larly when the Knights pulled ahead. On the road, South Carolina put it together in the second half and came from behind and WON. Kentucky comes next at home. Sat-urday’s win will payoff the three upcoming weeks; Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mis-souri, all on the road. Confidence comes with winning. Winning on the road, will help the confidence for the next time on the road.

USC will be favored in every game from here on out (yes, I know that Clemson is No. 3 and still on the schedule, but wait and see). Winning does not always paint a pretty picture, but a 7-1 record in the SEC at the end of the season can be described no other way but pretty.

So pull the bar down and hold on. This roller coaster ride may get bumpier yet, but at the end of the day if we have more points than our opponents, I will find a way to enjoy it. Heck, I am enjoying it now! Here’s hoping that it somehow just gets to a nice steady climb up the hill to the top without all these crazy, jump off the tracks, twist and turns. My stomach cannot take it!

By the way...I am excited that this week we include

our first recruiting report by area recruiting “guru” Phil Kornblut. Phil and I have been friends since college some 30 years ago. I suppose it was 25 years ago that he told me that he was starting a regular report on high school football, basketball and base-ball players and where they were consider-ing going to college. Nobody was doing it at the time and, of course, I thought it sounded kind of crazy. Fortunately, Phil did

not listen to me or any of the skeptics, and has established himself as an expert in the recruiting field, without giving way to the hyperbole of many who try to do the same thing. We are very fortunate to have him working with us!

Every Friday during high school football season, our company presents a local High School Game of the Week. I have been lucky enough to be the play-by-play an-nouncer over the last five years and have had the good fortune to see many of the lo-cal kids play and go on to play at local col-leges. This past Friday we broadcast a great game between two of the best teams in the state, North Augusta (#6 in 4A) and Strom Thurmond (#2 in 3A). They did not disap-point. If you would like, you can watch a replay of the game at www.aikenstandard.tv and click on the game of the week but-ton. There are several outstanding football players on these two teams and both are ex-tremely well coached by Dan Pippin (NA) and Lee Sawyer (ST). North Augusta was victorious 27-20, stopping a last-minute drive. Strom Thurmond is led by a senior quarterback, Javeer Hammond. Hammond accumulated 365 yards in total offense, more than the total North Augusta offense. He is a special football player and will end up somewhere on the next level, even drawing praise from his opponents coach Pippin saying that he would call colleges on the young man’s behalf. If you like high school football, and you don’t get to go out to games on Friday nights, it is well worth the watch. You may get to see tomorrow’s stars.

A roller coaster ride to the very end

Ed GirardeauContributing

Editor

photos by allEn sharpE and jEnny dilworth


Documents

Spurs & Feathers 102