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 | Thursday, September 7 Vols seek high ground in soggy Sunshine State Special to ESPN.com | |||
Fitting that a storm of Biblical proportion should be swirling around the state of Florida this week. The football on Saturday figures to take on a religious significance of its own.
If the place dries out in time. Which it should. By veering slightly up the Atlantic coast, Hurricane Floyd has bowed to the gridiron gods, who have scheduled a cataclysmic set of games for the erstwhile Sunshine State.
There is No. 20 North Carolina State at No. 1 Florida State. There is No. 3 Penn State at No. 8 Miami (a rare thing that the Hurricanes are the second-biggest hurricane around). And in what has become the Game of the Year every year, No. 2 Tennessee visits No. 4 Florida.
And for once when venturing into The Swamp, where they haven't won since 1971, the gridiron gods seem to be with the Volunteers. Tennessee is higher ranked, probably more talented, certainly more experienced and absolutely less soggy.
Life in Gainesville has been disrupted all week, and the university was closed Wednesday by the hurricane. Coach Steve Spurrier was a no-show for the Southeastern Conference teleconference, perhaps because he was standing in line at the grocery buying canned goods and flashlights.
Of all game weeks to complicate the practice schedule, this isn't the one. Spurrier gladly would've given his players Wednesday off last week (prior to the Central Florida game) or the week before (Western Michigan), but not Tennessee week.
But in yet another example of why football supercedes higher education at most big-time football factories, the Gators didn't completely cancel practice. They simply went indoors and worked out at a gym.
In fact, with classes called off Spurrier joked with the media on Tuesday that he planned to turn a hurricane vacation into all-day football.
"We can meet all day and practice three or four times if we want," Spurrier said. "The Vols can't do that, can they? They haven't canceled practice."
No, but they would appear to have slightly less need of it. With Tee Martin, a flush tailback position, a solid offensive line and a bunch of gangbusters on defense, Tennessee expects to be in the national title mix again all season.
In other words, they don't figure to be intimidated by The Swamp and its 83,000 inhabitants.
"It's been blown out of proportion," offensive tackle Spencer Riley told The (Nashville) Tennessean. "It gets louder at Neyland Stadium than it does at The Swamp.
"The only thing about Florida is their fans are sitting right on top of your back. And with this being a night game, they'll have all day to get warmed up."
They'll need it. Having shrugged King Kong off their backs in overtime last year, the Vols broke on through to win the national title and seemingly haven't skipped a beat since. If the Vols hoped to win last year, you get the feeling they expect to do so this time around.
"Our team is much more of a veteran team than we were going into the season last year," coach Phil Fulmer said.
The biggest addition to this year's Vols is a healthy Jamal Lewis. The tailback went down early in 1998 with a torn knee ligament, but now he's running at a Heismanesque pace -- for an old offensive lineman coach who loves to dominate on the ground.
ESPN's Tony Barnhart checked the stats. Tennessee has won 33 straight games when one of its runners has gained more than 100 yards. And in 10 of Fulmer's 11 losses, the Vols failed to get a back 100 yards.
And then there's this: The team that has gained the most yards rushing when Tennessee plays Florida has won every game this decade.
So you can talk about Spurrier's Fun 'N' Gun air attack all you want. This showdown figures to come down to the terra firma, and which team runs across it most effectively.
Around the SECAdding insult to injury, the wide receiver was actually run down by students in a campus bathroom after stealing the purse.
Fans of law-abiding athletes cringed. So did fans of burning-fast wideouts.
Law-breaking is going to happen on an 85-man team of college athletes. But it's flatly embarrassing to DiNardo and his program when the alleged perpetrator is a senior captain.
Foster, not surprisingly, won't play Saturday against Auburn. With the echoes of the Cecil Collins mockery still ringing in Baton Rouge, DiNardo was asked Wednesday about his disciplinary practices.
"You just keep sending the right message," he said. "You start after it, like every parent and principal and teacher around the country.
"Most of the guys do the right thing. ... There's probably no way you can ever stop it, but you never stop addressing it."
In light of the Foster affair, a couple of other SEC coaches gave their views of dealing with off-the-field incidents.
Tennessee's Fulmer, for one, dismissed the easy excuse that limited recruiting time led to limited knowledge of players' character. He said that with an 85-scholarship limit, there are fewer players to get to know.
"You know more about them, or you should," Fulmer said. "You don't have as many of them."
Kentucky's Hal Mumme endured a welter of off-field problems last year, tragically capped by the drunken-driving crash by center Jason Watts that killed one teammate and a friend.
"We have a no-forgiveness policy for stealing or drugs," Mumme said. "If somebody steals or does drugs, they get an automatic one-year suspension. Anything else, we kind of have a three-strike process."
Except, now for alcohol-related offenses. In the wake of the Watts crash, Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton instituted a no-tolerance policy for athletes arrested and convicted of alcohol-related crimes.
"The loudest place we've played has been Arkansas," Mumme said. "They beat on the bleachers, it's a real tight field and they come over there ready to make a lot of noise. I think it's more the attitude than anything else."
"I've got to coach harder," Holtz said.
The tough news is that the undefeated teams keep coming. North Carolina State was unbeaten and ranked when it beat South Carolina 10-0 Sept. 4. So was Georgia. Next comes East Carolina, which is 2-0 after beating West Virginia and Duke. After that comes four straight league games against teams that went to bowls last season, so the fun never ends.
Continuing the trend it began under departed coach Brad Scott, the Gamecocks have had no running game to date. That must gall a smashmouth guy like Holtz to no end.
Robert Kilow had 254 yards receiving in the game for Arkansas State.
"The crowd was booing, but we made them eat their words," said receiver Tavarus Hogans, perhaps unaware of the concept of fans and players pulling together in a mutually beneficial relationship.
He fired a Gatorade bottle at a wall at halftime that barely missed decapitating sophomore safety Anthony Wajda.
"I cussed a lot," Mumme said of his halftime talk. "Yelled at everybody in sight. Nearly had a nervous breakdown. Then I kind of calmed down and got ready for the second half. It took about three or four minutes worth of a tantrum, though."
And it didn't take much time after that to bury the Huskies by a final score of 45-14. Along the way quarterback Dusty Bonner, the successor to Tim Couch, broke Couch's school record for consecutive completions with 16. For the day he was 34 of 40 for 339 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The fact that Bonner was still in -- and still throwing -- with three seconds remaining burned UConn coach Randy Edsall, who refused to shake hands after the game.
Mumme wasn't terribly concerned.
"If they think it's too tough, they ought to not take the check," he said, of UConn's $275,000 guarantee.
Conference USA chatterIf Jeff Sagarin's computer is any judge, Southern Miss can hang with those big boys. It is ranked ninth by Sagarin.
At the very least, the Cornhuskers and Aggies will have to defend a diversified offense. Sophomore running back Derrick Nix is averaging 133.5 yards per game, and quarterback Jeff Kelly ranks ahead of even Chris Redman in C-USA in passing efficiency.
And the Southern Miss defense is as ornery as ever. Opponents are converting just 25 percent on third down and averaging 10 points per game.
In two tough losses to Mississippi and Mississippi State, the Tigers scored only 10 points. They only surrendered 16.
So look at them now.
The Cards lead the nation in rushing defense, allowing an average of minus-13.5 yards per game after sacking Kentucky and Tennessee-Chattanooga quarterbacks a combined 14 times. And running back Frank Moreau, a fifth-year senior who has never lived up to the hype, has burst out to average 184.5 yards in two games -- third-best in America.
Now if they can get the Redman kid to come through at quarterback...
And how bad is Kent, which was manhandled 41-3 by Cincy in its opener?
OK, here's how bad Kent is. Coming into the season it had the worst winning percentage in the 1990s of any I-A team, at .136.
Pat Forde of the Louisville Courier-Journal is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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