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UF extra points

By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 14, 2002

STAT ATTACK

TURNOVERS LOST = LOSS

That cliche about the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins is holding true in the SEC. In 16 games when an SEC team has had four or more turnovers, it has won four.

NOTE: Florida is one of 11 SEC teams to have had four or more turnovers in a conference game this season, but the Gators are the only team to win.

OFFBEAT

South Carolina's Lou Holtz is the only coach to lead six programs to postseason bowl games: William and Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

He also is the only coach to have four programs finish ranked in the Top 20: N.C. State, Arkansas, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

Holtz has 238 career wins, tied for eighth all-time with Hall of Famer Woody Hayes, whom Holtz coached for in 1968 when Ohio State won the national championship.

But Holtz admits this has been an especially tough season. The Gamecocks began 5-2 but have lost three straight and are fighting for bowl eligibility.

"I've been better," Holtz said. "It's been a tough 21/2 weeks."

Still, the longtime coach said this week he plans to return for the 2003 season. Holtz briefly retired after the 1996 season at Notre Dame but said he isn't ready to quit again.

"It isn't a heck of a lot of fun to get up in the morning and go play golf with the same group every day," he said. "It sounds pretty good right now, though."

SCOUTING REPORT

South Carolina's has a three-game losing streak, including a 23-0 loss to Arkansas last week, and is missing numerous injured players.

Five receivers are injured. Senior Ryan Brewer (ankle sprain), senior Michael Ages (shoulder) and sophomore Andrea Gause (knee surgery) are questionable. Sophomore Matthew Thomas (ankle) and senior James Adkisson (hamstring) will miss Saturday's game.

Following a season in which the Gamecocks challenged for the SEC East title, this year has been a struggle. South Carolina is 3-4 in SEC play and 5-5 overall. The Gamecocks have scored one touchdown in the past 10 quarters and have not passed for a touchdown in nearly a month.

South Carolina's last win over the Gators was in 1939. Florida has won 11 consecutive games, all since 1992 when the Gamecocks joined the SEC.

"We're struggling in a lot of different respects," coach Lou Holtz said.

QUOTABLE:

"You've got to leave it in God's hands and things work out for the best. We've just got to handle our business Saturday and see how things play out."

-- Florida senior linebacker Mike Nattiel on needing Auburn to defeat Georgia for the Gators to have a shot at the SEC East title.

PLAYER PROFILE: Jeff Whitaker

With two regular season games remaining, Jeff Whitaker this week found himself in a situation more akin to fall preseason practices: battling for playing time.

With Matt Leach struggling, coach Ron Zook opened up the kicking competition, saying he thinks the competition in practice could help all the kickers handle game pressure better.

Whitaker, a Ponte Vedra native, is a walk-on who transferred from Wake Forest. His only action this season was a fake field goal attempt against LSU in which he threw a pass to running back Ran Carthon that was a couple of inches too long.

Zook said he's not sure if Whitaker will play this week.

"I'm sure it's a lot harder on Matt because he knows he's a good kicker and we know he's a good kicker," Whitaker said when asked if it's hard to watch the kicking struggles from the sideline. "If Coach Zook asked me to be ready, I'm going to be ready."

-- Compiled by Antonya English.

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