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Extra points

By BOB HARIG

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 30, 2000

Player profile: Quincy Carter

With the season a month old, Heisman hype is picking up. The contenders are starting to put up solid numbers, and their exploits will be debated until the end of the season.

Quincy Carter's candidacy ended almost before it began.

The Georgia quarterback was intercepted five times in a stunning 21-10 loss to South Carolina three weeks ago.

That was one fewer interception than all of last season. And it was one loss too many for the Bulldogs, who were ranked in the Top 10 at the time and expected to contend for the Southeastern Conference title and perhaps the national championship.

"It had to be a real letdown for him to be a national contender for big awards and then have that kind of game," Georgia coach Jim Donnan said. "It takes away from that individually, but he's more into winning.

"In two of the three games, he's played almost flawlessly. He just had a game against South Carolina where on some of the plays he got some bad breaks and on some he made poor decisions. But I feel like overall he still has the ability to have a great year."

Carter has started 25 straight games for the Bulldogs, who are 2-1 heading into today's game at Arkansas. He has completed 38 of 74 passes for 473 yards with just three touchdowns and seven interceptions.

That's quite a drop-off from last year, when Carter passed for 2,713 yards and 17 touchdowns with just six interceptions.

"I know I can play football and I know I can play on a pretty good level," he said. "Against South Carolina, it was a combination of things. What I can say is that it was a bad day."

After completing 12 of 23 passes for 182 yards and one touchdown in Saturday's victory over New Mexico State, Carter looks forward to regaining his stature by going on the road.

"I thrive on adversity," he said. "Going on the road and playing against a hostile crowd, it'll be fun."

Hawkeye-colored glasses

Iowa center A.J. Blazek sees no reason why the Hawkeyes can't contend for the Big Ten title this season. Never mind the 12-game losing streak that first must be broken.

"The way you saw the Hawks play (Saturday), if we can put a whole game together, I don't see any reason we can't win the Big Ten," Blazek said. "That may be stepping out of my bounds or saying something I shouldn't, but I believe the Hawks can win this thing."

Did we mention that Iowa lost by 29 to Nebraska Saturday?

Running quarterback

So far, so good

"Tommy is pretty smart by lining up our best running back at quarterback," Clemson assistant coach Brad Scott said. "Woody ignites and excites our offense."

Dantzler leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in rushing and is ranked 13th nationally. He also is third nationally in passing efficiency.

Money game

Don't talk to Watson Brown about playing the big boys for cash. The Alabama-Birmingham coach walked out of LSU Saturday not only with a $400,000 guarantee for his program but a shocking 13-10 victory.

UAB's program only has been in existence for 10 years and is in just its fifth year as a Division I-A football team.

"I give my kids a lot of credit to come in here and win this game," Brown said. "All week they had been reading in the paper that this was just a "buy win,' but we've been on the road playing people for four years now."

Give UAB credit. The Blazers held the Tigers to 263 yards, intercepted quarterback Josh Booty four times, caused five fumbles and allowed just 4 of 18 third-down conversions.

No crying in football

Because Texas defensive tackles Casey Hampton and Shaun Rogers are so close, Hampton took it personally when Rogers was illegally chop-blocked by Houston's Nathan Woody last week. Hampton was ready to go after Woody because Rogers was crying and screaming in pain and was taken off on a stretcher.

Hampton was relieved to find out that Rogers only had a sprained ankle. But he was annoyed that his friend carried on.

"He almost got me kicked out of the game over a sprained ankle," Hampton said. "He must have a low threshold of pain the way he was crying and squealing. I thought he was out for the season with a torn ACL or something.

"A sprained ankle," Hampton repeated in disgust.

Quotable

"I don't know that I've seen a situation where a quarterback outweighs everybody on the defense he's about to play."

-- Art Kaufman, defensive coordinator for Ole Miss, which plays Kentucky and quarterback Jared Lorenzen, who leads the SEC in total offense and outweighs the heaviest Ole Miss defensive starter 275-272

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