Winning the only cure for Holtz
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ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- South Carolina Coach Lou Holtz doesn't have much sympathy for other SEC coaches when he hears them talk about how tough it is to play in the conference.
"They get to play us," Holtz said. "We've got to play them, and they're complaining? They ought to look at it from our side of things."
The Gamecocks have been viewing the world from lying on their backs, where they've been since last winning a game Sept. 5, 1998, when they beat Ball State 38-20.
South Carolina enters this season with a 21-game losing streak, the longest in SEC history, after going 0-11 in Holtz's first season of returning to coaching. It was the first winless season for South Carolina since 1897, when the Gamecocks were 0-3.
While it seems things couldn't get worse for the Gamecocks, consider that in the SEC rotation for this season, they add defending conference champion Alabama.
"Hold the presses, I've got a scoop for you. South Carolina's got problems," Holtz told the assembled reporters at SEC Media Days. "But they aren't anything that can't be solved.
"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong last year. If everything that can go right does go right this year, it will be an interesting year.
"We could surprise people this year, but we've got a lot of work to do."
The Gamecocks' 1999 schedule included nine opponents who played in bowl games. They played only one team with a losing record, and Vanderbilt finished 5-6.
On top of the killer schedule, South Carolina was hit hard by injuries, especially on offense. The Gamecocks wound up playing six quarterbacks, an NCAA record, and 16 offensive linemen.
They finished the season ranked 114th nationally in scoring offense (7.9 points per game) and total offense (228.6 yards), allowed 45 sacks and suffered 27 turnovers.
"Offensively, we never had a chance," Holtz said. "It was a disaster."
South Carolina's defense kept the season from being a total disaster. The Gamecocks ranked 20th nationally in total defense, holding opponents to 307 yards a game. They lost linebacker John Abraham, who was a first-round draft choice by the New York Jets, but return seven starters, led by senior tackle Cecil Caldwell.
"I think Cecil Caldwell is as good a lineman as there is in this conference, and we have some other awfully good, solid football players," Holtz said. "But we're not a good, solid football team. But we can be and we will be."
Holtz said the coaches decided not to make any major changes on the defense, while on offense the team figures to go with more three- and four-wide receiver sets to spread the field and use shotgun formations.
"As talented as the people are in this conference, I don't think they'll intercept our snap from center," Holtz said. "I think we'll get that."
Holtz praised the Gamecocks' work ethic but said "attitude and confidence are the two biggest problems we have right now ... developing a team feeling has been very, very difficult."
That's understandable considering South Carolina's losing streak.
"We hear about it everywhere we go," Caldwell said. "We try not to let it get to us, but it's tough when that's all everybody else talks about."
While other players at SEC Media Days were asked about winning championships or having winning seasons, Caldwell and South Carolina senior linebacker Andre Offing were asked about just winning a game.
"When we win, there will be so much love," Offing said. "I just can't wait. That's going to be a great feeling. But we're still going to have a long to go even after we get that first win."
The Gamecocks are hoping their first victory comes in the opener against New Mexico State on Sept. 2 in Columbia. That's the team Holtz beat in his 1977 Arkansas debut, 53-10.
But New Mexico State doesn't figure to be a pushover. The Aggies are coming off a 6-5 season -- their first winning record in 32 years -- and return 12 starters.
If the Gamecocks don't beat New Mexico State, their best shot to win figures to come against Eastern Michigan on Sept. 16 in Columbia.
"It burns you up inside," Offing said of the losing streak, which the Gamecocks have had to carry over into the past two off-seasons. "You think, 'Man, we've got to put an end to this, because we can't take this much longer.'
"There's got to be a place where we put our foot down and play as a team and get over the hump. ... The coaches can't do it for us. We're the ones who have to turn this program around."
Holtz, who ranks 11th in all-time victories among Division I coaches with 216 victories at William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota and Notre Dame, was supposed to start turning South Carolina's program around last season.
At 63, it's hard to picture Holtz staying at South Carolina if the Gamecocks don't begin showing marked progress this season. But Holtz said he is there for the long haul.
"We won't walk away from the challenge, that isn't an option," he said. "We'll stay at South Carolina until we're successful -- or until they bury us."
This article was published on Saturday, July 29, 2000
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