Oct 6, 2001
By PETE IACOBELLI
AP Sports Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Kalimba Edwards giggled like a kid at the State Fair across the street when told South Carolina had the Southeastern Conference’s best record.
“To say we’re undefeated,” said Edwards, a 6-foot-6 and 260- pound linebacker, “You can say it with confidence and you can say it with pride.”
That you can say it at all following the 13th-ranked Gamecocks 42-6 victory over Kentucky on Saturday is incredible enough.
South Carolina (4-0 SEC) got its first 5-0 start since 1988 with help from just about everyone – including the Wildcats.
Derek Watson ran for 135 yards, fullback Andrew Pinnock scored twice and Phil Petty played another mistake-free game at quarterback as the Gamecocks scored their most points in six years. The defense held Kentucky off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t do everything we wanted on offense, but we put 42 points on the scoreboard. We didn’t do everything we wanted on defense, but held them to six points,” South Carolina coach Lou Holtz said. “It’s nice to win convincingly.”
Kentucky (1-4, 0-3) has lost 12 straight SEC games.
South Carolina – with the Wildcats help – put this one away quickly with three first-quarter touchdowns on the way to its biggest scoring day since a 52-14 win over Vanderbilt in 1995.
Pinnock’s 1-yard touchdown run finished a drive kept alive when Kentucky cornerback Derrick Tatum swung at Watson and was called for a personal foul as the Gamecocks fumbled on third-and-1.
Watson said he was pushing too and thought the penalty flag was on him. “I didn’t want to go back to have coach Holtz grab my facemask and put it up on that big jumbotron,” Watson said.
South Carolina kept the momentum going on its next drive. Watson’s 58-yard run, helped by a Kentucky facemask penalty, led to Petty’s 14-yard scoring run and a 14-0 lead.
On the following kickoff, Kentucky’s Octavius Bond fumbled after a hit by Rod Thomas. Brian Elam recovered and, two plays later, Petty found Corey Alexander for a 23-yard TD strike as time ran out in the opening period.
Pinnock, a 250-pound fullback with surprising speed, had 41 yards on a 51-yard touchdown drive. He finished it by powering through the line from a yard out and a 28-0 halftime lead.
“I made a dumb move,” Tatum said of his personal foul. “I’m the cause for us being down 21-0.”
Petty finished 10-of-16 for 112 yards and two touchdowns. Pinnock had 61 yards.
“I think that we didn’t underestimate them as a football team but at the same time, we wanted to go out and do some things, do them early and keep doing them,” said Petty, who has not thrown an interception in 117 attempts this season.
Kentucky opened strongly enough, converting two third downs on their first possession to get into South Carolina territory. But freshman quarterback Shane Boyd was hit by defensive back Rashad Faison and coughed up the ball.
The Wildcats’ mistakes kept coming. Artose Pinner broke a 57-yard run, but tripped on his own at the Gamecocks 28. Four plays later, kicker Seth Hanson had a field goal blocked by Jonathan Martin.
Boyd threw incomplete on fourth-and-16 in the second quarter and on fourth-and-15 in the third to end drives in South Carolina territory.
Kentucky finally scored on a 28-yard TD catch by Aaron Boone with 10:26 remaining. But Hanson missed the extra point.
“I guess you could say it was a step backwards,” Kentucky coach Guy Morriss said.
The whole time, sophomore Jared Lorenzen stood on the sidelines in a baseball cap. Lorenzen had thrown for 304 yards in a 20-17 loss to South Carolina a year ago. Morriss said coaches decided to stick with Boyd and let him take his lumps. One day, the coach hoped his passer would blossom like Petty, who started through South Carolina’s horrible 0-11 year in 1999.
“This is Petty’s third year,” Morriss said. “Hopefully, there’s a parallel there with Shane.”
Since Holtz and the Gamecocks ended their 21-game losing streak, they’ve gone 13-4.
A win next week at Arkansas would match South Carolina’s best opening since 1988, the year Holtz won the national title at Notre Dame.
Perhaps that was on the mind of the 80,250 at Williams-Brice Stadium, who gave one of the loudest cheers of the second half when Georgia’s 26-24 last-second over Tennessee was announced.
South Carolina’s already beaten the Bulldogs with the Vols up on Oct. 27.
No matter what the rest of the league does Saturday, South Carolina will be the only one 4-0 in the league.
Holtz’s isn’t buying that. Georgia’s win “didn’t help our chances either way. If anything it gave us more of an uphill climb,” said Holtz.
His biggest concern is next week’s contest at Arkansas, where the Gamecocks fell 48-14 two years ago.
“We were riddled and drilled at Arkansas,” he said. “That’s the longest time I’ve been on the sideline.”
