Oct. 13, 2002

Columbia, SC –

* Injury update for South Carolina following its 16-12 victory over Kentucky last Saturday night in Lexington — DE Jason Capers, left ankle sprain (out); S Rashad Faison, left ankle sprain (out); DE Randy Jackson, left ankle sprain (questionable).

* South Carolina won its fourth straight game and claimed its third consecutive SEC victory with the win over Kentucky. Next up is nationally ranked LSU (#14 AP/#12 ESPN/USA Today coaches poll), this Saturday at Baton Rouge. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. (eastern) with ESPN2 televising nationally.

* South Carolina has shown significant defensive improvement over the past several weeks. The Gamecocks are now third in the SEC and 20th nationally in scoring defense, allowing 18.3 points per game. LSU leads the SEC and is 2nd in the nation in that category, yielding a mere 10.5 points per contest.

* LSU leads the country in total defense (207.8 yards per game), while USC ranks 7th in the SEC and 27th in NCAA (319.7).

* In fact, LSU ranks in the top 10 in the country in virtually every defensive category, including total defense (1st); scoring defense (2nd); pass defense (3rd); and rushing defense (7th).

* USC nominated junior linebacker Jeremiah Garrison for SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors. In the press box defensive chart, Garrison was credited with seven total tackles, one tackle for loss, one quarterback sack and one fumble recovery.

* Here are comments from head coach Lou Holtz on his Sunday teleconference with the media:

“After looking at the film, we did some good things on defense, but we are still going to practice. We need to improve, but we were able to get better pressure on the passer. George Gause put a lot of pressure on (Jared) Lorenzen. We did a better job of filling the pass rush lanes. Our pass coverage was better. Dunta Robinson has become a big-time corner and the others played well. Offensively, our players played hard. We had poor field position for much of the game. We are going to have to find a way to move the ball against LSU; just how, I don’t know. It’s not real encouraging right now. Corey Jenkins wasn’t very patient in the first half. We are going to have to get better offensively and we are going to have to look at the quarterback position. We must make a great deal of improvement there. Kentucky was jamming the line of scrimmage and that allowed us to hit some long passes in the second half. Injuries are a part of the game. Losing (Jason) Capers and (Rashad) Faison will hurt. But, that’s the way it is. No one ever said it was going to be easy. We’ll have to go with who we’ve got. Andrew Pinnock ran the ball pretty well, but Kentucky has a pretty good defense and they kept jamming the line. LSU may be the best team in our league. They are giving up just a little over 200 yards of offense a game. That’s not real encouraging for us right now. They went down to Gainesville and scored 36 points in the Swamp. That’s impressive.”