Sept. 15, 2003

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USC head coach Lou Holtz met with the media Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference. During the session he reviewed the Gamecocks’ game at Georgia and previewed this week’s home game with the UAB Blazers. Coach Holtz offered the following comments during his weekly media address:

(on injuries)
“Josh Malloy is going to have surgery on his knee. It had been bothering him off and on. Jonathan Alston has some problems with his right knee with some swelling but will put surgery off as long as possible. Marcus Lawrence still has a back problem and Rodriques Wilson may have bruised ribs and will have an X-ray done today. Other than that, we are fine.”

(on the Georgia game)
“I did not think we played the way I expected us to play but after seeing the way we practiced last week I was not shocked with the way we played. You can’t play a good Georgia team and have the plays called back that we had called back nor can you have the three turnovers happen that we committed. I thought David Greene played a super football game, not only throwing the ball well but the way he managed the game and read the blitzes. Reggie Brown made some tremendous catches. There were a lot of big plays that we gave up. On the first long run of 46 yards we had two missed tackles and two missed assignments. Other than that I thought we played the run pretty well except for when we did not play well with technique. We had too many missed assignments, for whatever reason, on both sides of the ball.”

(on positives from the Georgia game)
“George Gause, Moe Thompson, Preston Thorne and Deandre’ Eiland played well for us on defense. Our four wideouts played well on offense. I cannot say enough good things about Matthew Thomas, Chavez Donnings, Taqiy Muhammad and Troy Williamson. They blocked hard, ran well, caught the ball, competed and played with enthusiasm.”

(on the defense)
“We will have to take a good look at the depth chart. One of the problems we have right now is that you have to be strong up the middle. There is too much instability in the defensive line. One week a guy plays well and then it is someone else the next week. It is the same case at linebacker, but because of injuries. Lance Laury has played hard and played well. He’s playing on one leg right now and God bless him. We have instability at safety also.”

(on the offense)
“On offense, the guard and center situation is not as strong as I would like and the quarterback situation has to be addressed. The way we will address that is to continue to work with them and to give Bennett Swygert and Blake Mitchell a good look in practice and go from there. We have had too many turnovers and have not been as productive as we need to be, just in general. Travelle Wharton and Na’Shan Goddard will start and Jabari Levey will start and guard but other than that, I do not know. I think Chad Walker stepped in and played well at center against Georgia and deserves a look and so does Stephen Sene at guard. Both those young men went into the ball game and did some good things.”

(on the kicking game)
“We have to look at the kicking game as well. Josh Brown is having some problems with his foot and that is affecting his consistency. Joey Bowers was able to average about 48 yards per kick and I think the rollouts and the fake caught Georgia by surprise and helped us be competitive in that phase of the game. We have to address the placekicking. We are one of six on field goals. What bothers me is that they look good in practice. I think we will give Charlie Carpenter a look this week in practice, which is only fair to him.”

(on what the UAB game means)
“This is a big game for us. We have too much instability. You would to come out of spring practice with a starting lineup and go with it. You can do that if you are productive. If you are not productive then you need to look at it. We have not gotten get consistency at a position on a continual basis and I am referring to down the middle on offense and defense, at center guard, quarterback, running back, and on defense, at the tackles, linebacker and safeties.”

(on the UAB Blazers)
“UAB is a scary team. They have gone 16-12 since joining Conference USA against teams like Louisville, Cincinnati and East Carolina. They opened their season by beating Baylor on the road and then lost to Southern Miss in a conference game, outplayed them but had four turnovers. They had four turnovers against Troy State. What makes them scary starts at quarterback. The folks coming to the game will see a special quarterback in Darrell Hackney, who has a very strong arm and is a good runner. He is an excellent quarterback and I cannot say enough good things about him and is one of two sophomores on the Davey O’Brien watch list. He is impressive and could play for an awful lot of teams in the country. They have a big offensive line and one that is very physical. They play four wideouts a lot of times and that is a type of game that we are not particularly good against.”

(on the team)
“I expect nothing but a very difficult game on Saturday. I am worried our football team right now. I want to get a team together that shows up every day and practice and show up every week. Right now we have too much in flux. We are not a team yet. We are a group of individuals. No one shows up two weeks in a row and that is why we have a lot of indecisions and that is not something you like to have going into the fourth game of the season. That is the position we find ourselves in and that is what we have to resolve.”