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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Looks Ahead To South Carolina
9/27/1999 | Football
Sept. 27, 1999
OXFORD, Miss.--Following an emotional 24-17 overtime win over the Auburn Tigers, Coach David Cutcliffe's Ole Miss Rebels (3-1, 1-1 SEC) continue Southeastern Conference road action this Saturday, taking on the South Carolina Gamecocks. Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. (CDT) at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C.
South Carolina (0-4, 0-2 SEC) is coming off a 17-0 shutout at Mississippi State last Saturday and is currently riding a 14-game losing streak. The Gamecocks have not won a game since the 1998 season opener over Ball State, 38-20.
Cutcliffe knows that he has to prepare his players and coaches to avoid a letdown after such an emotional win at Auburn.
"I think the key is to get back on the practice field today and practice and prepare as hard and well as we can," Cutcliffe said at his Monday press conference. "Our demands are the same for the players and as a staff. You don't have letdowns.
"You preach all year long about starting each week the same way and disregarding the score from the previous week. In this day and time, we see all the scores from college football every week, all the surprises and the tough games people have week in and week out. If you don't prepare well, it's difficult to play well."
Despite a winless record, with three of its four losses coming against nationally ranked opponents, Cutcliffe knows how tough this South Carolina has been playing. The Gamecocks are only yielding an average of 245.5 yards of offense per game.
"Anytime you go on the road, it's a challenge," Cutcliffe said. "But this will certainly be a challenge because South Carolina is such a physical football team. I think we are playing the most physical team we've played to this point. They are physical on offense and defense.
"They've played an outstanding schedule to this point and have been in every game they've played. They have been unfortunate to come up on the short end of it, but they are a very strong, improving football team."
Cutcliffe knows that first year South Carolina head coach Lou Holtz's teams are always physical and play well on both sides of the ball.
"I've played against coach Holtz's teams before," Cutcliffe said. "They are always physical and run the ball well on offense and play the run well on defense. They'll compete hard and play hard. That's an indication of a well coached team.
He also knows that Holtz likes to throw in new looks occasionally to always try to keep his opponent's guessing.
"There is always some wrinkle, something new. They do a lot of things on both sides of the ball and you're always going to be seeing new things."
Knowing that the Rebels will be traveling into a hostile environment in Columbia, Ole Miss is taking steps to prepare the team to handle the noisy crowds.
"It's a tough place to play," said Cutcliffe. "They have a very vocal crowd and it is a night game which always lends itself to a large crowd. On the practice field this week, we'll have crowd noise and do everything we can to prepare our players for these types of environments. They have always had a hostile environment and it will be a great atmosphere there on Saturday."
This will be the 11th meeting between the Rebels and the Gamecocks but only the second meeting since South Carolina joined the SEC in 1992. The series is knotted up at five apiece after Ole Miss won last year's meeting, 30-28 in Oxford. Ole Miss holds a 3-2 advantage in Columbia. This will mark the final meeting between these two teams until 2006.
Saturday's game may be seen in some markets on pay-per-view by TeleSouth Communications. Contact your local cable company for more information.
