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He fretted about several of his South Carolina players coming down with the flu. He worried about his team "starting to get beat up a little bit." He wondered about going up against a Mississippi State defense that "absolutely suffocates you."

In other words, classic Holtz.


	Lou Holtz (right) and South Carolina have the the biggest story so far this season.

Last year, when Holtz uttered such words, you believed him.

Now, after four straight victories to start the season, you view Holtz with a skeptical eye, the same one that watched him constantly bemoan his team's fate when he was at Notre Dame or Minnesota or Arkansas or N.C. State.

South Carolina's 23-19 victory on Saturday over Mississippi State only adds to Holtz' legend. The Gamecocks 4-0? That was about as likely as Alabama starting the season 1-3 -- which is exactly what has happened.

By the way, South Carolina plays at Alabama on Saturday.

A season full of surprises have occurred in the first month of the college football season -- including seven teams ranked in the preseason top-10 losing -- but none more stunning than South Carolina's turnaround.

A 3-0 start was nice, and maybe the victory over Georgia two weeks ago would gone down as a fluke, some thought. Mississippi State was supposed to take care of that Saturday. Ranked 25th in the country, the Bulldogs came looking to take the joy out of sold out Williams-Brice Stadium.

Instead, the place rocked again, although fans were unable to bring down the goal posts this time.

They tumbled down after the opener against New Mexico State, when the Gamecocks snapped the nation's longest long streak at 21 games.

They came down a week later after a shocking upset of then ninth-ranked Georgia. The Bulldogs were picked by many to challenge for the Southeastern Conference title. That win snapped an 18-game SEC losing streak.

By last week's 41-6 rout of Eastern Michigan, the fans had apparently gotten used to winning. The goal posts remained.

"I wasn't as emotional, but neither was the crowd," Holtz said. "Don't get me wrong, the crowd was great, but it just wasn't the same environment as it was for the Georgia game. You're not going to have that kind of emotion every time, it's the nature of the game."

That kind of emotion was back Saturday. A victory over Mississippi State got the Gamecocks ranked. They have won four straight games for the first time since 1994 and are 4-0 for the first time since 1988. It is their first 2-0 start ever in the SEC, where they have never finished with a winning record. Through four games, they have scored 116 points -- 29 more than they scored all of last year during their 11 defeats.

"There's no question that Lou knows how to coach," said Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill. "He knows how to organize and run a program, and certainly there's a lot more to coaching than Xs and Os.

"I know Lou in a lot of different ways. We took a trip together for the Japan Bowl one year, and Lou was a great hire for South Carolina. Even though they didn't have great success last year, he kept people in the stands."

This year, he has them spilling out of those stands as well. Goalposts fall, records soar and fans start talking about bowls and SEC titles.

Holtz hears it all and knows its not that easy. He knows what's ahead -- just two home games remain, and six of the last seven games are against bowl teams from last season. Two top-10 teams, Florida and Clemson, await.

"You win enough football games, the polls and bowls will take care of themselves," he said. "There's no guarantee that we're going to get another."

Sounds like the Holtz of old.

Travel problems
Overrated, outplayed: UCLA quarterback Ryan McCann raised a few eyebrows last week when he announced in the euphoric Bruins locker room that "I think we proved that we're the No. 1 team in the nation. I don't know who else we can beat, what else we can do."

Chalk it up to youthful exuberance. The Bruins had just defeated the No. 3-ranked team in the country for the second time in three weeks, knocking off Michigan two weeks after defeating Alabama. Both games were at home, and pushed UCLA to No. 6 in the country.

But the Bruins went on the road Saturday, and Oregon knocked them right out of the top-10. The Ducks have now won 17 straight at home, the fifth-longest home winning streak in the country.

Now these are the Gators we know and love
Be assured that Steve Spurrier lost no sleep Saturday night having a backup quarterback throw a 43-yard touchdown pass with seconds remaining against Kentucky. Leading 52-31, Spurrier sent a pass play to quarterback Rex Grossman, who hit receiver Jabar Gaffney with 43 seconds left to make it 59-31 for the third-ranked Gators.

"If anybody wants to get mad about it, that's fine," Spurrier said. "They can get mad all they want to. They're running up their stats up and down the field, Heck, we can worry about ours, too."

Huh? Doesn't the other team do that while trying to catch up?

In any case, Kentucky coach Hal Mumme didn't seem bothered. "If the situation was reversed, I would've done the same thing," he said.

JoePa's perplexed
Joe Paterno is at a loss: "How long do you go with kids who can't catch, who make dumb plays, and offensive linemen who can't block one-on-one? I'm considering everything. I'm going back to square one."

The Penn State coach said that before his team's 45-6 loss to Ohio State on Saturday, the worst loss in Paterno's career as Penn State's head coach. The team is now 1-4 for the first time in his tenure. A week earlier, the Nittany Lions were shutout by Pittsburgh, just the seventh time in 408 games as coach that Paterno's team failed to score.

Bob Harig covers college football for the St. Petersburg Times.

ALSO SEE
South Carolina, Oregon crack ESPN/USA Today poll

That old Holtz magic

Worst-to-first? S. Carolina's hot start leads to big dreams

S. Carolina fans new at winning, great at tailgating

Holtz modernizes with new offense and defense

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