The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 27

tThe (Srecnuille 2feus and section (C GREENVILLE PIEDMONT Prep football Scoreboard Sunday, November 25, 1979 too lajiniODDio- Tiooirs 171771 Georgia USC shows defense footwork in victory i fit imms. 1 1 -1 It was USC's first win over the Tigers since 1975 and only its third in the last nine years against Clemson, which had entered the game with the nation's No. 13 ranking. For the Gamecocks, it also marked the first eight-victory season in the school's history. South Carolina, rated 19th by the Associated Press and bound for a Hall of Fame meeting with Missouri, built its lead with a Garry Harper-to-Ben Cornett touchdown pass and a pair of Eddie Leopard field goals.

The scoring pass, a two-yarder, came with just four seconds left in the first half and followed a 60-yard pass play from Harper to the other tight end, Willie Scott. The Gamecocks, who matched Clemson's record at 8-8, maintained the lead with 59 error-free offensive plays 27 of them on power sweeps by George Rogers. Rogers wound up with 102 yards, his ninth straight game in triple digits, and USC finished with a total yardage output of 247 yards nearly 100 fewer than its per-game average. Clemson, which never yielded two touchdown to the same opponent all season, wound up with 345 offensive yards. Lott was responsible for 207 of those, including 199 yards on 14 pass completions.

But most of the yardage came in the middle of the field, as evidenced by Obed Ariri's three field goals. "Any time you give Clemson three field goals in a game, it's a credit to your defense," said USC coach Jim Carlen. "We beat a good team. I applaud Danny Ford and Clemson. South Carolina's George Rogers (38) gets some well-earned yards Jeff Davis (45) missed the tackle, but Willie Underwood (20) made the stop' By ABE HARDESTY Piedmont sports editor COLUMBIA In the first six games at Williams-Brice Stadium this season, an early exit had become a habit for its capacity crowds.

But at 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon, just moments after the 77th' meeting with Clemson had become history; the crowd of 56,887 lingered near its collective seat, as if expec-ting the cast of players to come back to the field for an encore. It was a crowd that came expecting to see one of the best fights in the history of the bitter feud. And few of its members could have been It witnessed a backyard brawl that featured two precision, ball-control offenses which played without a single turnover, and two gutsy defensive crews which took charge in spite of that. It saw a spectacular, pressurized punt which appeared to have sealed South Carolina's victory and then watched in suspense as Clemson nearly un-sealed it with a dramatic last-minute flurry of punches. 7 The crowd was still strapped to its seat with 22 seconds left, when Billy Lott rolled to his right and looked for Perry Tuttle in the right corner of the end zone.

And then, on fourth down from the USC five-yard line, Lott took the last punch at USC's staggering defense. When his pass sailed over Perry's head, a new. state champion had emerged. The score was 13-9 in a contest packed with far more exciting plays than the score would imply. The biggest of those plays, prior to Clemson's final swing, was the previous snap by South Carolina.

It went' to punter Jay Feltz, a lanky senior who stood in the shadow of his own end zone and overcame fears that his kick might be blocked. He knew it was the biggest kick of his career. He responded with his biggest kick. "I just wanted to kick the ball be-, fore they blocked it," said the scholarly senior from Monongah, W.Va. "I knew the Lord was gonna help me with it I had' already handed the situation over to Him." Before Feltz' kick was touched again, it had sailed over the head of Hollis Hall, who had been waiting at the Clemson 40-yard-line, and had rolled all the way to the Clemson four.

It measured 83 yards, easily a new school record, and it took the pressure off the USC defense and placed it upon Clemson shoulders. But when its offensive unit huddled in its own end zone with 2:15 to play, Clemson's anxiety did not show. What the Tigers did show was a quick 11-play flurry which covered 88 yards in only 84 seconds. That gave Clemson first down with 51 seconds left and victory just eight yards away. From there, art off-tackle run by Marvin Sims and a quick pass froim Lott to Jerry Gaillard brought the Tigers three yards closer, with Robert Perlotte making a game-saving tackle on the latter play.

On third down, Lott fired a pass out of bounds to stop the clock with 22 se-. conds left. When Lott's 21st pass of the game missed its mark on the next play, the Tigers were saddled to their third defeat of the season. i -J 5 C-J 14 NewK piedmont Alan DeVorney Holdglng fast to those last five yards of artificial turf Saturday allows smiling and nodding instead of explaining. 1 Victory aside, he was still short with some questions, still angry with adversaries, still sunburned on some issues.

"I told people, we were going to have a good football team this year," he said. And he praised his fans, "for being so loyal for a team that had never won more than seven games," before Saturday. But even sunburn is not as tender in victory's light. Don the corridor, Danny Ford finished his initial press session, and then slumped against a wall and seethed. The game struck him a couple of ways.

He would like a brief word with whichever gods decide why certain teams are allowed to play their best games on their biggest days and others are not. "They played more to their potential than we did to ours," he said. He found no consolation that had the game been played in September here, Carolina may have been a 10- point layarite. :1 intercepted six Georgia Tech passes and beat the Yellow Jackets, 1 6-3, to stay in the running for a Sugar Bowl invitation. Page 3-C.

Oklahoma dealt Nebraska its first loss, 17-14, and became the Big Eight's representative to the Orange Bowl. Page 3-C. Missouri routed Kansas, 55-7, finished 6-5, and received a bid to play South Carolina in the Hall of Fame Bowl. Page 5-C. Baylor finished its schedule with a 1 3-0 loss to Texas.

The Bears will play Clemson in the Peach Bowl. Page 5-C. Arkansas clinched a Cotton Bowl invitation and a tie for the Southwest Conference championship with a 3 1 -7 victory over Southern Methodist. Page 8-C. Tennessee beat Kentucky, 20-17, and insured its bid from the Bluebonnet bowl.

The Vols will play Purdue. Page 5-C. Tulane upset arch-rival Louisiana State, 24-1 3, for its ninth victory. Tulane will play Penn State in the Liberty Bowl. Page 5-C.

Atlanta needs another miracle finish to make the NFL playoffs. And against the New Orleans Saints the Falcons have a habit of miracles. Page 9-C. He grudgingly acknowledged that Clemson had made significant improvement In Its offense. He takes no credit for managing to beat North Carolina, and Notre Dame, and being five yards away from victory over the winningest South Carolina team in history with only two touchdowns spread over the last three games.

There were no Clemson touchdowns Saturday, Carlen put in words what others have long recognized: "Danny Ford did a great coaching job this season." Ford was five yards away from being a coach who has never lost on the road. Five yards from a 9-2 season. Twenty two seconds, and five yards. The crowd sat for minutes after It was over, the Clemson crowd stunned, the Carolina crowd revelling. It was an eeerie sight, 50,000 looking down, seated, with both halves finished and no players left on the field.

Bands playing and crowds cheer ing to ag empty field. "I was worried about Lott keeping the football at the end. Andy Hastings locked up on Tuttle pretty good and we wanted our defensive ends to contain Lott. I was scared to death that he would run it in. "Scott made a big play for us on that pass reception, and then Ben Cornett came up with another on that touchdown catch," Carlen added.

But he promptly acknowledged that the biggest play was the kick by Feltz, one of Carlen's first recruits when he came to USC in 1975. "It was the key play today," said Carlen. In the other dressing room Ford talked about another pivotal series in the third quarter. With USC leading 10-6 and the second half about nine minutes old, Lott fired a pass to Tuttle, who fumbled near the. USC 40.

The ball was kicked and rolled to the USC 10, and apparently recovered there by a South Carolina player. In between, however, two officials detected a holding penalty on the Gamecocks, and the result was Clemson's ball at the USC 12. But three plays netted just five yards, and Ariri was called upon for his third field goal. "We got a break on the fumble play, and we should have gotten more than three points on that. That was a big play," said Ford, who watched his team lose on the road for the first time.

"Not controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball was the key to the game," noted Ford. "I imagine they out-played us. Usually when you get beat, you get i I I A Clemson fan literally holds her breath as Tigers near USC goal line In the final seconds. As it should, it came down to one play Dan Foster He said he "hadn't thought about it," but that Clemson may have been the best team any of his five Carolina teams had beaten. They are the highest rated, and he accepted that as a verdict.

He seemed almost determined not to admit, even to himself, what the victory Saturday meant to him. He did say, "We've had a lot of hard times and a lot of adversity," and nothing ministers to that the way victories on rival Saturdays do. It was not only the climax of his most important football season, it was possibly the biggest day since he came here five years ago. Alumni don't get as perturbed about a coach's problems with his president, his contract, his press relations or even his health, when he wins. As his team braced for Saturday's game, Carlen's 1979 campaign had been "a good season, but What his team did for him Saturday, in a manner of speaking, was knock the but off.

Saturday means no more talk that his only victory over Clemson was with aeff Grantz he inherited. COLUMBIA In the steamy aftermath of the South Carolina locker room, Carolina assistant coach Jack Fligg wiped the sweat, but not the smile from his face, and observed, "That's the way it should have ended. One play to decide everything." On the play to which he referred, Clemson had the ball, and absolutely nothing else. It was out time, out of downs, and out of timeouts; it was at South Carolina's five-yard line, and it was four points behind. On the sideline, South Carolina coach Jim Carlen was pleading through the very pores of his skin for his defensive troops "to go slowly and cautiously," in on Clemson quarterback Billy Lott.

"The thing I was most afraid of," Carlen would say afterwards, was Lott being trapped, and running the touchdown in. It was a pass play from the word go, and Carlen wanted there to be enough of a target to make Lott throw, not enough to make a catch. With virtually everyone in the Crowd of 56,887 standing, holding his ath, squeezingUher his fingers better team ever lost this game. Had Lott found a hole or a receiver for five yards, Carolina would have been the best team that ever lost it. As events turned, Clemson was, by 13-9.

That was the price and they both knew it. They knew it because they're both in bowls, and they're both in the nation's top 20. They knew whoever won this one would have pushed a giant over. It may be impossible to exaggerate the meaning to Carlen of the last Carolina defensive play. Coaches who beat Clemson just naturally tend to make better athletic directors at South Carolina than coaches who don't.

It is easier to read the people's mandate for rewarding a coach whose team wins eight games In his fifth year and who beats Clemson, than for one who doesn't. In his post-game press conference, which was interspersed with some barbs at segments of the press, Carlen seemed almost determined not to admit how much one last play on one brilliant November afterMon had meant. if The Greenville Newi sporw editor or a neighbor's arm, the snap count started. Lott rolled out, spied his target, and threw right. The ball tried to reach down for Perry Tuttle but he had red-jersey enemy company.

It had to stay high, and it sailed out of bounds. It was done. Quiet Clemson misery was drowned in thousands of piercing shrieks of pure Carolina delight. Clemson head coach Danny Ford overcame emotional numbness to walk 25 yards down the sideline. He waited there to pat Tuttle on the back as Tuttle left the field.

There was so much to convey, and so little to say. There may have been better teams to have won in this series, but through years and 77 games, no 7 LA-.