Florida Could Have Tough Finishing Stretch

The road to the Rose Bowl is filled with unprecedented uncertainty.

For starters, Dec. 1 is becoming the most convenient date for rescheduling Division I-A games called off after last week’s terrorist attacks in New York and Arlington, Va.

Originally, the Dec. 1 calendar read: Big 12 and Southeastern conference title games, Oregon State at Oregon and Miami at Virginia Tech.

Now add Purdue at Notre Dame, Arizona State at UCLA, Utah State at Fresno State and Georgia Tech at Florida State (tentative).

If the season is extended a week to Dec. 8, No. 2 Florida could end up playing Tennessee in Gainesville, Fla., on Dec. 1.

Currently, the Southeastern Conference title game in Atlanta is set for Dec. 1, but league officials are considering moving it to Dec. 8.

If that happens, Florida could end up with the toughest finishing month of all--at South Carolina (Nov. 10), home to Florida State (Nov. 17) and Tennessee (Dec. 1) and then a possible conference title game.

After that could come a shot at the national title in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 3.

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Before No. 18 South Carolina takes the field at Mississippi State on Thursday, bringing major college football back to a troubled country, the Gamecocks must do something else.

“I guess we will be the first school to get on an airplane,” Coach Lou Holtz said.

On Wednesday, Holtz and the Gamecocks will ride to Eagle Aviation near Columbia’s Metropolitan Airport and get on a 727 charter that seats about 170. They expect to land in Columbia, Miss., about 20 minutes from the Bulldogs’ campus.

If Holtz is worried, he’s not showing it.

“They’ve never left anybody up there yet,” Holtz said. “They’re going to come down.”

Holtz’s bravado comes from surviving several close calls in a 40-year career crossing the nation.

He has been on a plane when landing gear wouldn’t come down and the runway had to be covered in foam. On one flight, the door flew open after takeoff. On another plane, the rudder broke and forced an emergency landing.

“A coward dies a thousand deaths,” Holtz said. “You can’t go around being worried about this or that. You put the faith in the people in the airline that says it’s safe, and then you get on an airplane and you go

“I don’t think you can stop living and worry about every little thing that might happen.”

South Carolina tailback Derek Watson has been thinking about the upcoming flight.

“When you see what happened in New York and Washington, you have to think about it. We’ll get on a plane, but I’m not looking forward to it,” he said.

Receiver Brian Scott said stricter security measures at airports and the Gamecocks being on a charter will keep them safe.

“We’re not going on a commercial airline, so we should be OK,” he said.