dailygamecock.com UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
VOL. 116, NO. 17 • SINCE 1908
‘Meant to win’
Jeffrey Davis / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Junior running back Brandon Wilds led the South Carolina ground game with 92 yards in the second half Saturday and fi nished with 93 yards and a score on 14 carries.
Thompson on UGA game: ‘When you go to war you need soldiers’ Danny Garrison
@DANNYLGARRISON
It turns out there’s still a little magic left within the walls of Williams-Brice Stadium. No. 24 South Carolina was left for dead after a crushing week one loss at home, but on Saturday, the Gamecocks did the unthinkable. Sout h Carolina toppled t he No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs 38-35 and launched itself right back into the conversation for the SEC East title as well as a spot in the College Football Playoff. “It was our turn to win,” head coach Steve Spurrier said. “We were meant to win this game, and Georgia
was not.” From the very beginning of the game, it certainly looked like the Gamecocks (2-1, 1-1 SEC) were destined to pull off the upset. After receiving the opening kick-off, redshirt senior quarterback Dylan Thompson led South Carolina down the field on a nine-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a Shaq Roland touchdown grab. But that’s when things got messy. Once the Bulldogs (1-1, 0-1 SEC) got their fi rst shot on offense, it took them all of two plays to go 69 yards for a score of their own. That set the tone for the rest of the contest as both team’s traded blows until the clock read zero, and South Carolina had its final three-point advantage. “W hen you go to war, you need soldiers,” Thompson said, “and that’s what I thought we brought. Every time we put 11 on the field, we had
Campus continues to change post-renovations Trustees approve funding for South Tower bathroom fix Hannah Jeffrey
@HANNAHJEFFREY34
USC is changing. Monumental renovations on the Women’s Quad and Darla Moore School of Business have drawn to a close, and more are on the way. The campus you walk across today isn’t the same as it was last year. And a year from now, it will be more different yet. “We’re challenged by t he fact that we have 200 buildings on t his campus w it h w idely varying ages,” USC Architect Derek Gruner said. Accord i ng to Gr u ner, 4 0 percent of USC’s bu ild i ngs were built between the 1940s and 1960s. Now, t he Healt h Sciences Education Building, soon to be home of t he C ol lege of Information Studies and Mass Communications, is on track to reopen and house the College
of I nfor mat ion St udies a nd Mass Communications in May 2015, ahead of schedule and under budget, Gruner said. USC’s board of trustees last week granted Phase II approval for a $3.8 million overhaul of South Tower’s 17 bathrooms. A ll piping, f ixt ures, exhaust and vent ilat ion systems will be replaced; bat hrooms will be waterproofed and retiled; and all asbestos and lead paint will be removed from existing bat h rooms a nd touch i ng rooms. In total, the funds cut out to around $223,000 per bathroom and around $650 per square foot. But w it h project s like this, Gruner said, going by the square foot can be misleading because of the work needed in the given area. “It’s an ext remely intense amount of construction,” he said. “It’s a small amount of square footage, but the actual activity is very intense.” South Tower dates back to 1965, and the building still uses the original plumbing systems,
which are almost 50 years old. “My wife was in this building when she was in school,” board member A.C. “Bubba” Fennell said, “so it obviously needs an update.” G r u ne r s a id t he p r oj e c t will likely receive competitive bids — between 10 and 15, he expects — which will show the renovation’s value. “T h is pret t y nea rly f u l ly r e nov at e s a l l f i ve of t he s e buildings,” Gruner said, adding Sout h Tower to t he l ist of major dorm renovations after Women’s Quad and Patterson Hall. “It’s a pretty high priority for housing.” The renovation will bring Sout h Tower to arou nd t he same level as the four newlyrenovated women’s buildings and at a fraction of the cost. Patterson’s construction ran USC around $31.8 million, and the women’s quad renovation was $29.2 million. But it isn’t just t he dorms and classroom buildings seeing RENOVATIONS • 3
soldiers out there.” Despite Georgia entering the day as a heav y favorite, the Gamecocks played with the advantage for the bulk of the contest. The game turned into a responding exercise for South Carolina, once Georgia pulled within striking distance of the lead. And respond they did. South Carolina’s offense and defense both received their fair shares of criticism after the first two games of the season. But the Gamecocks didn’t just show signs of improvement when facing adversity Saturday — they showed dominance. Thompson finished with 271 yards and three touchdow ns t h rough t he air to go w it h one interception, but the quarterback’s air raid in no way limited the opportunities of his running backs. FOOTBALL • 3
USC offers new Pharmacy degree T he US C b o a rd of t r u s t e e s approved Friday a Bachelor’s of Sciences (B.S.) in Pharmacy degree for the Columbia campus. “Quite frankly this is something we could have done quite some time ago,” said USC Provost Michael Amiridis. I n t he past , st udent s who changed majors after pursuing a pre-pharmacy degree for two years were counted as dropouts in student statistics. However, the only option for pharmacy studies was to pursue the pre-professional degree. In order to receive a degree in another field of study, students were subject to two more years of school. The program will require no new courses or faculty. C lem son Un iver sit y of fer s a bachelor’s of pharmacy degree, as do several other schools, Amiridis said. The Medical Universit y of South Carolina does not offer a prepharmacy option. “We’re correcting something we should have done,” Amiridis said. “After four years, you have done enough, and you deserve a bachelor’s of science degree.”
— Compiled by Hannah Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief