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FIRST & GOAL
The Red & Black | Friday, September i, 2006 | 3B
FAYE LASH | WESTERN KENTUCKY SPORTS COMMUNICATION
A Western Kentucky running back Lerron Moore runs
over tacklers in a game last season.
TV SCHEDULE
Friday, Sept. 1
Nevada @ Fresno State
10 p.m. ESPN2
Saturday, Sept. 2
Vanderbilt @ No. 14 Michigan
Noon ESPN
Montana @ No. 16 Iowa
Noon ESPNU
North Texas @ No. 3 Texas
Noon FSN
Western Kentucky @ No. 15
Georgia 12:30 p.m. LFS/GP
Northern Illinois @ No. 1 Ohio
State 3:30 p.m. ABC/GP
Rutgers @ North Carolina
3:30 p.m. ABC/GP
Stanford @ No. 21 Oregon
3:30 p.m. ABC/GP
Akron @ No. 19 Penn State
3:30 p.m. ESPN2
LA Tech @ No. 20 Nebraska
3:30 p.m. FSN
Florida Atlantic @ No. 18
Clemson, 3:30 p.m. ESPNU
No. 9 California @ No. 23
Tennessee, 5:30 p.m. ESPN
East Carolina @ Navy
5:30 p.m. CSTV
UAB @ No. 10 Oklahoma
7 p.m. TBS
Virginia @ Pittsburgh
7 p.m. ESPNU
Utah @ UCLA, 7:00 p.m. FSN
Washington State @ No. 4
Auburn, 7:45 p.m. ESPN2
No. 2 Notre Dame @ Georgia
Tech, 8 p.m. ABC
No. 6 Southern California @
Arkansas, 8:45 p.m. ESPN
Houston @ Rice, 9 p.m. CSTV
BYU @ Arizona, 10:15 p.m. TBS
Sunday, Sept. 3
Memphis @ Ole Miss
4:30 p.m. ESPN
TCU @ Baylor, 5:30 p.m. FSN
Kentucky @ No. 13 Louisville
8 p.m. ESPN
Monday, Sept. 4
No. 11 Florida State @ No. 12
Miami (FL), 8 p.m. ESPN
- compiled by Katy De Luca
By MATTHEW BORENSTEIN
mborenste@randb.com
Don’t think playing in
front of a crowd about nine
times what it is used to will
intimidate the Western
Kentucky football team.
Because if the past holds
true, it won’t.
“There was no look in
their eye that they were
intimidated,” said Auburn
coach Tommy Tuberville,
whose Tigers beat the
Hilltoppers in front of 80,632
at Jordan-Hare Stadium in
2005 and in front of 85,046 in
2003.
“That won’t bother them
one bit this week.”
In Western kentucky’s 11
other games last year, the
average crowd was 11,697,
not close to the possible
92,746 that would All a sold-
out Sanford Stadium. But
the two games at Auburn
and a game at Kansas State
in 2004 helped many of the
Hilltoppers know what to
expect, Western Kentucky
senior running back Lerron
Moore said.
“I’m not looking forward
to it being different,” he said.
“It’s all the same,” said
By ALEX BYINGTON
abyington@randb.com
To say the transition from
high school to college is
daunting is quite the under
statement.
The differences are even
more apparent when going
from a highly recruited
Florida Class 5-A Player of
the Year to your college posi
tion coach’s personal punch
ing bag.
But as true freshman
defensive tackle Geno Atkins
prepares to begin his college
Hilltoppers offensive coordi
nator T.J. Weist, who knows
the SEC well. He played
receiver at Alabama and then
was a graduate assistant
there in 1988 and ‘89. He said
he’s given his players advice
on what it takes to play in an
SEC stadium.
But there still is a differ
ence, especially in the first 10
plays when players are
hyped, said Western
Kentucky All-American kick
er Chris James, a graduate of
Starr’s Mill High School in
Fayetteville.
“A lot of guys are wired,
then they go and kill them
selves,” said James, who
expects to have 60 to 70
friends that have never seen
him play in college in the
stands. “And then are dead
for the rest of the game.”
The Auburn game wasn’t
just a chance for the
Hilltoppers to get used to
playing in an SEC team.
Georgia was able to use the
tape to scout Western
Kentucky against an SEC
opponent.
“That’s been a big film
that we’ve watched,” Georgia
tailback Thomas Brown said.
“Really, the first film that we
career against Western
Kentucky this weekend,
defensive line coach and
recruiting coordinator
Rodney Garner remembers
the early struggles.
“I think he was a little bit
in shock because he goes
from being recruited, me sit
ting in his living room telling
him how much I love him, to
me just beating him down,”
Garner said.
Garner’s tough love paid
off though, as Atkins
has responded in a positive
way, refusing to buckle under
did watch was of that game
from last year. They run a
similar offense to us. ... It
helped.”
What did Georgia see?
They saw a team that
climbed to the No. 1 ranking-
in Division I-AA before it lost
its last four games and fin
ished the season unranked
and out of the I-AA playoffs.
“Not only did it put a bad
mark on the season,” James
said. “It made for a bad off
season. ... You still hear
about it, everyone wants to
know how you go from being
the No. 1 team to being
unranked.”
They saw Moore, who has
rushed for more than 3,500
yards in his three seasons
and should set the school
record this year.
They saw kick returner
Dennis Mitchell, an all-con
ference sprinter who is fifth
among active I-AA punt
returners.And they saw a I-
AA program that has played
in five of the last six I-AA
playoffs and won the national
title in 2002.
Western Kentucky will not
be underestimated, Georgia
coach Mark Richt said.
“It doesn’t matter if
the pressure.
“At first it was hard
because I had to get used to
things — get adjusted to the
speed (and) learn the
defense,” Atkins said.
Of course, Garner saw the
process a little differently.
“Early on, it was interest
ing. I was really on him pret
ty hard. He was just sort of
going through the motions
and not showing any emo
tions. I even questioned how
much he loved the game,”
Garner recalled. “But he
responded, and I take my hat
they’re I-AA,” Richt said.
“We’ll play as hard as we can
play and if we don’t, we’ll
off to him. He came back,
and I saw a new side of him.”
Despite the hard transi
tion, Atkins felt early on that
through hard work and
determination, anything was
possible, even playing as a
true freshman.
“It feels great (to be get
ting a chance to play right
away) because that’s what I
came to do. Coach (Garner)
told me that if I worked hard,
I’d be able to play.”
Since 2002, Georgia
coaches haven’t been hesi
tant when calling the num-
take their ass out of the
game. That’s all there is to
that.”
ber of true freshmen defen
sive linemen — Kedric
Goldston and Darrius Swain
played as freshmen in 2003,
and defensive tackle Jeff
Owens started 13 games last
season.
Atkins looks to have the
same potential as his prede
cessors, though he admits
playing between the hedges
does leave him a little wary.
“It’s kind of scary because
I’ve never been in a stadium
with 93,000 people — it’s
going to be a new experi
ence,” Atkins said.
Defensive tackle makes the jump into the big time
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