Daily Progress sports editor

A newspaper report that said the NCAA is looking into possible improprieties in South Carolina's football program has Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz hopping mad.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that the NCAA sent an enforcement officer to South Carolina last month to interview several people about possible violations in the Gamecocks' program. While USC athletics director Mike McGee admitted that the NCAA has made inquiries of the program, he said no formal investigation has started.

Still, Holtz was infuriated with the report out of Atlanta.

"I am violently upset," Holtz told the Columbia (S.C.) State newspaper. "I'm upset at the media. I'm upset at an awful lot of other things. It's ridiculous. People have such little regard for this university, which is outstanding, and look down on us, and have done so for so long that they don't think we can win without cheating. They don't think we can recruit without cheating. This is nonsense.

"It's a slap at the state of South Carolina. It's a slap at the University of South Carolina. It's a slap at this program that they don't think that we can compete, and that includes the media," Holtz said.

McGee told the State that he talked with David Price, the NCAA's vice president for enforcement, who told him no violations had been discovered.

Recruits visit UVa. Several big-time football prospects will be visiting Virginia for tonight's game against South Carolina.

Among those are two blue-chippers who are ranked among the top prospects in the country at their respective positions: tight end Jon Stupar from State College, Pa.; and center Jordy Lipsey of Altamonte Springs, Fla. Also scheduled to visit are Texas offensive lineman Ian Cunningham and Richmond wide receiver Fontel Mines of Hermitage High.

The 6-foot-5, 245-pound Stupar is rated the No. 3 tight end in the country by SuperPrep and No. 6 by Rivals 100. He has set official visits to UVa, Florida State and Arizona State. Stupar caught 29 passes last season for 340 yards and eight touchdowns.

Lipsey is rated as the No. 1 center in the country by Rivals and the No. 2 offensive lineman in the nation by SuperPrep, which also ranks him the No. 5 prospect in the talent-rich Sunshine State. At 6-4, 267, Lipsey told Rivals that Virginia and Stanford are currently his favorites from a list of five that also includes Florida, Miami (Fla.), and Tennessee. All have offered.

Cunningham, at 6-5, 300, told Rivals he is determined to raise his rankings after the recruiting service dropped him to the No. 14 offensive guard in the country. Obviously, Virginia's coaching staff rates him much higher. The Lewisville, Texas, lineman plans official visits to Notre Dame and Nebraska. UVa, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Michigan and Penn State already have offered him a scholarship. Notre Dame has not.

A team full of teens, the Cavaliers need to grow up in a big hurry tonight or risk their first 0-3 start in 20 years.

Having already lost to No. 19 Colorado State and No. 5 Florida State, Virginia concludes the murderers' row portion of its schedule against the No. 22 Gamecocks (1-0) at Scott Stadium in an ESPN-televised matchup. Kickoff is at 7:47 p.m.

"Did I think it was the best schedule to start off 3-0? No," said UVa coach Al Groh, who compared the first three opponents to baseball bashers Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. "Did I think it was the best schedule as far as the development and exposure of the team? Very much so."

Like a rookie pitcher, the Cavaliers have been roughed up by the sluggers. But they also have shown plenty of promise. Groh used 18 freshmen against Florida State, which he half-jokingly suggested might be a national record.

Groh said he believes that facing such strong competition early in their careers will benefit the youngsters in the long run. Even so, he would love some immediate success, especially in front of a national television audience and a sold-out stadium that includes many of UVa's top recruiting prospects.

The key may be the freshmen, who were error-prone against the Seminoles but appear to be quick learners. They have taken crash courses in college football the past two weeks and have a chance to apply those lessons tonight.

"We know what kind of team we can be and how we can play. We're looking forward to this game because it's an opportunity for us to put all those things together," said junior quarterback Matt Schaub, re-installed as the starter after a superb performance in relief last week. "After two games, we have a lot of guys who have gained a tremendous amount of experience. Now it's their time as a whole group to come together."

The Cavaliers aren't quite intact because of injuries. Their best lineman (center Kevin Bailey) and most experienced outside linebacker (Raymond Mann) will miss the game after hurting their left knees in last Saturday's 40-19 loss at Florida State.

A number of other players were injured against the Seminoles, including co-captains Billy McMullen and Angelo Crowell, but are expected to play tonight. How effective they will be remains to be seen.

Virginia will have its hands full trying to stop South Carolina, which boasts a powerful running game led by 255-pound fullback Andrew Pinnock. Fellow senior Corey Jenkins is a two-way threat at quarterback. Pinnock and Jenkins combined for 208 rushing yards in an opening 34-24 victory over New Mexico State.

Then again, the Gamecocks may have trouble containing the Cavaliers. Holtz wasn't pleased with his defense, which gave up 419 yards to the Aggies, and he said preparing for both Schaub and elusive backup quarterback Marques Hagans has been difficult.

"We made way too many mistakes," Holtz said after one practice this week. "We couldn't stop Virginia's offense [being run by] our scout team."

Holtz also has been bothered by reports that the NCAA is investigating possible recruiting violations in South Carolina's program. But among the keys to success for teens that he includes in his book are "Choose Your Attitude," "Get Rid of Excuses" and "Dream Big Dreams."

Both teams could take that advice tonight.

Such is the murderers' row that his young Cavaliers face the first three weeks of the football season. First there was Colorado State (now ranked 19th by the Associated Press), then No. 5 Florida State, and now No. 22 South Carolina.

While some may question Groh's sanity for taking on such an ambitious schedule, there is a method to the madness. Of the 45 players listed on Virginia's two-deep chart for tonight's game against the Gamecocks, there are only seven seniors and only 10 juniors.

Most of these guys are going to be around for a long time and Groh has purposely exposed them to big-time football as soon as possible, figuring it will pay huge dividends in the long run.

Prior to last Saturday's kickoff at Doak Campbell Stadium down in Tallahassee, Fla., Florida State coach Bobby Bowden chatted with Groh and told him about how in his early goings at FSU that the team wasn't performing up to his expectations. Bowden said the heck with it and started playing all his younger players.

"Coach Bowden said they won five of their last six and four years later they won a championship," said Groh. "I don't know what that championship was, whether it was an official one or not, but I'm sure he meant that four years later he had a really good football team."

Groh has either a freshman or a sophomore listed as either the starter or backup at every position on his team with the exceptions of one cornerback spot where two juniors share duty and one safety spot where two seniors split time.

"Whether it's two, three, four [years], it comes faster with this," said Groh, referring to playing the younger talent. "I would expect that in certain players or positions it would be our hope that we would do similar next year, then put the two groups together with talent and experience with time left in front of them."

Back in the summer, Groh looked at this 13-game season, the longest regular season in UVa history, with an interesting approach.

With such a young team (an underdog in at least two of the first three games if not all three), Groh could essentially treat the first three games as preseason contests, then take a bye week to evaluate, then still have an amazing 10 games left to play.

He divided the season into four phases: training camp; the first three games and the bye week that follows; the middle stretch (Akron, Wake, Duke, Clemson, UNC, Georgia Tech), and the final four games (Penn State, N.C. State, Maryland, Virginia Tech).

"After the first three games we'll have a really good chance to assess the team personnel, who is where we thought he would be, who needs more time, who needs less time. What plays do these particular players run best," said Groh.

He wouldn't need that assessment for a veteran team but he doesn't have that luxury.

After three games against top-25 teams, his players also have a chance to make self-evaluations. Groh figures that many of his freshmen will have gotten in more plays in these three games than many of last year's rookies got over the entire 2001 season.

While he would rather have a ready-built, veteran football team loaded with talent, that's not what Groh is dealing with. His team isn't as green as it was a few weeks ago, but it's still a lighter shade of green.

"There is a process that you have to go through to become a really, really good football player or a really, really good football team and you just can't jump over certain phases of that process," said Groh. "We got that process rolling early."

But the youngsters have been fine with accepting the challenge. Who knows what an upset victory might do for their confidence at such an early stage.

"They bring a resiliency with them, but I think it is important that we make it very apparent to them when they are making progress," said Groh. "We continue to teach them, be demanding of them and have high expectations of them, but still have an understanding and enough patience to go with it."

As Bowden once said, "If people are going to get us, they better get us now."

Groh can't be quite that bold yet. But he must have a warm feeling when he begins to daydream of a couple of seasons down the road when all of these freshmen and sophomores become juniors and seniors.