Trojans seek opponent for open date, App State game

cancelled

By KEVIN PEARCEY

Sports Editor

While the Southeastern Conference should be able to reschedule this past weekend’s games – which were postponed due to terrorist attacks on the United States last Tuesday – Troy State’s scheduled showdown with Appalachian State has been cancelled.

The Trojans will play host to former Southland Conference foe Nicholls State this Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Troy State has an open date on Sept. 29, a week before traveling to play Miami in Florida, and it was thought, following the postponement announcement on Thursday, that the schedule could be rearranged so the Trojans could play App State at a later date.

That, however, has not been the case.

But the Trojans and athletic director Johnny Williams keep looking.

"Sept. 29 is our open date and we’d really like to get a game for that weekend," he said. "Appalachian State’s open date is Nov. 17, but we have a game with Jacksonville State for that day and we don’t know if that’s going to work out. We don’t have an angle to move Jacksonville State around and when you’ve got to get two or three people to agree on one thing, that’s sometimes hard to do."

Williams didn’t rule out another game on the road for Troy State. The game on Saturday against ASU was supposed to be Troy State’s home opener.

"We’d like to have a home game, because that’s what we’ve lost," said Williams. "But we’ll take any game."

Following No. 1 Miami on Oct. 6, Troy State then travels to Starkville to play SEC opponent Mississippi State.

There has also been some discussion about the Trojans possibly traveling to play another SEC foe, namely Lou Holtz’s South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina has an open date on Nov. 24. TSU is scheduled to conclude the 2001 season on Nov. 17 against Jacksonville State.

"We’ve had a great deal of dialogue with the SEC about this," said Williams. "Hopefully, everything will work itself out soon. I know South Carolina has had a hard time finding another opponent as have a lot of the SEC schools."

But if the Trojans are to indeed play a week from Saturday, Williams knows that arrangements must be made soon.

"If we’re going to play a game on Sept. 29, we’ve got to get this resolved within the next few days," he said.