S.C. trustees OK $21M in upgrades
South Carolina trustees have approved $21 million worth of improvements for Williams-Brice Stadium scheduled for completion before the 2020 season.
School leaders approved the project Wednesday.
Most of the renovations are in areas given up by the football program after their move to the new $50 million football operations building after this season.
The improvements will largely be premium seating areas and new space to host football recruits. The plan calls for loge seating on one end of the field and a ground-level club area.
The stadium seats 80,250 people.
Naomi Osaka’s homecom- ing couldn’t have gone much better.
Playing in her first tournament since winning the U.S. Open, third-seeded Osaka impressed her Japanese fans Wednesday with a powerful 6-2, 6-1 win over Dominika Cibulkova to reach the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open.
Osaka became the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title when she upset 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams on Sept. 8 in New York.
Nadal hurting: Rafael Nadal says he will not play in upcoming tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai because of an injured right knee. Nadal says he and his team decided to skip the Asia swing to recover. can never have enough playmakers on either side of the ball, and Dunham has provided a jolt early on.
Dunham is the player who scooped and scored on a fum- ble forced by Ben Banogu in the SMU game two weeks ago and was the only TCU player to register a sack against Ohio State.
N ot too shabby for a reserve linebacker who has been mostly known for his special teams skills his first three seasons with the Frogs.
ally, if you have a good season, you have seniors that nobody talked about before the season step up and make plays,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “Alec has been unbelievable in special teams. Before it’s all said and done, he’s rotating in at linebacker.”
For Patterson and TCU, it becomes a little bit of a head- ache on how to get the line- backer corps their fair number of snaps.
Garret Wallow and Arico Evans are listed as the starters, but Ty Summers is seeing time at linebacker and defen- sive end. Plus, Jawaun John- son and Dunham are capa- ble backups.
“It’s going to be a challenge of how we put people in, where do we play Ty at end or linebacker, who steps in, who’s going, what’s going on,” Patterson said. “All of that plays a part.”
It’s a good problem to have. More important, Dunham is emerging as one of the lead- ers on a team that needs a veteran presence for a number of younger players on the team.
Patterson said after the Ohio State game that his youth-filled team had to “learn how to practice” on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday without having a half-hearted day here and there.
Dunham is a player Patterson can point to as an exam- ple for others to follow. This is a player who is interning with The Miers Law Firm this fall and is on track to graduate with a degree in criminal justice.
He gets it done in the weight room, too, with a 770-pound squat, 450-pound bench and 425-pound clean.
“At TCU, we have a differ- ent standard of practice, so Coach P is holding us to that standard. That’s what we have to do,” said Dunham, who is from Coldspring.
“I do try to take pride and try to emphasize the fact to go out every day and go hard. Do the best that I can do. I might not be perfect, but I do try to emulate that. I try to go out and be hard, be aggressive, attack the game plan, attack the day.”
It’s worked out so far for Dunham. Outside of his impact plays the past two weeks, he ranks sixth on the team with 12 tackles, including tying for the team lead with five in the opener against Southern.
For Dunham, though, his senior season is about one thing.
“My biggest deal this year is trying to have the best season because opportunities are fading away,” Dunham said. “This is the last chance, so it’s not about moral victories or anything.”