The local college report ...

CLARKSVILLE, TN. — Linebacker coach Curtis Walker is in charge of planning the road trips for the Catawba football team.

So he planned the trip to Clarksville, Tn. this weekend as the Indians travel to play Austin Peay tonight

But he didn’t plan one stop — the one that will land the players of the seventh-ranked team in Division II at the Grand Ol’ Opry.

That was head coach David Bennett’s call. Bennett, he of the famous South Carolina twang, mentioned Charley Pride and Willie Nelson. Walker listened — and cringed.

“I don’t think Coach Walker is too fired up about country music,” snickered Bennett.

The stop in Nashville is just one of several for Catawba, who play the Division I-AA Governors at 7 p.m. The team left Thursday, stayed over in Knoxville and then aimed the bus toward Nashville.

Some of our guys may not ever get to go this far into Tennessee,” Bennett said. “There are probably some of our guys who have never left the state of North Carolina. So we’re going to try and make it fun for them.”

But Bennett assures that when the whistle blow to start the game, his troops will be focused. Austin Peay’s 3-8 season last year has no bearing.

“There are no automatic wins,” he said. “We’re playing on astroturf for the first time. It will be their officiating crew. There are no givens.”

This game appeared on the schedule when Gardner-Webb left the South Atlantic Conference for the Division 1-AA ranks. Bennett called around 80 schools and Austin Peay agreed to a home-and-home contract. The Governors come to Salisbury next year.

Austin Peay lost its opener to NAIACumberland College last week , 7-3. The Governors managed just eight first downs and 126 yards of offense. Running back Rory Gibbs had 85 of that total on 19 carries.

The Governors are down. In the last decade, they have a winning percentage of .222. In fact, current coach Bill Schmitz is just 7-25 in three years.

They are also slow starters. In 1999, they gave up an average of 23 points in the first half.

But they ended the season with 40 of their 57 players either freshmen or sophomores.

Austin Peay is led by 6-5, 230-pound quarterback Brian Baker, who literally rewrote the record book last year in his first season as a starter. He set or tied five single-game and four single-season and one career record in 1999. He finished with 2,809 yards passing and 25 touchdowns, completing 247-of-421 attempts.

So look for Catawba defenders like Ryan Norman, Tony Spencer and Dyran Peake to stay busy.

The linebackers will have to watch tight end Daniel Herndon (41 catches) as well as wideout Tulsa Payette (31).

It will also be a nice test for the defensive line, which led the SAC last year in sacking the quarterback. They’ll go up against five returning starters and eight of the top nine on the offensive line.

Defensive end Radell Lockhart said the Indians won’t be lulled to sleep.

“Two years ago, we played Tusculum and came in with the bighead,” he said. “We ended up losing that game and (Bennett)hasn’t let us forget it. That’s all he talks about. “

n

No game with Austin Peay would be complete without mentioning one of Bob Costas’ favorite sports joke.

Back in 1975, Austin Peay (pronounced pee) was promoting one of its basketball players, Fly Williams, for All-American honors. He was the leading returning scorer in the country and never minded shooting 30 times per game.

The flyer the SIDdepartment sent out read, “The Fly is open, watch Austin Peay.”

n

Two Southern Conference matchups will highlight the South Atlantic Conference schedule today.

Newberry is at highly-touted Furman and Lenoir-Rhyne travels to Western Carolina.

Other games have West Virginia State at Wingate and Charleston Southern at Presbyterian.

n

While Catawba goes to the state of Tennessee, the state of Tennessee is also coming to Salisbury.

Tusculum is visiting Livingstone tonight for a 7 p.m. game under the lights.

Other CIAA games: NCCU at Benedict, Fayetteville State at Elizabeth City State, Johnson C. Smith at Georgia Southern, Virginia State at Cheyney, Morehead at Virginia Union and Bowie State at Winston-Salem State.

n

Horace Billings is in Clarksville covering Catawba while Ed Dupree will cover Livingstone for the Post.