Pressure Washing in Adams Run, SC

The debate on whether Tennessee football was guilty of running up the score on Missouri in a 66-24 victory last week could serve as motivation for South Carolina. And since Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer can be emotional, I would be surprised if he didn’t work it into his pregame speech.

If you are wondering “what does a sports columnist know about motivating a football team,” you have no sense of football history.

Former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley once allowed me to serve as a “coach” for the spring game. I don’t remember my pregame speech to the Orange team, but I’m sure it was riveting, though you couldn’t have proved it by the final score. Although we didn’t score a touchdown in a losing effort, I can remember several first downs.

But you learn from your mistakes.

ADAMS:Tennessee football should score as much as it can in stretch run for CFP playoffs

ADAMS:Tennessee football isn't only championship contender relying on offense

So, if I were addressing the Gamecocks before the game at Williams-Brice Stadium, I would say: “If you don’t play the best game of your life, this team won’t just beat you. It will embarrass you in front of your family, friends, and fellow students.”

I don’t have a psychological survey to back me up on this, but I regard fear of embarrassment as a greater motivator than fear of failure.

Tennessee 59, South Carolina 20: As you can tell by my predicted score, I don't have any doubts how this game will go. But I do wonder if Gamecocks fans can hold their ground against a possible UT fan invasion.

Georgia 41, Kentucky 17: Media who cover the SEC voted in July that Georgia and Kentucky would finish first and second, respectively, in the East. They were half right.

The Bulldogs have done their part. The Wildcats, not so much. And they’re getting worse, as demonstrated by last week’s loss to Vanderbilt.

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops needs to upgrade his offense. Quarterback Will Levis looks less like a first-round NFL draft pick with each game.

Florida 34, Vanderbilt 17: In case you’re wondering, Vanderbilt last won back-to-back conference games in 2018. Don’t expect a repeat Saturday.

First-year Florida coach Billy Napier might not be flashy enough for some Gators fans, but he has squeezed most of the talent out of a team that could finish the regular season 8-4 with victories over Vanderbilt and Florida State.

Napier also is making headway in recruiting. The Gators are ranked No. 8 in the 247Sports Composite for 2023.

Ole Miss 27, Arkansas 23: Remember when running backs were the stars, and the quarterback's most important job was to hand them the ball? If so, you should appreciate the Rebels and Razorbacks offenses.

Ole Miss freshman running back Quinshon Judkins leads the SEC in rushing with 1,171 yards. Arkansas sophomore Raheim “Rocket” Sanders is second with 1,147.

Alabama 48, Austin Peay 10: A two-loss regular season is a disaster by Tide standards. But even in a disappointing season, Alabama is only two plays from being unbeaten and in the running for another national championship.

Tennessee beat the Tide on a last-second field goal. LSU beat them on a two-point conversion in overtime.

Auburn 31, Western Kentucky 23: Interim head coach Carnell Williams has helped energize the Tigers. But energy only gets you so far in the SEC.

And it doesn’t even assure success against Western Kentucky (7-4). The Hilltoppers lost by three points to Indiana in overtime in their only other game against a Power 5 opponent.

LSU 34, UAB 17: The Tigers already have qualified for the SEC Championship game and still are in the running for the College Football Playoff under first-year LSU coach Brian Kelly.

But a former first-year LSU coach knows you can’t take UAB lightly. The Blazers beat LSU and then-coach Nick Saban 13-10 in 2000.

Missouri 38, New Mexico State 10: The Tigers offense should be ecstatic at the sight of a nonconference opponent. Missouri hasn’t scored more than 24 points against an SEC team.

And it managed only 17 points against Vanderbilt, which ranks 123^rd nationally in total defense.

Texas A&M 34, Massachusetts 7: The Aggies won’t go winless in November, thanks to strategic nonconference scheduling. The Minutemen are 1-9, and that’s not unusual. They’re 21-101 for the past 11 seasons.

It’s a wonder more SEC programs don’t schedule them.

Mississippi State 42, ETSU 10: This should have been the best of coach Mike Leach’s three teams at Mississippi State. It still could be if it wins Saturday and upsets Ole Miss the last week of the regular season.

Record: 68-20 (.773), 44-36 (.550) against the spread.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or [email protected]. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

Newberry coach Phil Strickland compared him to Hall of Famer Barry Sanders from his high school days.

Gray Collegiate coach Adam Holmes is running of adjectives to describe him.

That’s because War Eagles senior running back KZ Adams has put up one of the greatest single high school football seasons in state history.

Adams, a Georgia State commit and Mr. Football finalist, rushed for what is believed to be a state-record 3,035 yards and 39 total touchdowns this season. He also is a starter at defensive back.

Adams will get a chance to shine one more time in Friday’s Class 2A state championship game against Silver Bluff.

“Just an amazing kid and an amazing talent,” Holmes said. “‘I’m excited he is going to be on the big stage and what he does for us as a program on offense, defense and special teams. He is the best player in the state.”

Here is a look at how Adams’ big year compares to some of the other single-season offensive performances in South Carolina since 2000:

▪ Noah Bell, QB, Saluda (2019): Threw for 3,988 yards, 49 touchdowns and ran for 554 and 16 touchdowns.

▪ Amir Abrams, RB, Newberry (2017): Rushed for 2,486 yards and 38 touchdowns.

▪ Colton Bailey, QB, Chapman (2017): Was 205-for-289 passing for 3,400 yards and 45 touchdowns. He also rushed 130 times for 936 yards and 15 TDs.

▪ Logan Bailey, QB, Chapin (2015): Threw for 3,025 yards, 34 touchdowns and rushed for 1,265 yards and 32 touchdowns.

▪ Austin Scott, QB, Spartanburg, (2015): Passed for 5,144 yards and 63 touchdowns.

▪ Tavien Feaster, RB, Spartanburg (2014): Rushed for 1,153 yards, caught 45 passes for 1,016 yards and had 28 total touchdowns.

▪ Shuler Bentley, QB, Byrnes (2013): Completed 293-of-425 passes for 5,032 yards for 71 touchdowns.

▪ Matt Colburn, RB, Dutch Fork (2013): Ran 328 times for 2,488 yards and 40 touchdowns. He also caught 28 passes for 418 yards and two touchdowns.

▪ Mason Rudolph, QB, Northwestern (2013): Threw for 4,377 yards, 64 touchdowns and ran for 543 yards and 16 scores.

▪ Dupree Hart, WR, Northwestern (2013): Caught 115 passes for 1,655 yards, 26 touchdowns and also ran it 46 times for 237 yards and five touchdowns.

▪ Justin Worley, QB, Northwestern (2010): Completed 403-of-548 passes for 5,052 yards and 59 touchdowns.

▪ Shon Carson, RB, Lake City (2010): Rushed for 2,280 yards and 33 touchdowns as a senior

▪ Robert Joseph, WR, Northwestern (2009): Caught 150 passes for 1,834 yards and 28 TDs.

▪ Demetris Summers, RB, Lexington (2001): Rushed for 2,329 yards and 39 touchdowns. State’s all-time career rushing leader with more than 9,000 yards.

COLUMBIA — South Carolina football's top running back Marshawn Lloyd has committed to Southern Cal after entering the transfer portal Dec. 12.

Lloyd was the No. 19 Gamecocks' leading rusher this season with 573 yards and nine touchdowns in just nine games. He suffered a quad contusion during the team's Week 9 loss to Missouri and missed three games, returning with limited touches in the regular-season finale against Clemson.

Lloyd's 11 total touchdowns made him the team's second-highest scorer behind only quarterback Spencer Rattler.

Behind Lloyd, South Carolina's next-highest rusher was tight end Jaheim Bell, who took running back snaps while Lloyd was injured. Bell, who finished with 231 receiving yards and 261 rushing yards, also entered the transfer portal and has committed to Florida State.

TRANSFER PORTAL TRACKER:South Carolina football transfer portal tracker: Roster changes for 2023 season

BIGGEST QUESTIONS:From Spencer Rattler to edge rusher, South Carolina football's biggest questions for 2023

The 5-foot-9, 212-pound running back from Hyattsville, Maryland, was a four-star prospect and the No. 5 running back in the Class of 2020. He redshirted his freshman season at South Carolina after tearing an ACL during preseason practices in 2020, and he also missed the 2021 Duke's Mayo Bowl with an injury.

Lloyd was not recruited by Southern Cal or coach Lincoln Riley's former Oklahoma staff out of high school, but Riley has close ties with Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer: Beamer was the Sooners' assistant head coach and tight ends coach from 2018-20 while Riley was head coach.

He is Southern Cal's eighth transfer commitment ahead of the 2023 season and second from the SEC — Florida offensive tackle Michael Tarquin is also headed to Los Angeles. The Trojans also signed two running backs in their 2023 freshman class, four-stars Quinton Joyner and A'Marion Peterson out of Texas.

The Gamecocks remain thin at running back heading into 2023, though they did add Division II All-American Mario Anderson out of the transfer portal from Newberry. They also signed four-star running back Dontavius Braswell, the No. 16 prospect at the position, to the incoming freshman class. The team's top returner will be sophomore Juju McDowell, who finished the 2022 season with 219 rushing yards, 205 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Ron Barton, left, and Frank Burke with "Big Roy," a 1972 Allis-Chalmers HD-41 dozer at the Lowcountry Antique Tractor and Engine Association in Adams Run, South Carolina.

Equipment World

Frank Burke drove past the rusted old bulldozer for years on his travels between Atlanta and Walterboro, South Carolina.

Then one day he stopped to take a look.

“My God, this thing is huge,” he thought.

He assumed it was a Caterpillar dozer that was sitting near those railroad tracks in rural Allendale County, South Carolina. But after closer examination, he saw it was an Allis-Chalmers. He immediately called his friend Roy Ashley, who collected the company’s tractors at his home in White Plains, Georgia.

“Roy, it's the biggest dozer I've ever seen sitting over here in Allendale County,” Frank told him.

“Frank, do you think it's impossible it could be an HD-41?”

“Roy, I don't know what it is. But I can tell you it's bigger than a D9 Cat.”

“It's got to be a 41,” Roy said.

So began the saga to save what once was considered to be the largest dozer in the world. (To watch the dozer in action, check out the video at the end of this story.)

Saved just in time

When Roy made it to Allendale County he was just in time to prevent the 1972 Allis-Chalmers HD-41 from being scrapped. The ripper on the back was already gone, but the rest of it was still intact.

He paid $10,000, which was its scrap value, got it running and had it hauled home to White Plains. The dozer underwent further restoration.

“He used to have tractor shows, and he demonstrated it for people and had a lot of fun with it,” Frank says.

The HD-41 was first produced in 1970, and at around 65 tons, it was considered to be the largest crawler tractor of its day. It was manufactured in Springfield, Illinois. It runs on a 524-horsepower Cummins turbocharged V-12 that measures 1,710 cubic inches.

The dozer is over 20 feet long, 11 feet wide and 13 feet tall.

The push blade is 11.5 feet wide. The grading blade for the HD-41 was 22 feet wide.

“I’m 5’ 9” and the height of the tracks hits me at my shoulders,” Frank says.

Saved again

Roy passed away in 2015, and the HD-41 was among his antique equipment collection that went up for sale in the estate auction.

“I knew that machine was going to be vulnerable, and I also knew that it wasn't moving,” Frank recalls. “So I went to the auction.”

He hadn’t seen the HD-41 in a while. It could move forward and in reverse, but it couldn’t turn. It needed some work, but Frank knew the repairs would be minor.

He had it hauled to a construction yard in Walterboro, where he spent two years off and on overhauling it – changing all the fluids and filters, freeing up the clutches, getting it able to turn.

Frank also found a Miller Brothers Construction decal that had been painted over. He called the heavy highway company in Ohio to find out more about the dozer. He learned that during an interstate construction project the company was working on, it struck a vein of coal. That led to a subsidiary company and the likely purchase of the HD-41 for strip mining.

Frank suspects that the company later sold the dozer, and the new owner used it on a project at the Savannah River Site nuclear plant in Allendale County, where it was later abandoned.

A long haul home

The next challenge was finding a permanent home for it.

Frank manages timberland in Walterboro, but the dozer would have gotten stuck in its gumbo soil. He is a member of the Lowcountry Antique Tractor and Engine Association and decided the best thing would be to donate it to them.

The club leases old farmland in a small rural community called Adams Run about 30 miles west of Charleston where it holds antique tractor pulls and shows each April and October.

Getting it to the showgrounds, however, was another challenge. The S.C. Department of Transportation was concerned about its weight and wouldn’t let it go over a bridge on the shortest route. So it had to be hauled in the opposite direction in a roundabout way over two interstates that eventually brought the dozer to its new home.

The tractor-trailer setup consisted of 13 axles and 52 wheels.

Behold ... Big Roy

After a drive down State Road 174 past live oaks draped with Spanish moss, Frank pulls his SUV into the Lowcountry Antique Tractor and Engine Association’s property. After a short drive over the grounds, he stops and gets out.

“There it is,” he says. “Big Roy.”

Resting in its shady spot beneath a metal canopy, the HD-41’s gigantic blade, grille and dual exhaust pipes loom before the visitors. It dwarfs two 1951 Cat D8s parked on either side of it.

Frank notes that he added the “Big Roy” decals on both of its sides in honor of his friend and the HD-41’s former owner, Roy Ashley.

According to some online reports, the HD-41 was first unveiled as a prototype in the 1960s, but production had to wait until an engine could be built that was powerful enough to run it.

The Allis-Chalmers branded HD-41 model wasn’t in production long, from around 1970 to 1973. In 1974, Allis-Chalmers entered a joint venture with Fiat for its construction division and became Fiat-Allis. The “HD” was dropped from the model name, and it became the Fiat-Allis 41-B, with iterations produced until the 1980s.

By the mid- to late-1970s, it was no longer the largest dozer on the market, having been surpassed by Komatsu’s D455A and Caterpillar’s D10.

"Fires right up"

Frank climbs up the tracks, which come up to his shoulders, to reach the operator’s station. A series of levers are positioned to the left of the seat. All of the controls are hydraulic.

“It's a big, tall machine to get up on and to deal with,” he says. “But once you get on it and crank it, it’s nothing to operate it.”

Frank starts the engine. You have to shout to hear yourself heard, but it has a solid, steady rumble when idling.

“It runs like a sewing machine,” Frank declares.

“It never ceases to amaze me the way that old thing starts,” says Ron Barton, tractor club president and co-founder.

“It fires right up,” Frank says.

Frank pulls the dozer out of its hangar a short ways to an observation stand, made so visitors to the antique tractor shows can get a better view of Big Roy. The club members can’t run it too much or too far because the weight of it causes the tracks to tear up the grounds.

The HD-41 has been a big draw for the nonprofit tractor association, bringing in larger crowds to its shows to help preserve historic equipment and educate the public on bygone machines.

“It’s the talk of the show,” says Ron. “When they advertise for the show on the internet, several people write in, ‘Is Big Roy going to be there?’”

Ron’s response:

“He’s not going anywhere.”

...

To watch Big Roy in action, check out the video below:

Collector's Corner: Tell us about your machine!

Fill out the form below to tell us about your vintage or awesome machine for a chance to be featured on the Equipment World website.

There are some places where it doesn’t take a compass to know which way the culture goes. People in Miami have to go north to reach the South, and people in Seattle have to go east to find the Wild West.

A similarly counter-intuitive dynamic is at work when it comes to Roxbury Mercantile, which is located 31 miles from downtown Charleston, but feels closer to the heart of the city than restaurants where the chef could lob a slice of crudo and watch it land on King Street. At least, it’s on intimate terms with the Charleston in force before tourists became restaurateurs’ most valuable guests. Roxbury is the kind of place to which locals return again and again for a fried oyster platter with red rice and greens, and the owners don’t mind if they do.

In this case, the owners are Jackie and William Barnwell, although everyone knows him as “Beau.” Last summer, the couple purchased the 6-year-old Capt. Jimmy Bell’s Right Off the Boat Seafood Joint on Highway 174, and made a lickety-split changeover, installing a full bar in place of an eating counter and redoing the color scheme.

While the restaurant is still a few days shy of its 6-month anniversary, the Barnwells have a decades-long history of doing business on the tucked-away site, flourished with live oaks and cordgrasses. In the 1920s, the family opened a country store there. It was still keeping regular hours when it burned down in 1983; the land stayed vacant until Bell put up a restaurant.

But it appears neither fire nor time could completely wipe out the soul of the country store. Nobody is coming to Roxbury Mercantile to swap seeds or buy twine, but the same conversations that once took shape around those transactions are now happening over pulled pork and Cajun fish tacos.

On a brisk weekend night, talk ricochets from foggily recalled high school pranks to the crazy things that the politicians in Washington are doing now. Even without a potbellied stove sending up the curls of smoke that might once have indicated a general store was open, the room is warmed by good cheer and genuinely kind service.

“A lot of folks say we’re in the middle of nowhere, but actually we’re in the middle of everywhere,” says Jackie Barnwell, a Hilton Head area native who spent 13 years in the food-and-beverage business before trying her luck at restaurant ownership.

As Barnwell points out, Hollywood and Meggett are in one direction, and Edisto is in the other. Residents of all three aren’t exactly maxed out on casually elegant places to get together.

“My husband and I were like, we want somewhere we can go and have a nice night out,” Barnwell says.

They envisioned a setting that would nod to the past rather than mimic it. And while Barnwell intimates the room isn’t perfected yet, it’s impossible for a guest to see what’s missing. From the wooden floor planks, selected for their “old Charleston feel” to the tasteful array of framed mirrors, vintage documents and country store artifacts, the sun-splashed room would delight a magazine editor scheduling a photo shoot of new-wave aprons.

Its centerpiece is a polished, rough-edged bar, commissioned from Justin Herrington of Born Again Heartwoods (“right here in Meggett,” Barnwell adds). Before it supported pints of craft beer and cocktails mixed with local liquor, the cypress log was lodged at the bottom of the Edisto River.

It has become fashionable to “elevate” Southern food, as the chefs say, which generally means slipping luxurious ingredients atop of deviled eggs and shaping grits into cakes. The Barnwells instead chose to elevate the room, and left the food alone.

In other words, if you make the trip to Roxbury Mercantile based solely on the expectation of culinary epiphanies, it would be best to first ask yourself how well you deal with disappointment. The menu doesn’t have a single show-off dish, and I’d argue the restaurant’s the better for it. Although variously presented as sandwiches, salads and platters, entree choices basically come down to boiled shrimp, fried fish, grilled chicken and smoked pork. There’s also a burger, although the one I tried was too big for its cooking time and sadly short on seasoning,

Otherwise, the kitchen performs admirably. Tender crab cakes, crisped on the outside, are ideal sandwich filler. The pulled pork and ribs are well served by vivacious sauces, and I couldn’t muster a complaint about any of the sides that accompanied them.

Yet the standout item is the shrimp, purchased from Captain Ashley Fontaine of Edisto Seafood. The Barnwells stick to the definition of Southern cooking that includes fresh, local ingredients, and their commitment pays off from the first course onward.

While they don’t make any claims about turning away the Sysco truck, Barnwell says they “go into town every Monday and get stuff from GrowFood.” The expert order at Roxbury, which I heard a number of customers place confidently, is an order of peel-and-eat shrimp and a wedge salad, featuring fantastically fresh lettuce and a Clemson blue cheese dressing that’s up front about its funk. Paired with sweet, sturdy shrimp, the salad makes for a fine meal.

Shrimp are also served on Mitla tortillas, which are finished at Roxbury, so the seafood meets with aromatic corn in a way that’s more vital and satisfying than the standard shrimp-and-grits combination. (The hot-sauced mayonnaise scribbled over the shrimp is great, but ask the kitchen to go easy on the shredded cheddar).

Another Southern cooking tradition that the Barnwells honor is the practice of adhering to family recipes, including Jackie Barnwell’s uncle’s recipe for she-crab soup. It wasn’t available either time I ate at Roxbury Mercantile, but Barwell says “a lot of people do compliment it.” If he was half as good at soup-making as Beau Barnwell’s grandmother was at making dessert, I’m not surprised. The banana pudding, crowded with banana slices and topped with toasted meringue, is outstanding.

So go on out to the country and eat some shrimp. If you live in, say, Mount Pleasant, it’s nowhere close to nearby, but sometimes experiences worth having take a little travel. Roxbury, for example, is delaying its brunch launch, because Beau Barnwell is currently out of the country: The retired U.S. Air Force Operations and Training Manager is taking meteorological measurements. At the South Pole.

Brunch is scheduled to start in March.

We publish our free Food & Dining newsletter every Wednesday at 10 a.m. to keep you informed on everything happening in the Charleston culinary scene. Sign up today!

You can spy the colorful orange and green neon signs in the Beautiful South window from way down the block. As you get closer, your nose is struck by the sharp, tempting aroma of wok oil, garlic and ginger, which puffs out over the street from discrete exhaust vents. For diners like me, that’s the most effective form of advertising, conjuring up olfactory memories of New York City and Hong Kong sidewalks.

But, as the name suggests, the restaurant is right here in the South — in downtown Charleston, in fact, on the newly remade block of Columbus Street between Meeting and King. The cuisine is inspired by a different South, though, that of Hong Kong and the southern regions of China.

Long, tender egg noodles ($23) are stir fried with local Tarvin shrimp (tails still on), sliced snow peas and just enough rich, slightly sweet XO sauce to give them a glossy sheen. Much sweeter is the thin pool of fish palm syrup that awaits beneath the Teochew-style oyster omelet ($15), an odd but pleasant contrast to the fluffy egg and the briny bursts of plump oysters tucked away inside.

Some of the simplest dishes are the most impressive. A tangle of splendid scallion oil noodles ($11) are unexpectedly cool but absolutely delicious, slick with a dark soy sauce and topped by a small pile of scallions cooked down to crisp, brown slivers.

Beautiful South is the second Charleston venture from David Schuttenberg and Tina Heath-Schuttenberg, the owners of Kwei Fei. Both restaurants draw inspiration from the cuisine of China, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end.

Kwei Fei is out on Maybank Highway in the small restaurant space adjoining the Pour House, Charleston’s long running music club. Beautiful South is downtown in a ground floor retail space in Courier Square, the gleaming new brick and glass headquarters of property developer Greystar.

Kwei Fei is decidedly funky, with sturdy wooden tables, yellow metal chairs and paper lanterns hanging from the black drop ceiling tiles. Beautiful South is sleeker and more upscale, with high ceilings, exposed concrete walls accented with shiny blue tile and a long, slightly curved bar with orange capped stools. In the two low-lit dining areas, the slim cylinder of a pendant lamp bathes each table in a circle of bright yellow light.

The food is very different, too. Kwei Fei’s offering is unapologetically “loud and hot.” There’s a little pepper icon next to each spicy menu item, and 19 of the 20 dishes have an icon (including the lone dessert). The plates at Beautiful South dial the Scoville units way down, but the flavors are still big and bold.

In addition to Hong Kong and southern Chinese specialties, there are upscale takes on now-traditional Chinese American restaurant fare. Among these is crab “Rangoon” ($15), with the Rangoon part in quotation marks. Perhaps that’s because the dish, which by all accounts originated in the Trader Vic’s tiki bar chain, never came within 5,000 miles of Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar).

Or it could be because Beautiful South’s version is thoroughly deconstructed, with the gooey white crab in its own bowl and the wontons fried separately and served like tortilla chips for dipping. Such a luxurious blend is much better served cool and pristine on the side instead of stuffed inside a wonton and curdled by deep fryer heat.