Flashback: Gamecocks are totally inferior...

Aug 8, 2004, 5:14 PM

Flashback: Article is from The Gamecock student newspaper.

Gamecocks are totally inferior
By Heath Mills
Published: Friday, November 21, 2003
Article Tools: Page 1 of 1

60-36-4. After 100 years of domination, the Tigers travel to Columbia tomorrow to add to the embarrassment that is the history of the USC football program. After tomorrow, Gamecock fans will continue their yearly ritual of claiming, "Wait till next year."

Why is that the most recognized cry of Gamecock football? There's nothing for South Carolina fans to look back at for comfort. The Gamecocks boast the 89th-best all-time winning percentage of the 117 Division I-A teams. The school took 103 years to win a bowl game. It's had more losing seasons than winning, and South Carolina has never finished the season ranked in the top 10 of a major poll.

This is a school that boasts about selling out its stadium in an 0-11 season. Congratulations; you never won a game. Then you decided to tear down the goalposts after beating New Mexico State. I can't imagine feeling any more pride than a South Carolina fan did that day. I'm sure it must be close to how Clemson fans felt after winning the national championship.

Of course, Lou Holtz is the greatest coach to ever roam the sidelines in Columbia because his record is almost more than .500 for his career, and he's won twice as many bowl games as anyone who came before him. Never mind the fact that he's about to embark on his second-straight losing season. South Carolina has offered him a contract extension because mediocrity is so much better than the norm in the concrete jungle that is Columbia.

If I were a Carolina student, I'd be excited about mediocrity as well. They live in a town that rivals New Jersey for the armpit of America, and where the only 100-yard stretch of grass is the one inside Williams-Brice Stadium.

Then you have the university, itself. Fans claim it is the best school in the state because it carries the namesake. Of course, they turn a blind eye to the statistics just like in football. Never mind that Clemson students have higher SAT scores. Never mind that Clemson is considered better by every publication printed.

Tomorrow will be that last rendition of "2001" for all of those Gamecock seniors, who will get to question one more time why they allowed themselves to be conned out of a successful career. They'll enter a packed house, whose noise will be drowned out by the screeching chicken over the loudspeaker, and they will try to savor the last moments of their college careers since they know the crowd will be gone by the third quarter.

You see, this is Gamecock football to a South Carolina fan. They get the opportunity to tailgate, talk trash to opposing fans and feel like they belong on the same level as Georgia, Florida or anyone else in the SEC. (I'll give them Vandy.) They pack the stadium with 20,000 extra people who never went to college, pray for a miracle and then scoot out of the stadium before the end to come up with their reasons why it will not happen the next time.

I love spending another year listening to South Carolina fans exclaim, "Wait 'til next year."

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Flashback: Gamecocks are totally inferior...

Right on target except for...

There was a good outflow by the end of the 1st quarter***

I had to absolutely beg my roomate to stay after half time

This is Gamecock Football 2

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