<p>So how about that football team? Why do people dislike Steve Spurier so much?? Is he THAT bad of a person?</p>
<p>It was ugly, but "We are"............."Carolina"
Go Gamecocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>ugly, but still ranked 7th!! S is eating up this years football!!
They dislike Spurrier because he speaks his mind, and maybe they think he still favors UF??</p>
<p>If he's your coach, you gotta love him... if he's not...</p>
<p>Written by a columnist in Greensboro, NC.:</p>
<p>Hardin: Gamecocks to bring their own brand of football </p>
<pre><code> Big-time football will be thrust upon North Carolina this weekend. South Carolina comes to Chapel Hill.
The memories will wash over some of us. Others will be in denial. But there was a time in this state when football was still on a level with basketball and we could dream of 80,000-seat stadiums and national television, a time when the football scores would scroll across the screen of the "Prudential College Scoreboard" and chills would roll across your body as you anticipated the outcome from far-flung places.
They all seem close now, the places that seemed so distant then. Clemson and Athens, Oxford and College Station, Gainesville and Norman. They evoked something that's gone now, replaced by cable and wireless and flat-screen reality. The whole world was flat then, football was king and Columbia, S.C., was hell on earth.
That's all gone now. South Carolina comes to Chapel Hill this weekend, and the Gamecocks will descend on us like a plague. Some of us will see the waves of garnet and black and remember how it could have been. Most of us will have no idea what we're seeing.
Say what you will about South Carolinians and their strange affinity with a game we still struggle to comprehend here north of the border, but the truth is plain and painful to all those who would make this an argument. The uppity Gamecocks are ranked seventh in the nation and will bring a slew of people to Saturday's game, people who understand college football the way we understand basketball, people who back the Gamecocks win or lose, people who hate Clemson more than is healthy and once hated North Carolina the same way.
Well, not quite the same way. The rivalry between Clemson and South Carolina is something we don't have in this state. Take our greatest basketball rivalry, Duke vs. Carolina, and multiply to an unhealthy level and you'll understand the Clemson-USC enmity. Maybe.
After 1971, when South Carolina bolted the ACC in indignation over SAT scores and the perceived bias toward the Big Four schools, a wall was built between Columbia and the state line. Friendships were strained. Longtime relationships ended. Traditions were tossed aside.
Things were never the same again. South Carolina turned its full attention to football, built dorms and decks and shrines to a game that brought attention and expectations and a Heisman Trophy to the Gamecocks. North Carolina lost Bill Dooley, then lost its zeal, eventually paving over prime tailgating areas and building things like hospital wings and classrooms and a big basketball arena.
And then Mike Jordan came to town and football all but died.
Now we watch South Carolina on the flat screen, watch the Gamecocks playing on national television before 80,000 screaming zealots, playing games of national significance in another conference, in another realm. Some of us roll our eyes and mock the energy of a program that wants so badly to win a national title, wants it more than any other program in America.
Now we see them rolling across the highways, flags flapping from black and garnet cars, a devotion to football that we understand only because of our devotion to basketball.
They used to drive up here and complain the whole way. There was no good way to get from Columbia to Chapel Hill.
The kids would come in on Friday night, and Franklin Street would be raucous as student bodies from North and South Carolina partied the way football rivals used to party in this state. Then on Saturday morning, the multitudes would walk through the pines to a beautiful football stadium and renew a rivalry that dated to 1903.
This weekend, the rivalry will resume after pausing for the better part of a generation. The schools haven't met since 1991, the year South Carolina joined the Southeastern Conference and ended any dream that the Gamecocks could return to the ACC and rejoin the league it so naturally fit.
That can never happen now. Too much has happened in the interim, too many friendships strained, too many relationships ended, too many walls built. North and South Carolina parted ways in 1971, the Tar Heels chasing basketball dreams and the Gamecocks chasing a football dream that has brought them more pain than we can ever imagine.
But that's what we always loved and hated them for. Even their basketball teams played tackle in those days.
In 2000, the Gamecocks played a home game against New Mexico State that attracted little attention outside Columbia. It was the first game of the season, so no one else in the nation noticed. They won 31-0. The kids tore down the goal posts that night. They had lost 21 straight games, and yet 81,000 people were inside Williams-Brice Stadium.
Big-time college football is coming back to Chapel Hill this weekend. South Carolina is coming to town.
</code></pre>
<p>Well that article hits home for me..Gamecock fans have to be some of the most passionate in the nation. Few teams can boast fans that celebrate and tailgate like crazy even when they're winless.</p>
<p>I've cried when we've lost, celebrated when we've won, and have a completely unhealthy rivalry towards Clemson. No matter where I go to college I'll always be a Gamecock!</p>
<h1>6!</h1>
<p>As a PA resident and more affiliation to Penn State than I want, I cannot imagine that the Gamecocks can top PSU for crazy tailgates, fans and passion. I visit Beaver Stadium regularly (husband is alumnus) and will visit Williams Brice Stadium next weekend -- I suppose I'll be able to judge better after parent's weekend. However, as long as daughter is happy and proud to be a Gamecock, so am I!! She definitely did NOT want to be a Nittany Lion...</p>
<p>carol
take a look at the Cockabooses and tell me Gamecock tailgaters arent one dedicated bunch!
Also, do Nittany Lion fans buy apts overlooking the stadium just to use for gamedays? They call them "Cockominiums" and they are actually selling them!
have fun next weekend and remember to wear garnet!!</p>
<p>Carol, I'm a PSU Alum and as big and crazy as tailgating is at USC and as much as I love it, Beaver stadium is still tailgating mecca to me. USC is limited by space not by spirit. PSU can accommodate just soooooo many more people including a lot more tailgating students. Students are hard pressed to find tailgating spots at USC and they are expensive. However the fans are as real and intense yet maybe even more welcoming and full of hospitality. Oh, and PSU may not have Cockabooses but they have Paternoville!</p>
<p>By the way, my daughter went to the UNC/USC game this weekend for the battle of the real Carolina and wore her garnet shirt in the middle of student section and was accepted, supported and never harassed by the Tarheel fans. They see football through different eyes and were really appreciative that their team rose to fight the fight and kept it close and exciting. She had a great time!</p>
<p>hey carol and north andsouth
I've had the ice cream flavor named after Joe Paterno at the Creamery at PSU...that was my favorite spot visiting the campus...USC still lacks a dairy like that and an ice cream flavor named after the Gamecocks or Spurrier!</p>
<p>My D went to the UGA game at Athens and all she could talk about was how lame their tailgating efforts were. She was really surprised at the difference between the two schools and was honestly expecting more from Georgia. Tailgating at USC is far more than a game day ritual, it approaches being a Sanctum Santorum for Gamecock faithful.</p>
<p>D also went to Chapel Hill this weekend since her brother is a senior there. Being the dyed-in-the-wool gamecock fan that she is, she wouldn't give UNC credit for a valiant, if undermanned effort, choosing rather to say that the USC played terribly. We'll be on hand this weekend tailgating with the best of them before the Vandy game.....now if only I can TRY to hold my own......LOL!!!</p>
<p>Clemson has the dairy and ice cream in South Carolina.....not much farm land in Columbia.....</p>
<p>well, they could at least have the Marble Slab in the Russell House name a flavor for the Team, the U, or the Old Ball Coach!!</p>
<p>So while on the subject of football...is there a way to buy individual tickets through USC for away games. Do all those visitor tickets go to season ticket holders only? We are wanting Tennessee tickets but the current prices on Ebay, Stubhub, and Cockytalk just aren't in our budget. Our daughter is having trouble finding one as well. I would have expected that the school would hold some for students wanting to travel to the away games.</p>
<p>And Cathy, I am probably the only Penn Stater ever that doesn't like Creamery ice cream. I don't know why, I love other ice cream but as much as I love Joe Paterno, my Nittany Lions and College Park, I can't stand that ice cream and couldn't even while I was a student!</p>
<p>Well, I'm not sure what happened to our Gamecocks this weekend!! However, I did want to state how incredibly impressed I was with the whole football atmosphere at USC. Comparing to Penn State, I would agree that USC does not have much space available for tailgaters. But, that may be a good thing. The behavior of Gamecock fans and students was far better than the ever-growing disorderly conduct displayed by Nittanly Lion fans and students. My husband, who bleeds Penn State blue, admitted that, given the option today, he would have easily chosen USC over PSU. Now, that's a statement! Seeing the fraternities dressed in shirts and ties, many girls in black and/or red dresses (with pearls, of course) added to the classiness of this up and coming school. And the half-time show....second to none! Daughter is so happy and thriving at USC -- yay!<br>
Now, we just need our old football team back -- let's get it back, Gamecocks!!</p>
<p>carolccw</p>
<p>You (we) didn't get to see the true nature of tailgating because of the State Fair...normally that whole fair parking lot is filled with tailgaters as well as the area down past the stadium where there are covered assigned spots for tailgaters with big screen tvs etc.....it's at least 3/4 of a mile past the stadium and on normal game days is filled on both sides of the road...the Greeks all set up their tents at the end of the road.</p>
<p>My D said that the noon start aslo really impacted things. She said that many of her friends weren't even up before the game started....and that tailgating was really dead ......normally with 7:30 game times the tailgating begins at around noon and goes on ALL day and then for hours AFTER the game.</p>
<p>I guess we missed out on the real fun......oh well.</p>
<p>so carol, or anyone else...any reports on Parents Weekend as a whole? would love to hear...
anyone attend the Honors Picnic on the Horseshoe?</p>