While the Clemson football program continues to rise, the South Carolina Gamecocks seemingly are falling apart after a devastating Week 1 loss.
The state of the Clemson football and South Carolina football programs are at completely different ends of the spectrum.
The Tigers are on top of the CFB world and are looking to get back to a fifth-straight CFB Playoff. The Gamecocks, on the other hand, have completely fallen off the map. South Carolina, though fans claim they’d run roughshod over the ACC, has now lost three-straight ACC games dating back to last year.
The Gamecocks were beaten by 21 points- which was a moral victory- by Clemson football before losing 28-0 to Virginia in the Belk Bowl. As they came into the 2019 season, South Carolina fans bragged about having the nation’s toughest schedule. Gamecock fans bragged about the fact that they were playing opponents like Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M. Little did they know that this “guaranteed win” against an inferior ACC opponent would actually be a loss.
It’s been a tough time to be a Gamecock fan. Here’s a look at Gamecock Twitter following the loss to North Carolina:
Clemson has lost 2 acc games in 4 years...gamecocks have lost 3 acc games in a row.
— Esso Joe (@Clems_Son) August 31, 2019
The last 5 years of being a Gamecock fan has really not been fun
— USC Gamecocks (@RealUSC) September 1, 2019
Sounds like a broken record. Not what we wanted, back to work, never again... etc. 🙄
— Andrew Sizemore (@awsizemore) August 31, 2019
A lot of my fellow Gamecocks will be mad I said this, but I don’t care....UCF has more of a right to be in the SEC than we do right now.
— Ditti (@DittiLikesBeer) August 31, 2019
Let this be the petition to start Ryan Hilinski.
— The REAL USC (@BarstoolUofSC) August 31, 2019
So he decommitted. Gamecocks just can’t get a break man. pic.twitter.com/b9xYPRmhJs
— Mitch West (@SCweather_wx) September 1, 2019
Thoughts:
While Jake Bentley didn’t have a great day, it’s crazy to see how fast Gamecock fans completely turned on him. No, Bentley didn’t play well, but there were plenty of other things that went into the Gamecocks’ loss, as well.
How about bad play calling? How about the fact that your ‘vaunted SEC defense’ gave up two drives of 90-plus yards led by a freshman UNC quarterback? How about the fact that your fanbase couldn’t even halfway fill up Bank of America stadium in Charlotte?
There’s much more here with the South Carolina football program than just a starting quarterback issue. Perhaps Ryan Hillinski will breath in some new life to the Gamecock program, but they’re having trouble recruiting and the fanbase is falling apart.
It’s certainly not helping that Clemson football is completely tearing up the CFB landscape. Will Muschamp has some work to do and things definitely don’t look pretty down in Columbia.