Clemson Football: Ryan Hilinksi delivers ‘Never Again’ 2.0 speech
Clemson football fans had some fun at the expense of their in-state rival after South Carolina QB Ryan Hilinski vowed to ‘never allow a 4-win season again.’
The 2020 Clemson football team is considered one of the favorites to compete for the National Championship again this season, but things aren’t looking so well for the Tigers’ in-state rival.
The South Carolina Gamecocks are coming off an abysmal 4-8 season and are looking to turn things around as they watch Clemson continue to dominate the CFB world.
At this point, the Tigers have won six-straight against the Gamecocks and, yet, the talent gap may not have ever been wider than what it is heading into the future.
Just as rivalries tend to do, Clemson football fans had some fun at the expense of the Gamecocks when a video of South Carolina QB Ryan Hilinski emerged with him vowing to ‘never let a 4-8 season happen again.’
If you're a #Gamecock fan, you gotta love this response from @ryan_hilinski today. @abc_columbia pic.twitter.com/lBAS2Pvc9P
— Mike Gillespie (@MikeABCColumbia) March 2, 2020
Hilinski said the season left a bad taste in his mouth and that he had never experienced a 4-win season before. Of course, those quotes piqued the interest of Tiger fans around the Twittersphere.
Never again 2.0
— Tiger Commenter (@TigerCommenter) March 3, 2020
“Championship offense”
If you’re a Clemson fan, you gotta love this response https://t.co/4GsGLvQ3aY
Coastal - W, ECU - W, Miz - L, KY -L, UF - L, UT -L, A&M -L, Van - W, UGA - L, LSU - L, Woff - W, Clem - L - my money is on a repeat. Maybe 5 if the chips falls for you. If you didn’t want to experience 4 win seasons you should have picked a better school.
— TRygg (@TRygg) March 3, 2020
“I have never experienced a 4 win season”. Welcome to Gamecock football sir. The gamecocks have failed to win more than 5 games in a season 66 out of 112 years (or almost 60% of their seasons)
— The Gamecocks are on Probation... (@GodFamClemson) March 3, 2020
Thoughts:
Of course, the quotes coming from Hilinski sound eerily similar to former Gamecock QB Jake Bentley when he said that he’d never again allow a loss like the one he suffered against Clemson in 2016 [56-7] but you can’t fault Hilinski for wanting to be positive.
He seems confident that South Carolina can turn the program around and he’s showing positivity as a leader on the team.
There’s certainly reason to believe that the Gamecocks will take a step forward this season, but I wouldn’t take it to the extreme of saying it’s going to be a ‘championship offense.’ South Carolina will have trouble getting to a bowl game, much less competing for the SEC East and getting to Atlanta.
Next. NFL Combine: 5 Tigers who increased their draft stock. dark
It’s just March, but these are the fun kinds of things that keep this rivalry fresh. There’s nothing like the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry- even if it is more a dominance rather than a rivalry- because of the way two fanbases truly feel about each other.