South Carolina, Florida face one-game playoff for division title
Take a glance inside Williams-Brice Stadium, and there are names everywhere the eye turns.
Record holders and captains, leaders and icons. Rogers, Norwood, Wadiak and Sharpe. Ellis, McKinley, Enright and Provence. Morrison, Taneyhill and Mackie.
But, alongside the men who stand tallest in the history of South Carolina football, stands only one year — 1969. The year USC captured its only conference championship of any sort, the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title.
That's it. That's the list.
Sure, USC was not affiliated with any league from 1972 until 1991. But even then, the program has spent almost as many years in its current home as a member of the Southeastern Conference (18) as it did independent (19), and there were 18 years in the ACC prior to that and 19 seasons in the Southern Conference before that.
The main reason why a single solitary season of the 117 in which USC has fielded a varsity football team is immortalized inside the stadium? Historically, the Gamecocks just haven't been good enough or, if good enough to put themselves in position to win a league title, unable to finish the job.
Tomorrow night in Gainesville, Fla., that could change, as Carolina will take the field against the Florida Gators one win away from realizing the dream held for almost two decades: the SEC Eastern Division Championship.
"At the beginning of the season, one of our goals was to win the Eastern Division. I'm sure Florida had the same goal. We feel pretty fortunate that we're in the final game," coach Steve Spurrier said. "We have not played extremely well lately, but our record is the same as Florida's and the winner of the game will be the champ and go on to Atlanta and represent the Eastern Division and have a shot at the SEC [championship]."
The records are thrown out the door. All the two teams have accomplished, or have failed to accomplish, is forgotten. Now, it's one do-or-die game for all the marbles.
"This turned into a one-game season. What we do here will make or break our season," said senior tight end and captain Pat DiMarco. "If we win this game, then all of our goals are out there and we'll be on top of the world."
Simply put, for USC and for Florida, this is it.
Foresight
This situation is one USC has thought about for quite a while.
"Our guys have had sort of visions of playing in the game for the Eastern Division," Spurrier said.
However, the vision was knocked a bit out of focus after Carolina's first loss of the season, a 35-27 setback at Auburn. In the aftermath of the defeat though, Spurrier says his team came up with not so much a hope or an idea, but a thought.
"A few weeks back, I can remember after we lost to Auburn, our team felt if there was any way we could get to Florida with a shot at the Eastern Division, that would be very good," he said. "It worked out."
It indeed has, maybe unfathomably so.
"Going to the Swamp, playing my last SEC game [on] this type of stage is unreal. A senior couldn't dream of this," DiMarco said. "It's here, the stage is set and it's ready for us to take."
That being said, when USC looked down the road while departing the Friendliest Village on the Plains, it probably thought this clash for the division would be a battle of two one- or two-loss teams in league play. Instead, it's an unexpected battle of two three-loss SEC teams.
"We both have three losses. We've both had our ups and downs this year," Spurrier said.
What is cause for concern in the Gamecocks' case is that UF appears to be on an "up" while USC seems to be headed down. The Gators have rallied from a three-game losing streak to defeat archrival Georgia in overtime and thrash lowly Vanderbilt, sending Florida into tomorrow's game on a two-game winning streak. They're not exactly world-beaters, but they are beginning to gain confidence and make noticeable improvements.
"We're not a great team, but we're getting better," UF coach Urban Meyer said. "We're getting better in all areas and I admire guys that fight, show toughness and give everything they have for their university."
Carolina, on the other hand, is coming off its second-worst home loss of Spurrier's tenure, a 41-20 shellacking at the hands of Arkansas, and hasn't played complete football since the first half of its 31-28 meltdown loss at Kentucky.
"Florida seems to be peaking at this time. Maybe we're headed the other way," Spurrier said.
USC is trying not to dwell on what has happened though, because the stark reality of a one-game playoff goes both ways. Just as the records of the two teams mean nothing, so does all the good, and bad, it took for the two teams to get here.
"Each game stands on its merit, so we'll see if we can go down there, play a competitive game and see what happens," Spurrier said.
Unkind history
In terms of history, things don't look all too promising for the Gamecocks. In the all-times series between USC and UF, the Gators hold an overwhelming 23-4-3 edge, and have beaten USC by at least two touchdowns on average in each meeting.
Then, there's this week's looming statistic: UF's 12-0 mark in series games played in Gainesville. In fact, USC hasn't won a road game in the state of Florida since 1973, when it thrashed Florida State 52-12 in Tallahassee.
Senior defensive end and captain Cliff Matthews is encouraging his teammates to ignore the unfavorable numbers, forget about the track record and to control the only thing they can: what lies ahead.
"It's time for us to win. Hands down," Matthews said. "I can't remember history, but all we can control is what's coming up."
Travian Robertson agrees.
"That's just outside stuff," the defensive tackle said. "We don't really look into that kind of stuff. We can't let that determine whether we're going to win or lose the game."
The Gamecocks aren't completely eschewing historical significances at stake in this game, though. They don't want to think about the bad history that predates them, but they're more than willing to think a bit about the good history they can make with a win.
"This game is for the Eastern Division," defensive back Antonio Allen said. "We've just got to be ready if we want to do something that's never happened here."
Added linebacker Rodney Paulk, "This is something that's never been done here. People will change their minds about us. You can't worry too much about what everyone else thinks about what we have as a unit. It's all about us coming together as a team. We've been together since the spring and some longer than that. It's about us coming together and making the most of our opportunity."
For the Gamecocks, the opportunity is a thrilling, almost surreal, chance to do something never done before.
"We're all just extremely excited. It's something you can only dream of, this situation," DiMarco said. "We haven't been in this situation at Carolina very often.
"It's unreal for us."
Returning home
South Carolina doesn't need any proverbial juice added to this match-up, as it will readily tell you, because what's at stake — the SEC East — is more than adequate motivation.
But, there is another storyline to this tale, and it centers on the coach of Carolina football, or, more specifically, what he did in his younger years.
Spurrier played his college ball for Florida. Quarterback, in fact. He was so accomplished as a passer, he left Gainesville after his senior season with the 1966 Heisman Trophy under his arm. After an NFL career, he got into coaching, and ended up back at his alma mater in 1978 as the quarterbacks coach. He left the next year to take the same job at Georgia Tech, but returned 11 years later to become coach of a UF program reeling from NCAA sanctions.
The rest, as they say, is history.
In 11 seasons as coach, Spurrier and the Gators fun and gunned their way to six SEC championships and the 1996 national championship, as the former quarterback became regarded as an offensive genius, or evil genius, if you lived inside the spheres of influence belonging to the Georgia and Tennessee football programs.
Spurrier doesn't want to hear about his past though.
"This isn't about me. This is about South Carolina," he said. "We want to be competitive and it is pretty neat that we are in this position. I was telling someone else the other day that if we could play Florida for the division every year that would suit me fine. Hopefully we can win a few of them."
It has been almost a decade since Spurrier last coached the Gators, and he says the novelty of facing his old alma mater has since worn away as he goes on his sixth season at Carolina and his sixth game against UF.
"That's been too long ago. It really has. We've already hashed that out about five and six [years ago]," he said.
But then again, he's not going to deny he has quite the unique perspective on this game.
"They do have my name up there though," Spurrier said, referring to UF's "Ring of Honor" inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. "Some of our freshmen are going to go in there and say 'Did coach play ball here?' They may do that, I'm serious. They may not know that I played there, or coached there."
According to his star freshman tailback, that likely won't be the case, however.
"He relates back to [the Florida days] sometimes," Marcus Lattimore said. "He had a good quarterback, Danny Wuerffel. He talks about him all the time and how he was a good leader. He relates back to it sometimes. He won the SEC there, he knows what it takes."
In fact, Spurrier has been in a winner-take-all game in the Swamp before – UF's 2000 meeting with, of all teams, South Carolina. When asked what he remembers about that day, Spurrier said he recalls "about every play."
"The Florida fans usually have [the East] clinched by now, if I remember right," Spurrier said. "Usually — not always — but usually they've had the division wrapped up before the last game. South Carolina was in this position actually in 2000; if they had beaten the Florida team that year that I was there, they would've gone to the championship. We were fortunate enough to come from two blocked punts that we gave up for touchdowns. We came back and won that one 41-21."
Now, the roles have reversed, and Spurrier must head down to the Swamp that he named and face his successor, if not in actual lineage (although UF fans have done their best to forget the Ron Zook years) then in spirit, Urban Meyer.
"We've got to go down there, get in a battle with them and play like we're very capable of playing," Spurrier said. "If we can do those things, then certainly we feel like we've got a shot. If not, we'll be in trouble like we were [against Arkansas]."
Meyer has more than continued the legacy of winning Spurrier began, capturing two SEC championships and two national championships in his first five years in Gainesville, but according to him, Spurrier will always be the biggest Gator of them all.
"He is Florida," Meyer said. "He was a Heisman Trophy winner here and there's never been any attempt whatsoever to change that all over this place."
There's a saying in Gainesville, "Once a Gator, always a Gator." That may be true, but for Spurrier, he's only thinking about his current feathers, not his past scales, as he heads back to the program he all but created.
"We're looking forward to the challenge," he said. "It's a wonderful opportunity for the Gamecocks."
***
What's at stake in this game, for both sides, is pretty simple: the Eastern Division championship. But for the Gamecocks, there's something more invested. For the Gamecocks, this is a chance to accomplish not only something no Carolina team has ever done before, but to reach a point which has been only the figment of dreams for generations.
"I know a lot of Gamecock fans have been waiting on this day all their life," Matthews said. "We've just got to come prepared to play."
It's also a game Spurrier, who came to Columbia boasting aspirations of winning the SEC, has waited for and built for.
"We've recruited all these players here at South Carolina, and we talked about getting to this game," he said. "We've talked about getting to the SEC game. We'll find out how we perform."
It's cliché to say it's just another football game, because technically it is, and the Gamecocks have said that, making it clear they aren't making this game out to be any bigger than it is.
But at the same time, they are mindful that something larger is in play.
"It is different, and we're looking forward to it," Spurrier said. "Like I told our guys, 'We're going on the big stage, fellas. If you're a little nervous about it and scared, we're all in trouble.'"
DiMarco doesn't see any trouble brewing, however.
"I think all of us are just so excited, and we're going to go out there and give it all we've got," he said. "I don't think there's anything holding us back right now."
It all comes down to this.
One game to decide the East.
One game for USC to finally capture the glory that has eluded it so often throughout the course of time.
One game for dreams to come true.
One game for visions to become reality.
This is it.
And, if all goes well for the Gamecocks, sometime between the end of this season and the beginning of next, 1969 will finally have a companion on the walls of Williams-Brice Stadium, some 41 years its junior.