Coaches stoke rivalry with occasional jabs
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier likes Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.
That’s right — after all of the back-and-forth jabs the two have exchanged, the rival coaches’ wives even get along.
“I think he’s a wonderful guy and an excellent coach,” Spurrier said. “Every now and then, just to keep the rivalry going, I think he and I need to say a little something to stir up emotions here and there.”
When Swinney and Spurrier settle their supposedly nonexistent differences on the field Saturday night, the prior talk will have no impact on the game, though it has added intrigue to a rivalry that has only recently ascended to national relevance.
“It’ll probably be all about football this week,” Spurrier said.
After USC beat Clemson for a third consecutive year last season, a quote was wrongly attributed to Spurrier on the official Gamecock football Twitter account. The quote said, “We aren’t LSU, and we aren’t Alabama. But we sure ain’t Clemson.”
Swinney, not knowing at the time that the quote was not actually Spurrier’s, responded with his notorious rant about how the real “USC” is in Southern California and “Carolina” is in Chapel Hill, N.C., among other things.
From there, the comments about each other and their respective programs were subtler. Spurrier conveniently forgot Clemson’s stadium is also referred to “Death Valley” when he said his players have never played at Death Valley the week of the LSU game.
Swinney responded by saying his players have never played at USC before because California is far away.
The latest incident occurred in the wake of tailback Marcus Lattimore’s season-ending knee injury. Swinney complimented Lattimore’s character and said he was sad to see him injured again.
At a South Carolina rally for Lattimore, Spurrier said he agreed with Swinney’s comments about Lattimore, but not before saying that most of Swinney’s other remarks are “garbage” and “B.S.”
Swinney said he was embarrassed for how Spurrier handled the situation. Famed Yahoo sports columnist Dan Wetzel wrote a column about how Spurrier was “classless” in his remarks.
While college football fans across the country have taken an interest in the bickering, it has only added to the bragging rights at stake for the teams’ fan bases. With Clemson ranked 12th and South Carolina 13th, the two will be playing for far more than an upper hand in trash talk during the next year.
For Clemson, a possible Sugar Bowl at-large bid could be at stake. For the Gamecocks, it’s a fourth straight win over a team that has traditionally owned the rivalry and another chance at a program-high of 11 wins.
The game will feature an exciting matchup of Clemson’s prolific offense against South Carolina’s stout defense. Though there’s plenty of football to be concerned with this week, the matchup is still personal.
“They don’t like us that much, and we don’t care for them that much so I just feel like it is a rivalry game,” senior tailback Kenny Miles said. “Rivalry games are big games, and you have to step up when you get the opportunity.”
Though Spurrier has never downplayed the importance of the “state championship,” he said he doesn’t think it makes or breaks his season. When he first became the coach at South Carolina, fans would tell him they didn’t care if he lost every game as long as he beat Clemson at the end of the season.
Spurrier said he disagreed with the sentiment. He said if he had a choice, he’d rather win all of the season’s games and lose to Clemson.
“I think they overdid it prior to (me) coming here,” Spurrier said. “When I was hired, there were signs all over the locker room, the dressing rooms, the coaches’ office that said, ‘Beat Clemson.’ They were all over the place ... My belief is that you don’t talk about one team the entire year.”
Now that the year is coming to a close and it’s the week of the Clemson game, players and coaches will not hesitate in discussing the Tigers. Senior free safety DJ Swearinger said the rivalry is personal for him because he grew up in Greenwood, halfway between Columbia and Clemson.
For the seniors, another win over the Tigers would mean finishing a career as a Gamecock without ever having lost to the archrival, a rare feat in USC’s long history.
“There’s been some talk about that, and I think I heard one of the Clemson guys saying, ‘I certainly want to beat them before I leave here,’” Spurrier said. “It’s a chance for that. It’s a chance for a 10-win season and the state championship. That’s always a goal of ours every year, and I think it’s probably a goal of Clemson’s, too — to win the state championship.
“It’s a huge game, and it might be one of the biggest games of our rivalry series since I’ve been here anyway.”