The Gamecocks enjoyed a healthy 18-point lead over the Vanderbilt Commodores at halftime Saturday night. Shortly after, the student section began to thin out, with students heading towards the campus shuttle and nearby tailgating lots.
Head coach Steve Spurrier and quarterback Connor Shaw both mentioned the empty student section in a Sunday teleconference. Shaw said he didn’t think there’s any excuse for students to leave and that he was disappointed by the exodus, even if the Gamecocks were ahead.
Spurrier, who criticized students for leaving early last year, was a little less critical of them Sunday.
“Our fans are pretty good. When you play at night, maybe some of them have a little too much to drink before the game, then all of a sudden, play gets a little dull, and they start thinking they can beat the traffic or whatever,” Spurrier said. “I can sort of understand that.”
Many alumni, fans and even fellow students who stayed until the end of the post-game Alma Mater also criticized those who left.
Those fans sounded off to The Daily Gamecock Sunday.
“When I was a freshman, my brother saw me walking out of the stands … He thought I was leaving the game, so he and two of his friends decided to embarrass me, saying ‘Brittany! Get a ticket for the whole game!’” said Brittany Caldwell, a fourth-year chemical engineering student. “I have never left a single football game early since … I wish all of Gamecock Nation would get a ticket for the whole game.”
Katie Lee, a second-year exercise science student, said students lose interest in the game when there isn’t anything happening, which is why the crowd filters out before the game ends.
“Students leave early because we get bored,” she said. “They need to play popular music during awkward silences and timeouts or find more ways to get the crowd involved during the times that the game is not going on.”