A couple of points to rid my chest of this afternoon. First, congrats to Clemson on the win. Clearly your team (has) one of the most talented rosters in the country, and it shows. Dabo and staff have recruited and developed at a high level and that is undeniable.
Second, stop it with the "holier than Thou" attitude as it relates to fan behavior. There were possibly 30 to 40 items thrown onto the field (Saturday) night. (And that's 30 to 40 too many).
Stop with trying to make it sound as if all 70,000 or so Gamecock fans that were there came into the stadium looking to throw items on the field.
Clemson players were taunting the student section from the moment they took the field for pre-game, to the arm lock walk from the 30-yard line directly to the base of the student section. Don't take this as my justifying the actions of a few, I'm simply saying that I'd bet that if any student body of 15,000 ( with most of them being over-served) were taunted, that I could find 30 to 40 of them who would make a bad decision and choose to retaliate. (And yes that includes the Clemson student body).
Dabo says it's happened 10 times before. Hey, Dabo, take your arm lock walk from the 20 to midfield. Stop antagonizing drunk 18- to 21-year-old college kids.
Thirdly, stop saying Gamecock fans are classless.
That statement is as equally dumb as stating that ANY fanbase is classless. I've visited over 60 college stadiums (some multiple times). I've found that all of them were mostly welcoming and cordial. I've also seen a few malcontents at each venue.
Every fanbase has bad apples. Carolina's showed themselves last night, and that's unfortunate. But to say that Gamecock fans are without class, I take strong exception for myself, my friends and the 70,000 or so other fans (minus the bottle throwers) who were cordial and hospitable even in the face of another beat down from our rivals.
CHRIS LEE
Manning
