Gamecocks vs. Tigers: 30 Years of The Battle of the Palmetto State Part 8

As we come down the final stretch of our series about the Clemson and South Carolina football rivalry we will take a look back at the 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 matchups between the two bitter enemies.

Expectations around Clemson were higher than they had been in a long time in 2001.  They were coming off a 9-3 season.  The Tigers had seniors Woodrow Dantzler, a pre-season Heisman front-runner, and Travis Zachery leading the offense, and they had highly touted group of freshman receivers in Derrick Hamilton, Aireee Currie, and the nations top high school receiver Roscoe Crosby. The offensive line returned All-ACC caliber performers Kyle Young, T.J. Watkins and Will Merritt.  The Tigers defense also had some veteran leadership in the form of senior  linebacker Chad Carson, senior safety Charles Hafley and juniors Brian Mance, Eric Meekins, Bryant McNeal, and Nick Eason.

The season started off well for the Tigers running out to an early 4-1 record.  Dantzler was putting up mind boggling numbers both on the ground and in the air and the Tigers climbed as high #13 in the polls.  But in week six against North Carolina the offense sputtered.  Dantzler was benched in the third quarter in favor of sophomore Willie Simmons.  Clemson ultimately lost that night 38-3 and they never fully recovered the rest of the season.  Dantzler despite being the first player in NCAA history to pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a single season didn’t even finish in the top ten in Heisman voting and the Tigers slogged into Columbia 5-4.

The Gamecocks on the other hand were fittingly having one of the best seasons in school history.  Riding the momentum of one of the biggest single season turnarounds in college football history and the January 1st Outback Bowl win Lou Holtz had the Gamecocks were playing as well as anyone in the nation.  Out of the gates in 2001 South Carolina dominated Boise State.  They won a thriller in Georgia when wide receiver Brian Scott ripped the ball away from Bulldog defender Bruce Thornton to score the game winning touchdown in the closing seconds in Athens and they beat a top 20 Mississipi State squad on national T.V. on a Thursday night.  That game was the first college football game since the tragedy of 9-11 and is, to this day, one of highest rated Thursday night college football games in ESPN history.  The next week  South Carolina tore down the goal post at Williams-Brice for a third time in two years  after beating Alabama for the first time in the 109 years of Gamecock football.  USC got as high as #9 in the National Polls before dropping close games to Tennessee and Arkansas.

On November 10th the Gamecocks played their most important SEC game since joining the conference in 1992 against Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators.  ESPN’s College Gameday would travel to Columbia for the first time to witness this game for the SEC eastern division crown.  Ultimateley, it was not to be for the Gamecocks and the “Blacked Out” fans  as sophmore quarterback Rex Grossman and the Gators put up over 300 yards passing on route to a 54-17 victory.

The loss was a disappointment but the players and coaches knew that ending the 4 year loosing streak to their rivals from the upstate was just as important to the future of the program.

The Gamecocks were beaten and bruised,  but also determined to make this a season to remember

South Carolina started slowly, falling behind, 6-0, on Dantzler’s 50-yard TD strike to Airese Currie with nine remaining in the opening quarter.

The Gamecocks got on the board on Daniel Weaver’s 29-yard field goal with 9:05 left in the first half. After Aaron Hunt booted a 24-yard field goal for Clemson five minutes later, South Carolina took a 10-9 halftime lead on Derek Watson’s six-yard TD scamper with 2:26 left.

“The turning point was the third quarter,” Bowden said. “They had some long drives. We needed more chances with the ball.”

After Weaver converted a 42-yarder midway through the third period, the Gameocks made it 20-9 on Corey Jenkins’ one-yard TD plunge 2:33 into the final period.

The Tiger tried frantically to get back in the game but, after closing the gap to 20-15  on an 11 yard touchdown pass from Dantzler to Hamilton, a failed onside kick sealed the victory for the Gamecocks.

Clemson would get bowl eligible the following week against Duke.  They went to Boise and beat Louisiana Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl to finish 7-5.

The Gamecocks glorious 2001 season ended with another thrilling victory over Ohio State 31-28 in Tampa.  USC finished the season 9-3 and ranked 13th in the final rankings, the second highest in school history.  2001 truly was the year of the Gamecock.

2002 was a rebuilding year for both schools. South Carolina lost 20 seniors including Petty, Scott, Kalimba Edwards, Sheldon Brown, Kenny Harney, Andre Goodman, and Willie Offord.  To make matters worse former 1,000 yard rusher Derek Watson was kicked off the team for disciplinary issues.

In later years it would surface that Lou Holtz asked to be released from his contract after the 2001 campaign and for the head coaching job be given to his son and offensive coordinator Skip Holtz.  Athletic Director Mike McGee refused his proposal saying telling Lou that if he walked away Skip would not be their first choice as head coach.  McGee told Holtz that his son would have to do more to prove he deserved the job, so Lou reluctantly stayed on as head coach at USC while increasing the play calling responsibilities of Skip.

The Gamecocks started out the 2002 season 5-2 but they lost their last four games to LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Florida before heading to Death Valley.

Clemson QB Charlie Whitehurst

Down the road at Clemson the seat of Tommy Bowden was getting hotter by the day.  The Tigers stumbled to a 3-3 start but a new star was emerging in Clemson.  Quarterback Charlie Whitehurst, son of former Green Bay quarterback David Whitehurst, slowly worked his way into the starting job.  He teamed up with Derrick Hamilton to change the signature of the Clemson offense.  The Tigers won three of four before the USC game.

On November 23, 2002 before 84,000 people in the 100th meeting between South Carolina and Clemson, the ultimate Gamecock killer was born.  Whitehurst put up 287 yards and led the Tigers to a 27-20 victory.

It was a bitter end to the season for Holtz.  The five game loosing streak seemed to knock the Gamecocks back to square one both in the SEC and in their own state.

Clemsons season ended on a down note as well as they were pumbled by Kliff Kingsbury and Texas Tech in the Tangerine Bowl 55-15, but the emergence of Whitehurst and the late season turnaround gave Bowden at least one more season to prove he could get the job done.

2003 was eerily reminiscent of 2002 to Gamecock fans.   The team started off the season 5-3 but dropped three straight before the Clemson game.  The offense struggled, especially through the air and the “bend, but dont break” defensive philosophy was putting alot of pressure on a young squad.  The lone bright spot for Carolina was former Parade All-American freshman running back Demetris Summers.  Summers put on one of the ‘Cocks best rushing performances since the days of George Rogers when he busted off 158 yards on the road against Tennessee on national television.

Whitehurst continued to carry the Tigers back to national prominence in 2003.  He average 274 yards passing per game as a sophomore, second in the ACC to NC State’s Philip Rivers.  He set the school record with 5 games of over 300 yards passing and led the Clemson offense that finished 14 in the country.  The Tigers finished the season 9-4 and beat two top 10 teams, Florida State and Tennesse is the Peach Bowl, for the first time since 1981.  The most memorable game to most Clemson, and Carolina, fans occurred on November 22nd at Williams Brice Stadium.

Clemson came into the game hot after a three game winning streak, and neither the chilly November air, nor the South Carolina defense could cool down these Tigers.  In front of the 5th largest crowd in Williams Brice history Whitehurst threw three touchdown passes on the Tigers’ first three possessions, and Clemson was off and running to a stunning 63-17 win over the Gamecocks

Whitehurst finished the game 18 of 26 for 302 yards and 4 touchdown, matching the amount of quarterbacks that took snaps for USC.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Bowden, who had been on his way out the door four weeks earlier after a loss to Wake Forest, was hoisted onto the shoulders of his players and carried to the midfield meeting with USC coach Lou Holtz.

After the Tigers dominant win in the Peach Bowl, Bowden was once again in the good graces of Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips

After such a hot start in Columbia, Lou Holtz was loosing favor with the media, fans, and most importantly recruits.  The biggest question around town was, can South Carolina fire a legend like Lou Holtz.

The following seasons meeting between the two schools capped off one of the most bitter and controversial five year stretches of the rivalry.

Clemson stuttered again under Tommy Bowden.  Whitehurst failed to reapeat his wonderful sophmore campaign as he was bitten by the interception bug in 2004, throwing 17 INT’s and only 7 touchdowns.

Syvelle Newton

The Gamecocks had rebounded a bit in 2004.  They suffered a close loss to Georgia early in the season. Then USC beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the first time in school history, and they won a shootout with Arkansas two weeks before the Clemson game.  It was the first victory in the month of November since 2001.  Quarterback Syvelle Newton had took the reigns of the team late in the season and receiver Troy Williamson became one of the best deep threats in college football.

On November 18, 2004, three days before the Clemson game Holtz announced that he would retire at the end of the season.  The 6-4 Gamecocks traveled to Death Valley looking for revenge against th 5-5 Tigers.

Before the game rumors circulated that Clemson players were planning to attempt to injure Newton, who had spurned Clemson on signing day two years earlier.  The Gamecock players responded by congregating at the corner of the end-zone where the Tigers ran down “the Hill” at Memorial Stadium and taunting them.

With 5:56 left in the forth quarter and the game squarely in the Tigers hands a massive fight broke out after two Clemson players hit Newton on the helmet after he was knocked down at the end of a play.  South Carolina offensive players rushed to the aid of their quarterback which led to players from both teams engaged in shoving and punching.   Both benches cleared as chaos erupted on the field.  South Carolina State Troopers, as well as other local law enforcement officers, entered the field to restore order and play was suspended for six minutes

Clemson walked away with the win 29-7 but the fight left a black eye on both programs.  The schools agreed to self impose punishments and declared both squads ineligible for bowl games.

The fight overshadowed the last game Lou Holtz’s great coaching career.  Holtz was quoted that he “is going to be remembered along with Woody Hayes for having a fight with Clemson in his last game”.

If not for the large contract extension signed by Tommy Bowden before the season, this may have been his last game as coach of the Tigers as well.  Never the less he would live to fight another day… barely.

Three days after the debacle, months of rumors were put to rest as for Florida Gators National Championship winning coach Steve Spurrier was introduced as South Carolina’s new head coach.  Carolina Fans once again had reason to believe that the best days of Gamecock Football were ahead.

By Charles Fritz, News.sc

Check out Part 1 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Check out Part 2 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Check out Part 3 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Check out Part 4 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Check out Part 5 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Check out Part 6 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Check out Part 7 of our series on the Clemson vs. South Carolina Rivalry

Come back and check out Part 9 of the series tomorrow as we discuss the 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 games, and feel free to share your memories of the rivalry with us.

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