The University of South Carolina football team has the third-longest home winning streak in the nation – but it sure as hell isn’t thanks to the Gamecocks’ student section. When head coach Steve Spurrier’s team needed its most vocal contingent in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s victory over SEC East rival Vanderbilt, the student section did not come through.
Why not? Hundreds of them had already left … leaving huge patches of empty bleachers in the north stands as South Carolina held on for a 35-25 win over Vanderbilt.
This isn’t the first time South Carolina’s student section has led a mass exodus from Williams-Brice Stadium prior to the start of the third quarter. It happened last year in the Gamecocks’ home opener against East Carolina – in which the Gamecocks took a 21-0 lead into the locker room.
Spurrier took notice …
“I hope we’re not reverting back to the days when football wasn’t very important around here and the pre-game party and the post-game party was more important than the game itself,” he said at the time. “I’m hoping the Gamecock fans will treat the game as the most important part of their Saturday football day.”
Based on the talent level Spurrier has assembled – and the on-field success those players have achieved – he’s not asking too much.
University of South Carolina seniors have witnessed an era of unparalleled achievement on the gridiron. The Gamecocks have won thirty-three games dating back to 2010 – including thirteen in a row at home. They’ve won an SEC East title, finished in the Top Ten in back-to-back seasons and won a pair of big-time bowl games.
This year’s squad features a prolific offense as well the nation’s best defensive player in Jadeveon Clowney – who could make the “play of the year” on any down. But these exploits might as well be “trees falling in the woods” to some Gamecocks students … particularly if they occur in the second half of play.
One former USC student told FITS she was “irritated beyond belief” at the poor second half attendance in the student section during the Vanderbilt game. She added the players take note of the empty seats – which reflects in their on-field performance.
“It definitely turns the players wayyyy down when they can’t hear us,” she said.
South Carolina students bring serious energy to the stadium. During USC’s Also sprach Zarathustra (a.k.a. “2001”) introduction and DJ Darude’s pre-kickoff hit “Sandstorm,” the student section brings Williams-Brice Stadium to life. But home-field advantage isn’t about pre-game theatrics – it’s about forcing illegal procedure penalties and burned timeouts because opposing offenses literally can’t hear themselves think.
And it’s about doing it in the fourth quarter … when the game is on the line.
Instead, here’s what the student section at Williams-Brice looked like in the fourth quarter against Vanderbilt …
Pic: Gamecock Born & Bred
Ouch …
South Carolina is the No. 12 team in America. Its home stadium is in the Top 20 in terms of size. Hell, crowds at Williams-Brice used to be so raucous the upper deck of the east stands would sway – and that was back when winning seven games a year was considered an accomplishment.
In defense of USC’s student section, the Gamecocks haven’t been one of America’s top football programs for very long. So a lot of them don’t know how this is supposed to work (the way it works in the real Death Valley, for example).
However if the Gamecocks want to stay among college football’s elite, its students had better figure it out.
Banner Pic: Travis Bell Photography
91 comments
However if the Gamecocks want to stay among college football’s elite, its students had better learn. ~ that is a damn funny now. Who knew Sic was a comedian?
I wish you were concerned about some of the school’s poor academic rankings. universities are older than college football, and they will likely outlast college football.
FITS covers the academics w/ every bit as much scrutiny: https://www.fitsnews.com/2013/09/10/clemson-usc-improve-on-college-rankings/
Poor academic rankings – What the *&@*^ are you talking about?
US News and World Report
# 1 – Undergraduate international business for 13 consecutive years
# 3 – Graduate international business (20 consecutive years as either # 1 or 2)
# 3 – School psychology doctoral program
# 4 – Graduate social psychology
# 10 – Undergraduate Insurance/Risk Management
# 17 – Graduate library science, including # 2 school library media and # 11
services for children and youth
#23 – Graduate Public Health
#24 – Graduate Business (among public universities), including #24 Part-time
MBA
#25 – Graduate Criminology
#42 – Pharmacy
#46 – Graduate Healthcare Management
#51 – Graduate Political Science
#52 – Top public institutions, National Universities
#53 – Graduate Social Work
# 58 – Graduate Nursing
# 86 – Medical Schools, Research (#57 Primary Care)
# 87 – Law Schools
# 111 – National Universities
National Research Council
# 7 – Electrical engineering doctoral program (#1 Southern Region*)
# 10 – Geography doctoral program (#2 Southern Region)
# 26 – English doctoral program (#5 Southern Region)
# 29 – Biological sciences doctoral program (#8 Southern Region)
# 29 – Chemical engineering doctoral program (#7 Southern Region)
# 31 – Mechanical engineering doctoral program (#7 Southern Region)
# 36 – History doctoral program (#7 Southern Region)
# 41 – Pharmacy doctoral program (#2 Southern Region)
# 47 – Chemistry doctoral program (#9 Southern Region)
How many International business schools in the country are there? Is this like USC’s equestrian team winning a national championship by beating out the other two college equestrian teams in the nation?
A casual look at Collegeboard.org showed more than 500 major universities have Intenational Business schools – I’m sure I missed some of the minors and privates
BTW, the NCAA has 22 Division 1 and 2 College Equestrian teams, at last count, there were something like 100 schools nationwide that had an English, Western or Hunter over Fences team.
BillC are you that stupid. You have no ide about equestrian, but flap your jaws about it. Stick your dick back down your throat and keep sucking it, mental jerk-off. You’re too stupid to take a minute to research, but run your jaws like the pussy you are in real life. You’d crawl under your seat before you’d deal with reality.
Believe it or not FITs but football really ain’t all that important in the grand scheme of things. Myself and a whole lot of other people have way more meaningful things to than to watch a bunch of overgrown boys chase a ball around. People go to college to get an education NOT to be cheerleaders. And look at the crappy seats you get if you’re
a student. USC football is not for USC students. It’s for old people with way too much money and never enough sense. Fuck football and even more important fuck USC football.
And even more importantly, fuck yourself
Yeah! Go fuck yourself!
Why do you hate freedom? You need to move to France with that attitude.
Freedom? Is that what you call chaining USC students to crappy uncomfortable seats for three hours while zapping them with cattle prods to scream for a bunch of kids running around chasing a ball? You think freedom is being forced from living your life the way you want while having way much better productive and entertaining things to do?
And as always, what does France ever have anything to do with, well, anything?
Nolff says “you’re free to do anything you want as long as it’s what I tell you to do”.
Does France pay you commission for everyone you force to freely go there?
You are a full blown idiot, rwwlms. Move to Europe and keep on drinking your crack filled kool-aid, idiot.
I’d rather be fully blown than half blown. I just love happy endings.
Those people with way too much money are the ones paying for your scholarship so I hope, at least, you get educated! Fuck you and your idiot ideas! If you don’t like football, go the hell somewhere else!
Liberal right? You can’t stand someone to have their own opinion or individual thought. In you’re mind you’re either a similar sheep with the same group mindset or you have idiot ideas and need to be put away.
You go girl! Keep letting them shear you. Down with freedom and individual thought. Baaaaa! I know, right?
Now I know you are a Clem’s sons fan lol. Look at your second sentence – “In you’re mind” means ” in you are mind”! Hey sheep, its your not you’re, it’s your. Great vocabulary and great illiteracy!
Your opinion makes no sense when all you say is fuck you, fuck Carolina football and you are a student at Carolina. No, you are the sheep who is baaaaing LMAO!!! Because you have no original thoughts. Just someone who wants to criticize everything! Why don’t you pack and go to Clem’s Sons University! You sound just like them! Baaaaa!!!
This comment is for rwwllms!!!
The comment for rwwllms is three up above!
Baaaaa!!!!
I graduated from South Carolina and the football games were a big part of the weekend social interaction. Sure we partied before and after the games, but we always stayed for the entire game. It’s not like the games are played during the week (although every once in a while there are Thursday night games.) For me the entire college experience consisted of both the academic and social. It makes me sad that the students don’t realize that, in general, you can enjoy it all. Do it all while you can because once you graduate life is never the same.
There are way more important and better things you can do to have a healthy productive life. Sitting on your fat ass for three hours watching kids run around chasing a ball is something only losers would fine enjoyable.
Everybody enjoys something someone else thinks is dumb, just a matter of how many think it is dumb.
Ya, most people aren’t petty enough to troll a random news article about something they think is for fat losers though. If my life ever boils down to that, I might consider suicide.
First off, I have worked most of my life as a floor nurse in a hospital. Perhaps that is not a productive job to you but it is to most of my patients. As for healthy, I exercise on a regular basis and am will within my personal BMI. Your assumptions about people who enjoy football remind me of a girl I roomed with one summer. I was in a sorority, but was not totally immersed in the Greek lifestyle. Most of my friends were not “Greek”. This roommates first comment to me was “Oh I am so glad you aren’t one of those snooty sorority bitches”. Excuse me? Just because people enjoy a college football game on the weekend doesn’t mean they don’t participate in meaningful activity the rest of the week. Quit being so judgemental. We don’t fine football enjoyable, but we do find it enjoyable.Like I said before, enjoy college while you are there because after that it’s welcome to the real world.
your in the real world. they say that everytime you make an accomplishment. i.e. highschool diploma, college degree, masters degree, job promotion…
Will,
How about talk about the utter chaos of the student section, and not chaos in the scheme of rowdy students?
It’s been a few years since I had the pleasure, but at that time it wasn’t anything of the sort. Upon entry (that’s if you have the opportunity to get in, because the ticket now has to match your name and you can’t give it to a friend; you get your minibottles taken and your ticket revoked; the student section is actually allowing students in because incompetent staff can’t handle the crowd, etc) you’re corralled into the end zone, where every minute or two a security guard or cop is patrolling the lane to look for any alcohol (it’s no secret columbia cops have a hard-on for underage drinkers) and generally….
You know, I’m not gonna continue this rant. But Will, dude, the student section sucks. How about a post into the unneccessary overregulation of the student section? How about noting the 40 beefy cops that line up to keep people off the field at the end of the fourth quarter?
Gamecock football in the student section sucks to be quite honest.
Instruct those beefy cops to nab the first 40 students who try to leave early – and make them shower with the team……….
I don’t think that has ever changed. It’s just worse now that they have to sit in the end zone. We used to wear coats and ties, but it was still a zoo.
“I hope we’re not reverting back to the days when football wasn’t very important around here…”
Get a clue, Spurrier. Football ISN’T important. Not at USC, not anywhere.
Sheesh, people in the stands have better things to do, so they leave. So what?
I’ll tell you so what. Lots of students aren’t able to get tickets to the games…..they have been scrambling to get tickets, and MANY did not get one at all for the NC game. And then, they get to sit home and watch their fellow students who were lucky enough to snag one in the USC lottery system then weenie out and leave the stands empty. Wanna leave early? Then stay your sorry butts at home and let the other students who want to be there and stay the whole time have them.
If they have better things to do then they shouldn’t be there in the first place…
Your logic makes no sense! If they have better things to do, why go to the game in the first place? Spurrier has made the Gamecocks winners, and our fans should support them and stay until the end! If you have something better to do, don’t go to our football games! We don’t need the likes of you there!
So if Spurrier had made them losers (yeah, I know, hard to make something to be what it’s natural state of being is) then it’s okay for fans to NOT support them? And you’re complaining about someone else’s logic? I know, I know – Baaaa!, right?
Students aside, if the Columbia Police Department could come up with a decent traffic plan to get fans in and out of the stadium area in less than two hours, people might be more willing to stay for the entire game.
Let’s be honest, that is not a new problem. It was occurring when I went to games with my parents in the ’60’s, when I attended games as a student in the 70’s and when I would go after graduating in the 80’s. That being said, as a student we would tailgate while waiting for traffic to clear but that was in the 70’s and legal drinking age was 18.
Also “Two Hours?” — I’ve said the same thing in the past before too, but you are truly looking at an hour – hour and fifteen tops
I waited to park for 3 hours when we played UNC. The struggle is real buddy.
Try leaving a little earlier or a little later – your current plan ain’t working…
Much ado about nothing………………………….
Nobody give a rats ass about the piss ant students….They are preoccupied with getting a “Buzz” anyhoo……….
It is all about the well-heeled alumni and fat cats from all over the country that pay for the box seats or fancy glass fronted suites that keep the riff-raff at bay…
It is all about the high dollar shit pure and simple
The game on the field is purely secondary
Whores and pimps all if the college/university is >50,000 seating on game day
The students and underclass might as well not bother trying to show up at the gates.
Fuck a bunch of college and professional football is what I say!!!!
They are nothing but faux gladiators anyway…………
And that’s the fucking TRUTH!!!
Preach on brother!
It isn’t just the student section, it’s become tradition among ticket holders to start leaving at halftime. USC football is more about tailgating than the game. I know people more concerned with what they’re doing pre-game than talking about the actual game. Walk down the rows, it’s all about outdoing the group next to you. People also leave early because if you stay until the end of the game you’re sitting in traffic for a minimum of two hours.
That is quite the traffic plan they’ve constructed there, isn’t it?
Steve needs a bigger bus. He’s thrown too many people under the one he’s got.
I think a lot of it has to do with the student section being moved to the end-zone. They tried to do that in the 60’s and it didn’t stand. What happened? I always thought the North EZ (pictured) was for foreigners. I guess I’ve missed too much since I gave my son my tickets on the East 45. Oh well..
Started going to games in 1980 – students left at half time to party (game wasn’t worth watching)
Attended the University 1985-1987, usually had a field pass – students left at half time as we either blew the competition out or had our asses handed to us (the exception Morrison’s 1984 “Black Magic” season most students would stick it out) Louie, Louie was banned because the student section in the upper east would literally sway as the studnts danced to the music – “If it ain’t swaying, we ain’t playing” was the coach’s attempt to get the students to hang around.
Had season tickets from 1992-2003 – Students gone long before half time
“Lying, Lisping, Losing, Lou” era 1999-2004 – students didn’t bother going at all unless a big name team happened to be in town.
2007-Last Season – started teaching at the Coop – students leave at half time
What’s changed?
Morrison was quite a party dude,too.Good times.
I mean seriously, who wants to walk through the ghetto at night to get back to their dorms??
Then stay in your dorm in the first place. And that area isn’t the ghetto. Try leaving the USA some time. Hell, leave your little box world. Vanguard16 and others like him are PATHETIC TRASH of the student body.
I watched the end of the Notre Dame game late Saturday night and I love how the entire student body and fan base stays to the end to sing the alma mater. Don’t like ND but damn they have spirit and great traditions.
Maybe you could entice them by offering free beer to anyone still in the stands after the third quarter. Short of that…forget about getting students to stay put during a run away game.
Good God, don’t the students realize that the university exists so there can be football for all the people that don’t have a life? How else can a bunch of losers identify with winning something?
I used to enjoy reading FITS, but it has turned into a site spouting sports drivel.
The solution is easy. Allow the students to leave and come back in. Sure not all would come back but it is routine at Clemson for the students to leave before the end of the first half and come back after the start of the third quarter.
First and foremost, I agree with 90% of what you have said. Its something that has irked me since the 2011 season. Students have seen USC’s rise since 2009 and how myself and other alumni at the time made the Cockpit, and made Sandstorm the song to be feared across the nation. I don’t know when it changed, I’ll pin point it at the start of the 2012 season. That was the first time I noticed a substantial difference in an intensity, and as you said people beginning to leave early. As a former student athlete, and rabid Gamecock fans this ticks me off.
HOWEVER, the one point of contention I will say, is that when players like Mike Davis were recruited here, and up until last year, our Stadium has been one of those “Feared” stadium. It has shown flashes of it in games like Georgia, or UT, and it will be intense when Clemson and Florida roll into town this year. I think it is unfair to say “Clemson wipes the floor” with USC, as I would be interested to see how they are when playing SC State, or other easy win teams.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m PISSED about this, and would be the first to lead the charge if it could help keep these spoiled kids in their seats.
Come On Gamecock Nation
Sandstorm sounds like something that would be found in a gay German nightclub.
So I hear from gay Germans.
You’re gay if you hang out with gay Germans
We can’t rush the field when we win and I’m not spending $4 on a water.
So sit your butt home. You’re a waste of a seat. And if you’d actually, you know, RESEARCH you can carry an UNOPENED bottle of water into the game. How did you get into any college??? Who took your tests for you?
My brother took my tests. That’s how I got into USC, which is really hard to get into. And I think I’ll just keep getting tickets each week and then leaving early to waste a seat. I didn’t know about that water thing, thanks for letting me know. But, it doesn’t matter because I’m just going to keep leaving early. so I won’t get thirsty.
You MUST be a Clem’s sons fan! What an idiot thing to say!
Hey sheep! Why must someone have to be a Clemson fan if they say anything truthful but negative about USC?
You are aware that there is way more to life than just a blind bigoted illogical hatred for all things Clemson. Neither Clemson nor USC matter at all to the world at large. Both are just small state small colleges that don’t matter.
Step outside your sheep pen sometimes and take in the majesty of the whole world. Stop penning up your mind and expand your horizons. There’s way more to life than just letting your masters shear you. After all in the immortal words of Cocky “Baaaaa!!”
I know, right?
Hard to get into? Seriously? USC was begging me to skip my senior high school year and enroll with them. As long as you’re a SC native you’re automatically eligible.
It is absolutely ridiculous that students that are lucky enough to get tickets are leaving in the second and third quarters. I am a recent alum, and I know numerous people behind me in age that are not getting tickets because kids that don’t deserve them win out in the “fair” lottery. If the school reorganized its ticketing system so that actual FANS could get tickets, maybe the section wouldn’t empty out. Students who leave early should have their ticket scanned on the way out, thus deducting a point or two from their “loyalty” points.
Regardless of USC’s despicable ticketing system, it is so embarrassing to see the student section THAT empty during a conference game that needed to be won. Connor and Steve should publicly address this issue on campus and scold the students for being anything but a loyal fan base.
If I could, I would personally go down there and scream in the faces of any student who left to go drink in a dirt hole next to a bunch of pick up trucks. Students, your natty lites will still be as warm and/or roofied as they were at the start of the game. Get your priorities together.
USC students and fans have been leaving games early since, well, since forever. Its one of the few traditions the the cocks have that they didn’t steal.
Hah! Now that’s funny!!!
Yes GamecockGirl. It does seem they need to get their priorities together. Like you. You really seem have it together.
I agree with the article. When I was a student at USC in 1997, the students would leave early because the immediate area around the stadium was basically urban blight. Now, things are a LOT better, although it still seems pretty ghetto relative to some other college campuses I’ve seen. But still, no excuse for the students leaving early, especially when the team is pretty good this year! Looking at the game on TV, I can’t help being ashamed that we have the worst gameday environment in the mighty SEC (except for maybe Vanderbilt).
I also agree with some commenters that wish that academics was covered as fiercely as these issues though, If so, maybe we could get our pathetic US News Rankings up and compete with those LOSERS from the upstate.
Oh..its still beautiful around Williams Brice. I see the fencing and manicured grass has been improved. Oh..and drunk and passed out chicks are still there,too:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUP0oykIcAAgXlh.jpg:large
Roll Tide!!!
hard to fight tradition….
Let us leave and comeback during the game (like they do in Clemson), so everybody isn’t hungover by the fourth quarter
exactly
Exactly. Go Tigers!
Fuck Clem’s Sons! Go Gamecocks! We don’t have to stay drunk like yall because we have more class than that! And yall are the most obnoxious fans in college football. LMAO!!! Even your own fans broke your precious rock LMAO!!!
I guess we should storm the field after beating SC state….
They don’t serve beer at the stadium, so the students have to leave before they lose their buzz.
source: I’m a USC alumni.
Someone should tell Todd Ellis that this isn’t “your 2001” when he announces the opening theme..even Fits got the name of the song right. Maybe its too hard for Ellis to say without tripping over it, and 95% of the fans don’t know that “2001” was actually a bad Kubrick movie that just happened to use that song as mood music.
And what the hell is the chicken stomping on in that cage? Is it filled with cock roaches?
I don’t like the traffic, they won’t let me get drunk and ruin it for others, they won’t let me run on the field to interfere with the players and coaches who are trying to speak to each other: wah wah – so many excuses but no reasons from king babies. Do what sic says and stay around for the students in uniform who have busted their ass all week. Some of you ticket holders don’t deserve to be called fans. The players are so sorry your life in the stadium is so tough that you can’t stay with them another 15 minutes.
Ahh, I have figured it out. They leave to get the hell away from the nation’s most boring band. Contrary to what anyone thinks, watching the band play “Songs from the Roaring 20’s” is miserable to watch, to listen to, to experience. Maybe if the band would liven it up a little, it might be worth sitting through halftime, thus making it more likely to stay at least through the 3rd quarter.
Take for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MzETQCYW3GY#t=52
Yeah let’s bash a student section when our own is a fucking hill…
This article fails to mention that last year’s home opener against ECU occurred on a day that was incredibly hot and humid. This was not aided by the fact that USC’s student section is in the direct afternoon sun. Students were passing out of dehydration right and left. Rather than stay in Williams Brice and pay $5 for a water, most students left. If Spurrier wants to scold students for looking after their own well being then shame on him.
This was such a terribly written and researched article. Maybe you should get Spurrier’s cock out of your mouth, get off your knees and go find a new fucking job you hack.
This is nothing new at SCAR. Shoot I remember in the early 80’s when my parents would go to the games talking about SCAR fans leaving. I mean well they never had much to watch. But, if you call yourself a fan, then act like it. If you know it is going to be too hot for you that day, don’t go. Let someone else who wants to go go. The players do feed off of the fans. You don’t see Auburn, GA, Bama, Clemson, ect… leaving like the “Gamecock Fans”. The feeling the rest of the country gets about SCAR is their coach is out for himself, the players knowing that are out for themselves, and well we all know the fans are out for themselves. There is no sense of family. Heck if i had kids I would never take them to the games. SCAR tailgating is not family friendly. Just a bunch of drunks crowing.
it has nothing to do with cops, traffic, or winning…. ITS PRIDE MY FRIENDS, I was in that stadium when we lost 21 in a row… I was there… period. You stay for the guys busting their buts for FREE making USC millions. Why rush after the game, just have a post game tailgate.
Spurrier seems to whine a lot. “Dat mean ol’ sports writer. Doz ahwfully wrude students!” I can almost here Tweety’s voice. I would have thought a college football coach would be a bit more manly.
i hope he’s talking about Death Valley in Clemson, not LSU. Remember when LSU was getting beat by Troy at home? Half the stadium left by halftime, including parents.
It looks bad on TV when the stands are empty and its not just the student section. I have stayed until the end of every game, even when Spurrier coached Florida and we lost 73 to something in the most freezing cold I have ever been in. If Carolina wants to be a top 10 school, watch the game and stay and show your support! And stop comparing us to Clem’s Sons, they are a bunch of obnoxious people, even if they go and get a buzz during halftime. We are The University of South Carolina, take pride in that, in your team, and in our players playing their butts off. Think how you would feel when you look up in the stands and no one is there to watch. Maybe that’s why Vandy made their comeback.
I have only seen 2 games where the fans stayed, when we beat Georgia and Alabama and we rocked that stadium! Many of our recruits come here because, and I quote “of the game day experience and the crowd that roars”! Where is your pride, fans???? Is alcohol more important to you because you cant have that beer? Give me a break.
If you are not planning on staying, then let someone else have your tickets. You folks are an embarrassment to Carolina, especially since every game we play is on national TV and we look like crap with empty seats at halftime!
Goody for you. You deserve a cookie for being so loyal and awesome. Get a life.
Baaaa!
Can we see what the student section looks like against an opponent worth getting excited over? I mean, South Carolina was blowing Vanderbilt away…
Cool story, FitsNews. #whogivesashit
I pay full tuition at this University as a student, if I want to leave early I will. If the players want to moan and complain they can start paying too. It’s asking a lot to sit through a blowout game in that heat. Not to mention all of the delays. Go Gamecocks.