Monday, October 12, 2009

Tuesday 'tube: THAT guy again?

The history between Alabama and South Carolina is, to say the least, a little one-sided. The two teams had barely played before the Gamecocks joined the SEC in 1992, and really haven't played that many times since then. Those meetings have almost uniformly gone Alabama's way — in fact, Alabama's only two losses to South Carolina were as follows:
2001: South Carolina 37, Alabama 36. I actually attended this game in Columbia, sitting by myself (no kidding) in the visitors' section. Revisiting the stats from that game, it's frankly incredible: Tyler Watts ran for over 150 yards, threw for 250 more, Alabama led by two scores with under 5 minutes to play ... and somehow still lost. It was the second time in my life that I've seen goalposts come down in person (the first was in 2000, when LSU beat 'Bama in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1969).
2004: South Carolina 20, Alabama 3. This one wasn't nearly so memorable: I was watching in Georgia and MIke Shula's team turned in a complete non-effort on national TV. Let the record show that this was the moment I first began to turn on Mike Shula, Alabama head coach. And I recall being told at the time that I was one of those trigger-happy, unrealistic Bammers who was part of the problem with the program.

So the history between the two programs may not be so rich. On the other hand, the history with the Gamecock Boss (or Steve Spurrier) is pretty splendid. Remember, as we said yesterday, the only thing that prevented Alabama from ruling the SEC during the Gene Stallings Era from 1990-1996 was Florida and Steve Spurrier. Four times they met in the SEC Championship Game in Birmingham and Atlanta ... Alabama's record in those meetings: 1-3.
Not only that, but as Gentry Estes pointed out today, Alabama may have had eyes for Spurrier during its last coaching search (there was just enough chatter on the Web to make you believe it might happen). Of course, Spurrier himself denied all of that as rumor while it was happening and won't talk about it now. Then again, South Carolina apparently believed the rumors — it extended his contract once it was clear Spurrier was staying in Columbia.

So, just for fun, let's post a few videos of the times Alabama made Steve Spurrier unhappy during the 1990s.





1 comment:

-D. said...

In that last one (the '99 SECCG), you can see me in the upper right corner at the 1:57 mark. My little brother is down in the lower right corner, as he ran down to the edge when Grimes attempted his "Lambeau Leap."

Those were pretty good seats for that game.