Many USC fans are saying ‘Roll Tide.’ This one’s proclaiming it from his rooftop

More than a few Gamecock fans are trading their garnet for crimson garb this football bowl season.

After all, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?

As South Carolina’s hated rival Clemson prepares to face Alabama in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, Gamecocks are taking sides.

And one Columbia house is making a clear statement about where its resident’s loyalties lie.

An inflatable Gamecock helmet sits in the yard of Baxter Brown’s house in the south Meadowfield neighborhood near the Veterans Hospital, complemented by a “Roll Tide” display of lights on the pitched roof.

It makes for an interesting holiday aesthetic, if anything.

“My job as a Gamecock is to pull for our conference, so that’s what I do,” said Brown, who graduated from USC in 2011. “I know there’s a lot of Gamecocks in the neighborhood, and there are some Tigers on the street.”

Brown has created rooftop light displays for several holiday seasons now, starting in the midst of USC’s five-year football winning streak over Clemson. At that time, Brown would draw the game score in lights.

Then the tide turned in the rivalry, and the score no longer favored Brown’s Gamecocks.

Since then, Brown has stuck to poking fun at Clemson – a tiger paw with a “no smoking”-style line crossed through it, for example – or supporting the SEC with his Christmas lights.

“I just try to give everybody something to kind of laugh about and light some people’s fire,” Brown said.

The reaction from his neighbors has been mostly positive, Brown said. He gets a few honks from passing cars.

Though, one year in the past, a sore neighbor called the police to his house over the lights, Brown said.

“My reaction has been, you know, hey, why don’t you throw the scoreboard on your roof?” Brown said. “It’s all in good fun.”

This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Many USC fans are saying ‘Roll Tide.’ This one’s proclaiming it from his rooftop."