How a near-fight at Waffle House introduced this Tiger to the Clemson-USC rivalry
CLEMSON Virginia native Clelin Ferrell did not know much about the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry when he visited the Gamecocks in high school.
That changed when he went into a Waffle House in Columbia during a recruiting trip.
Ferrell said Tuesday that he was sitting at the Waffle House when a Tigers fan walked in with a Clemson shirt on. He quickly realized how serious the rivalry is.
“Some guy walked into Waffle House in Columbia with a Clemson shirt on and the next thing I know I see people trying to fight him and stuff like that,” Ferrell said. “So I’m like, ‘Ok, well what’s going on here with that?’ But yea man, it’s real. It’s really real down here. I didn’t notice that when I first came to Clemson, but now I understand why people take it so seriously.”
The first South Carolina-Clemson game Ferrell attended was in 2015. He was redshirting at the time but went to the game with fellow redshirts Tanner Muse and Denzel Johnson.
That was his first look at how intense the rivalry is during games.
“I just remember being on that field watching, just kind of how that whole atmosphere was and just kind of seeing like some of the fans throwing stuff at our sideline and stuff like that,” he said. “I’ve seen them take it a little bit too far… When we walked into the tunnel they were kind of throwing stuff. Just me seeing stuff… But fans do that everywhere. It was just kind of my first experience with that. I didn’t really understand how serious the rivalry was, but when I saw that it was kind of more so like, ‘Ok, yea, it’s a really heated battle right now.’”
Ferrell played in the game for the first time last year and described it as “chippy.”
“Just seeing some of the things that their coaching staff had to say about us last year and stuff like that, you hear a lot of the talk that goes on from sideline to sideline,” he said. “But you do enjoy kind of the whole vibe you get from the game because it gets you amped up to play more.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 2:20 PM with the headline "How a near-fight at Waffle House introduced this Tiger to the Clemson-USC rivalry."