‘They hate us.’ Clemson preparing for tough environment at South Carolina
Clemson has played in different venues all over the country during offensive lineman John Simpson’s four years as a Tiger.
Clemson played at Auburn in 2016, at Texas A&M in 2018, and in numerous other stadiums throughout the country as the Tigers reached the College Football Playoff each of Simpson’s previous three years.
But out of all the places the Tigers have been, South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium stands out.
“You can tell the fans hate us. You can tell they just don’t like us. It’s a big difference going there than anywhere else,” Simpson said Monday. “They hate us. It’s funny. I actually enjoy it. I enjoy the adversity that we face when we walk in there. I think it gets me to another gear. It gets me going. I like it. It makes my blood flow a little more.”
Simpson and the rest of Clemson’s seniors are 3-0 against the Gamecocks as Clemson has won five consecutive games in the series.
The Tigers have a chance to finish undefeated against USC and win their sixth consecutive game in the series when the two teams meet at noon on Saturday in Columbia.
Clemson senior safety Tanner Muse is excited for the challenge.
“It’s always a super electric stadium. You can feel the energy,” Muse said.
The energy in the stadium is evident early on when these two teams meet. Clemson does a “walk of champions” before each game where it locks arms and marches as a team toward its end zone. At Williams-Brice Stadium that means marching toward the Gamecocks student section.
Some South Carolina students were caught on video hurling water bottles at Clemson players during the “walk of champions” two years ago. But Muse, whose brother Nick is a tight end for the Gamecocks, said the actions of a few should not represent an entire fan base.
“Throwing things like that onto the field, I’ve been around it. There’s teams that I dealt with in high school where they didn’t have great sportsmanship. ... That’s just one or two people that are doing that. It’s not the whole fan base. They have great people over there,” Muse said. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of great people on that side in the last year with Nick and things like that. So it’s been great getting to know those people, but that’s just a couple of people. It’s not the whole situation.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 4:58 PM.
