The Georgia Bulldogs showed everyone in the country why they are the number one ranked team in the country with a very impressive 48-7 thrashing of the Gamecocks in front of a sell-out crowd of 78, 212 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC
The Defending National Champion Bulldogs wasted little time in taking control of the game by scoring every time they had the ball in the first half against a depleted South Carolina defense that was missing 5 starters to take a 24-0 lead to the locker room.
The Georgia offense produced 547 yards of total offense on the day. Quarterback Stetson Bennett was 16-23-0 with 284 yards and two touchdowns. Bennett was also the Dawgs leading rusher with 3 carries for 36 yards and one touchdown. Bulldogs tight end Brock Bowers had 5 catches for 121 yards and 2 TD’s.
Georgia’s defense turned in another stellar performance holding the Gamecocks to only 306 yards of total offense and forced three Carolina interceptions. The Bulldog defense gave up their first touchdown of the season in the 4th quarter with 0:53 seconds to play when South Carolina backup quarterback Luke Doty connected with Traevon Kenion on 13-yard touchdown pass for the Gamecocks’ only points.
After the game a dejected South Carolina head football Coach Shane Beamer said, “First of all give Georgia credit, your football team they show that today. Second of all, we apologize to our fans that were out here today. That was a poor performance to say the least. We challenged them in the press conference during the week to show up and they did. It was an unbelievable atmosphere throughout the game. For a noon kickoff that was awesome, and was great. The atmosphere pregame was great, and they were fantastic. Sorry, we didn’t coach better and play better for them. Obviously not a lot that went well today. We’ve just told the team in there we’re not playing well. We’re not playing our best football right now. And that starts with me as a football coach. Obviously, I could have done a better job of getting our team ready to play today, regardless of how many guys we had out. We had a good enough team to go out there and compete better than we did today. And we didn’t do it. We’re going to get right. We’re a fourth of the way through the season. We’ve played three games. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get right back to work and continue to find a way to play winning football. Did we play well on offense today? No, but we didn’t exactly look like the ‘85 bears out there defensively.”
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The empty student section in Williams-Bryce Stadium on Sept. 17, as the Georgia Bulldogs thrashed the South Carolina Gamecocks. (Photo: Dick Cox/Lindy’s Sports)
The real story of the day was the South Carolina fans. The Gamecocks have some of the best and most loyal fans that you will find anywhere. But like other fan bases Carolina has a lot of fair weather fans. I am a 1980 graduate of the University of South Carolina system but Saturday I have never been more disappointed in fans in all my life. The Gamecock fans were an embarrassment.They came early and were loud and rowdy to start the game but in the second half they were long gone. With Georgia leading 24-0 late in the 2nd quarter you would have though someone had pulled the fire alarm in Williams-Brice stadium with the mass exodus in the student section and people rushing to the exits through the stadium.
When the Carolina players came out for the 2nd half they must have been shocked to find a nearly empty stadium. The majority of the fans that remained were Georgia fans with a few of the loyal die hard Gamecock fans that had stayed. I looked across the stadium as the Gamecock cheerleaders cheered to empty stands. At the end of all home games the Carolina players make it a priority to the student section and make a line and go down the line and high five the students in appreciation for their support but there were not any students there this week.
Beamer, his coaching staff and the Carolina players have worked endlessly to represent the University of South Carolina fans and alumni and to make them proud. The school had spent millions of dollars to update the stadium, and to make the game-day experience to absolute best! Today the actions of the fans was a major slap in the face. The Gamecocks have a home game next week vs Charlotte. It will be interesting to see which group of fans show up and how long they stay!
The South Carolina football team had a bad day and were very disappointed in the way they played. In spite of the actions the fans the Gamecocks fought hard and battle Georgia for four quarters, something die hard gamecocks can be proud of.
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