Chick-fil-A Bowl Q & A with Bowl Season

by Gamecock Man on Dec 9, 2025 11:07 PM EST in Football

I was contacted by Matt from Bowl Season, which is putting together information about each of this season's bowls, to talk about the Chick-fil-A Bowl matchup between USC and Florida St. Check out his site, which should be publishing our conversation in the coming days. Here's a quick preview:

BS: This is a monumental 9-4 season for the Gamecocks as they got to the SEC Championship Game. How important is it for South Carolina to win this game to avoid "just another 5 loss season" and get that elusive 10 win season?

On the one hand, the idea that a loss would mean that 2010 would be "just another 5 loss season" isn't exactly accurate. Let's say we lose. Will any reasonable South Carolina fan really look back and say that this season was no different than 2008 and 2009? I couldn't do that with a straight face. We might have five losses, but we'd also have nine wins and would have had to play in an extra game to get to five losses. Moreover, we'll always be able to look back at 2010 as a season where we handled many of the better teams we played. This hasn't been another season where we won our games against the OOC cupcakes, a couple of SEC bottom feeders, and maybe staged one nice upset. This year we did all of that plus a few more big wins. We also won a championship. Even with a loss in the bowl, I'll look back at this season as a milestone for Carolina football. A loss would be disappointing, certainly. In a season of milestones, it would be nice to add another couple of firsts by finally coming to play in the post-season and getting that tenth win. But a loss isn't going to make me seriously question this season's accomplishments.

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Lots of Florida State support in Atlanta

Florida State is another school with a license plate issued in Georgia and you can see plenty of them on the roads in the Atlanta area. They also have a great Alumni bar/restaurant in Tin Lizzy’s Mexican Cantina. I have to say the food there is much better than the food at our bar Carolyn’s Gourmet Cafe. I would expect there to be more FSU fans than USC fans in the Dome.

Hope we beat them anyways. I went to the Music City Bowl a few years ago when FSU played Kentucky. It was the year that FSU was involved in classroom problems with athletes cheating or getting help on assignments. The UK fans were really laying into them about that. It was a fun trip.

- FOW

by skandrewj62j on Dec 10, 2025 10:08 AM EST reply actions

Also....

I have been waiting two years for USC fans to get enough support so I can have a USC license plate. I am about to give up on it, and just go with an Atlanta Falcons or Atlanta Braves plate instead. Surely we have enough fans in the state of Georgia to sell 1,000 of these tags. And yet we are well short of the 1,000 minimum.

- FOW

by skandrewj62j on Dec 10, 2025 10:12 AM EST up reply actions

Has anyone tried starting a campaign to get enough support?

I would imagine there are thousands of USC grads in the Atlanta area alone. When you factor in the East Georgia area, it shouldn’t be hard at all to get enough support.

Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.

by Gamecock Man on Dec 10, 2025 11:15 AM EST up reply actions

Yes, but unsuccessful...

I see e-mails from the Atlanta Gamecock Club, they have it on their website and it has been mentioned on Facebook. But still not much luck. They hand out flyers at Carolyn’s during games. Maybe it hasn’t really reached East Georgia.

I agree that it shouldn’t be hard to get support, but it is. And I see Clempson tags, FSU tags, TN tags, Florida tags, Auburn tags and Bama tags. Kills me.

- FOW

by skandrewj62j on Dec 10, 2025 12:12 PM EST up reply actions

You do realize that if Carolina loses this game, they will have only won one more game than in the 2006 season, despite actually playing an extra game this year. That’s all I’m saying. I think this whole thing about this season being some milestone is a little blown out of proportion. If it’s a milestone, it’s only one ‘cause the rest of the division laid down for us. If it was a normal year in the SEC East, we’d be talking about firing Spurrier right now, ‘cause it would be more of the same. The team didn’t improve. The offense got better, and the defense got worse. Result? It would’ve been the same old seven or eight wins had Florida, Tenn., and Georgia not gone to sleep.

stuff 'bout stuff.

by silver82blade on Dec 10, 2025 5:36 PM EST reply actions

Isn't it fun to have opposing viewpoints?

Us fans have to do something to pass the time between this long stretch of no televised basketball games, or football games.

stuff 'bout stuff.

by silver82blade on Dec 10, 2025 6:15 PM EST up reply actions

Here's an opposing viewpoint for you.

Maybe nobody would be talking as much about the rest of the East being so down if we hadn’t stepped up and whipped the Big Three. That works both ways.

And yes, opposing viewpoints are fun.

Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.

by Gamecock Man on Dec 10, 2025 6:21 PM EST up reply actions

It's hard to argue that it isn't down when you review everyone's records.

It’s not going to matter…we’re winning this game. I have to believe it. I will believe it.

SAY IT WITH ME, DAMN IT!

Paige's sparking personality is intoxicating; her beauty breathtaking; her intellectual prowess incomprehensible to mortals. Her radiance...her luster...drive men mad. Her omnipotence dangerous, yet alluring. It is her power that ensures gravity remains constant; her genius that inspires. She is not only responsible for the Earth's rotation, but may cure what ails the heart with a glance. I am Paige's pool boy...a serf to her ladyship. I am at her beck and call. I bow to her. I am not worthy. War Eagle.

-Auburn-USC Sig Bet Debt Repaid

by Uhaul on Dec 10, 2025 11:07 PM EST up reply actions