Garnet and Black Attack turns ten today

Ten years ago today, when you turned on the radio, you were probably hearing a lot of Nelly Furtado, Fergie, and Justin Timberlake on your local Top 40 station. It’s likely you were quoting a few lines from Talladega Nights or Snakes On a Plane or whichever other movies that came out that year. If you were a Gamecocks fan (which, we’re assuming, you are, since you’re reading this site), you were hoping that the former national champion Head Ball Coach that South Carolina hired a year prior would eventually lead the team to the promised land.

Well, a lot’s changed in ten years. (Some things haven’t, because we still can’t seem to get away from Timberlake on the radio.) Today just so happens to be the 10th anniversary of what is now Garnet and Black Attack, formerly known as Cock & Fire. The old is blog actually still up if you’d like to take a look. A few thoughts came to mind while reading it...

“Wait, Joe Person used to be the Gamecocks’ beat writer before he joined the Panthers’ beat?”

“Whatever happened to Troy Smith?”

“Man, Tennessee was dumb to give that extension to Philip Fulmer.”

“Guess that ‘Plus-1’ idea they had for the playoff system didn’t work out.”

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. And while it’s kind of funny to see how Brandon picked the SEC finishing order in 2007 (at least he was right about Vandy being bad, which is like shooting fish in a barrel), it’s also very eerie to see how the sporting landscape has changed in ten years. But it’s easy to gain a great deal of appreciation of the number of hours he put into it, his analysis, and his ability to transition it over to SB Nation and see it take off from there.

But here we are ten years later. Sam and I have taken the keys to the car and have seen GABA continue to grow even more. The names and the faces have changed, but the goal is the same: to inform, educate, and entertain Gamecocks fans everywhere. That has been and will be our goal for as long as we’re around. And while we will be quick to celebrate our teams’ successes on and off the field, we pride ourselves in being objective, but fair, when things don’t go as well. With a sense of humor mixed in.

So here’s to the countless people who have given their time and talents as managers over the past ten years: from Brandon, who started this whole thing a decade ago today, to Connor, John (Gamecock Man), ChickenHoops (Kyle), Kaci - to my co-manager, Sam. To countless staff past and present, however long you were with us, your work over the years has been invaluable. To the thousands of readers who read and comment on this site every day, we hope that we’ve done well by you and Gamecocks fans everywhere. To the SB Nation/Vox Media team, starting with Blez, Jim Bankoff and all the way down the line, thanks for coming alongside the site back in 2007 and for helping it grow into what it is today.

As we launch forward into our next decade, no one knows how things will look on August 24, 2026. I’d hope that GABA was still around and that the Gamecocks had won a few national championships in football. But however long this site’s in existence, whether it’s for another five, fifteen or fifty years, we’re going to keep striving to be the best Gamecocks blog around, through the good times and the bad.

Thanks again for everything, guys. Here’s to the next ten years.