The Georgiaâ€"South Carolina football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Georgia Bulldogs and South Carolina Gamecocks. The rivalry started in 1894, and has been played annually since the Gamecocks joined the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1992. Georgia leads the series 50â€"18â€"2.
Emergence of the rivalry
2017 NCAA Football Week 9: Georgia at Florida -
Traditionally, Georgia has had three main rivals: Georgia Tech, Auburn, and Florida.
- The two schools played periodically until South Carolina's entrance into the SEC in 1992.
- Recruiting battles have always existed between the two, but intensified due to South Carolina's success under head coach Steve Spurrier.
- Georgia's fan base has disliked former South Carolina football coach, Steve Spurrier, since his days as head coach at the University of Florida.
- The last 14 games have been nationally televised, dating back to 1997 (6 on ESPN2, 4 on ESPN and 3:30 on CBS).
They’ve got more rivals than almost anybody I know. They really do. Traditionally, we’ve only had Clemson because we haven’t beaten anybody enough to have any more rivals. Georgia, I’ve always said, is our biggest conference rival since they’re closest to us, I think, than any other school.
Notable games
- 1980: One of the most memorable games was the 1980 game between Heisman Trophy hopefuls George Rogers and Herschel Walker. Led by Walker's 219 rushing yards, Georgia won 13â€"10 and went on to win the national title. Rogers turned in 168 rushing yards in the contest, setting the stage for a successful finish to his Heisman Trophy campaign.
- 1993: South Carolina defeated #14 Georgia in Athens 23â€"21 when running back Brandon Bennett dove over the pile into the end zone with two seconds left to give South Carolina just their 10th victory ever against Georgia.
- 2000: South Carolina's defense intercepted Heisman Trophy hopeful Quincy Carter five times in a 21â€"10 upset of the #10 Bulldogs in Columbia. The victory broke an 18-game SEC losing streak for the Gamecocks.
- 2002: Georgia linebacker David Pollack batted down and intercepted a pass from South Carolina quarterback Corey Jenkins in the South Carolina end zone. This memorable play jump-started a quiet Georgia team, leading to a 13â€"7 victory.
- 2004: Georgia fell down early 16â€"0 thanks to a pick-six and an amazing touchdown catch and run by Troy Williamson. However, David Greene led a second-half comeback, complete with a deep touchdown pass to Reggie Brown late in the fourth. Georgia won 20â€"16 and kept their SEC hopes alive.
- 2005: D. J. Shockley's first SEC start after being named the player of the week by the SEC for the opener against Boise State. The Heisman campaign by Shockley came crashing down against South Carolina as the Gamecocks stifled the Georgia offense. Georgia would survive and win 17â€"15.
- 2007: South Carolina's second win against Georgia in the Richt era. The Gamecocks won 16â€"12, holding off a late drive by Georgia and recording an interception to end the game.
- 2008: The second-ranked Bulldogs won a low scoring game on particularly hot and humid day in Williams-Brice Stadium. A goal-line fumble forced by Rennie Curran and a late game interception from Reshad Jones preserved an otherwise unimpressive 14â€"7 victory.
- 2009: Considered an instant classic, South Carolina jumped all over the Bulldogs, taking an early 17â€"7 lead, but #21 Georgia stormed back and won a shootout, 41â€"37, sealed by a batted pass in the end zone by linebacker Rennie Curran.
- 2010: The match-up in Columbia highlighted the archetype of the rivalry - a low scoring defensive shootout. #24 South Carolina defeated #22 Georgia 17â€"6, pulling away late in the game. Freshman running back Marcus Lattimore ran for 182 yards on 37 carries in his SEC debut. This victory set the stage for South Carolina's run to the SEC Championship.
- 2011: The 2011 game proved to be almost identical to the 2009 game. The #12 Gamecocks defeated the unranked Bulldogs in Athens 45â€"42. South Carolina defensive end Melvin Ingram became the third player since 2006 to score a touchdown both on offense and defense in the same game, a 68-yard run on a fake punt and a 5-yard fumble return. He also recovered an onside kick late in the game to seal the victory for the Gamecocks. South Carolina was the division leader for the majority of the season until the Gamecocks lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks, resulting in a Bulldog berth in the championship game.
- 2012: #6 South Carolina defeated #5 Georgia 35â€"7 in front of a record crowd (85,199) at Williams-Brice Stadium, the highest-ranked matchup of the teams in series history and the first time the Gamecocks have won three in a row over the Bulldogs.
- 2013: #11 Georgia snapped #6 South Carolina's three game win streak against the Bulldogs. A career day by Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray who had 309 passing yards and 4 touchdowns to go along with 132 rushing yards and touchdown by running back Todd Gurley led the Georgia win.
Schedule change
In most years, since the 1991 SEC conference expansion, the game was the first conference game on the schedule for both teams. The game was typically held during the second week of the season with a non-conference game being played prior. (This was typically the case with a few early exceptions where the game was the first game of the season for both programs.) Due to SEC expansion in 2012, the schedule needed to be modified to accommodate new SEC members Texas A&M and Missouri. These became known as "bridge" schedules because they were meant to be temporary scheduling formats used to bridge the gap between the formats of 5â€"1â€"2, pre-expansion, and 6â€"1â€"1, which was agreed upon by the SEC membership as the new format. The 2012 "bridge" schedule, issued by the SEC home office, moved the UGA-USC game to October 6, 2012. However, in 2013 the SEC offices saw fit, even in the face of issuing another "bridge" schedule, to move the yearly tilt between the two programs back to the second week of the season for each program stating that the game would fill needed conference TV inventory for the early week in the season. At the same time the SEC announced that another "bridge" schedule would be issued for 2014, but that schedule has yet to be released by the SEC home office in Birmingham, Alabama. However, later the SEC released a 2014 schedule that is not a bridge schedule, and also released the future cross-division opponents for each team for the 2014-2025 seasons. Additionally, while USC remained as UGA's first conference game, the first conference game for USC was a week 1 game against Texas A&M. It remains to be seen if this is a permanent change to USC's schedule, as the SEC has yet to release schedules for 2018 and beyond. In 2016, the game was postponed from Saturday October 8 to Sunday October 9 due to the effects of Hurricane Matthew.
Game results
Series record sources: ESPN College Football Encyclopedia College Football Data Warehouse.
Border Bash
The Border Bash is an annual event held in Augusta, Georgia on the banks of the Savannah River celebrating Georgiaâ€"South Carolina rivalry. It is held on the Friday prior to the yearly UGA-USC football game. The event is supported by numerous business and private sponsors from both sides of the river. The evening event regularly draws over 10,000 fans from both fan-bases and proceeds are used to support numerous children's charities from around the CSRA through the Border Bash Foundation. Both mascots, as well as each program's cheerleaders, represent their programs at the event along with various dignitaries from the schools themselves. Neither the football coaches or the ballplayers attend due to conflicts with their pregame preparations.
References
Additional sources
- The Tuscaloosa News - Google News Archive Search
- Waycross Journal-Herald - Google News Archive Search
- No rivalry in area tops Bulldogs vs. Gamecocks | The Augusta Chronicle