Pulling for the garnet

COLUMBIA -- So few days until The Enormous Game, so many ideas on how to improve the product.

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Instead of having kids dress up in their favorite colors for the same ol' "Spirit Day" stuff at elementary and middle schools across this great state of ours, why not allow truly spirited children to fight it out on the playground with orange and garnet paint-filled balloons?

Or maybe South Carolina can win the game Saturday and make it a real rivalry again.

It has come to this: Lots of Gamecocks fans fear the worst and most Tigers fans, given the choice, would rather defeat Georgia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game next week than South Carolina this week.

"Because," the conventional rationalization goes, "we always beat South Carolina and surely we have to lose in Columbia one of these years."

Where have you gone, Brad Edwards?

Clemson is 9-1 in Columbia since Edwards returned an interception for a touchdown in South Carolina's 20-7 victory in 1987.

Overall, the Tigers have won 10 of the last 12 in the series.

Clemson probably will win again. Note that many official lines for the game opened at even but, obviously, when the smart guys at the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace saw The Post and Courier's Braggin' Rights Barometer tilt to Clemson by 7, the pointspread suddenly shifted 3 points the Tigers' way.

Concerned committees of objective citizens know South Carolina needs this one worse than mosquitoes need a publicist.

'Better teams'

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said on Tuesday at his weekly news conference he didn't want to look back.

"I don't have the answer for that," he said when ask about Clemson's recent series dominance. "I just feel like talking about the past absolutely does us no good. I'm worried about the game this week. I really believe the game this Saturday will stand on its own merit like all games do.

Hopefully, we can put together our best effort of the year. Hopefully, we can play without some crucial errors that have hampered us."

Spurrier added a short, excellent explanation: "Maybe they've had better teams than South Carolina."

The Head Ball Coach didn't want to look too far ahead, either.

"We don't need to talk about that," he said when asked how much a conquest of Clemson might mean to a team loaded with young contributors. "We need to talk about what we need to do to put ourselves in position to be successful. That's what we need to concern ourselves with. Sometimes I think all of our players need to do a better job of that, just keep competing throughout the game rather than worrying about the win or the loss."

Oh, Atlanta

Remember, just this very season Clemson was 2-3 at the exact same time South Carolina was 5-1.

No. 15 Clemson at 8-3 can win 11 games, win its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship since Ken Hatfield was coaching players recruited by Danny Ford and win the Orange Bowl.

South Carolina, at 6-5, is unranked.

"We're not where we hope to be someday," Spurrier said.

Indeed, this first class of South Carolina seniors fully recruited by Spurrier never did get to Atlanta for a Southeastern Conference championship game as planned. But there is plenty of glory available.

In fact, maybe these Gamecocks can get to Atlanta after all, for the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

It starts with the kind of effort that wins state championships and spreads garnet all over the playground.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com or 937-5593.