USC IN OUTBACK BOWL, CLEMSON GETS CHICK-FIL-A BID
The University of South Carolina football team will face a Big Ten opponent in a New Year’s Day bowl game for the second straight year as it seeks to match last year’s school record for victories – and earn a second consecutive Top Ten finish.
The tenth-ranked Gamecocks (10-2, 6-2 SEC) will face Michigan in the 2013 Outback Bowl – the school’s fourth appearance in the Tampa, Florida bowl. USC beat Ohio State in back-to-back Outback bowls following the 2000 and 2001 seasons – however the Gamecocks were humbled by Iowa in the 2009 installment of the game.
Last year the Gamecocks raced by Big Ten foe Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl – securing the program’s first ever 11-win season.
The Wolverines (8-4, 6-2 Big Ten) – ranked No. 18 in the country – will be playing in their third Outback Bowl (they lost to Alabama in 1994 and beat Florida in 2002). However Michigan won this bowl twice when it was known as the All-American Bowl.
These teams have played each other just twice – with USC edging Michigan 17-14 on the road in 1980 (George Rogers’ Heisman Trophy season) and getting blown out by the Wolverines 34-3 at home in 1985.
Obviously this is a different Gamecock program, though. After posting just one 10-win season through its first 116 years – head coach Steve Spurrier’s team has won thirty games in its last three seasons.
While the Gamecocks are heading to Florida for New Year’s, their in-state rivals are heading to Atlanta to face off against SEC powerhouse LSU. Clemson – which missed out on a second straight Bowl Championship Series bid thanks to its loss to South Carolina – has drawn the most difficult possible Chick-fil-A bowl matchup.
Head coach Dabo Swinney’s fourteenth-ranked Tigers (10-2, 7-1 ACC) must go up against Les Miles’ eighth-ranked Bayou Bengals (10-2, 6-2 SEC) – who boast one of the nation’s most stringent defenses. LSU’s only losses on the year came against No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Florida. In fact were it not for last-minute touchdown surrendered to the Crimson Tide, the Tigers could have easily been playing for the national championship.
Clemson has won a pair of Chick-fil-A/ Peach Bowls against SEC opponents – defeating Kentucky in 1993 and Tennessee in 2004. However the Tigers have dropped four of their last five – losing to LSU in 1996, Auburn in 1998, Mississippi State in 1999 and Auburn again in 2007.
Last season Swinney’s team was humiliated by West Virginia in the 2012 Orange Bowl – giving up a bowl-record 70 points to the Mountaineers.
What are your 2012-13 bowl predictions? Vote in our polls and post your thoughts in our comments section below …
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31 comments
Both should be good match ups. I look forward to 2 good games on those days.
SHOULD be TWO Blow-outs.
SC should beat the crap out of over-rated Mich. And Clemson has NO Chance vs LSU…
The NCAA needs to get off its @$$ and start running college football, like it has some sense…instead of screwing it up…
We wait a month to play a bunch of lop-sided bowl games, that reward Sorry-@$$ conferences like the ACC, at the expense of the teams (like SC) who MAKE the NCAA…
Time to man up NCAA…you are pulling an Obama…(and I’m sure about all of you voted for him)….
Why aint you in school today, did the short bus break down?
little t,
Thanks for letting me know the results of the game almost a month before they are played. Now I know not to buy any tickets since the results are known.
BTW. Perhaps you should check into WHY bowl games exist. It is about MONEY. You know, hotel rooms, meals, etc.
The main income source for the NCAA is their basketball tournament. Football is not a revenue source for the NCAA. Bowls, conferences, schools, and/or the BCS decide who goes where not the NCAA.
If all of the NCAA voted for Obama, then all (or at least a majority)of USCe voted for Obama as USCe is a member of the NCAA.
Should be real easy to get tickets.
Both will be good games. Two games in in two days. This is great exposure for South Carolina (at least in football). This state needs something positive for us “good guys who care”.
—– and “gals who care”.
BIG T is right. Louisville in the Sugar Bowl, Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl? Come on Man!
This is a joke.
They had to put in somebody that the ACC might beat.
BigT – leave obama out of this because we don’t want to hear about his crap for a while. GO COCKS! – GO TIGERS!
We will kill LSwho!
Jim, where have you been hiding since his dabo lost to dem coots again?
He should crawl back under his rock along with his boyfriend CNSYD.
never really had a problem with CNSYD. He should not have hid after the loss, so lost some points while MIA for a week there, but he really doenst say dumb things just to say them like lispy Jim Sweet. Now I dont agree with CNSYD much, but with him you can go back and forth sometimes and its all in fun, as long as you dont sound like Big T either. He does make the rest of us Gamecocks look bad. Either way I dont know if Clemsdn will win or lose, but its going to be a good game to watch. I am sure the Gamecocks should beat Michigan though. Any spread out yet?
Saluda and haha,
Wasn’t hiding. Just doing the grandparent visiting kids and grand kids thing at Thanksgiving.
Saluda,
I would have assumed that you had figured out that Jim Sweet is a plant like Big T. Sic Willie uses them to bump up his hit totals.
haha, Haven’t seen a line for USC-UM but have “heard” the opening line is LSU -7 in that game.
CNSYD is lying. He goes into hiding down memory lane (not with the grands) after Clemson gets jail-raped by the University of South Carolina, a frequent event in modern history. The Alzheimer’s-ravaged CNSYD cares anything about the present, except for the physical presence of little boys. Like most centenarians and dementia patients, he looks to the past because – like the Clemson Tigers – he has no future.
SOSpurrier,
my short term memory seems to work irt the Clemson-USCe basketball game played yesterday. But perhaps you are correct that USCe football players are very familiar with jail rape as they probably practice at Richland detention center.
Ooooooh, Wow! Another real zinger. No comeback to that one.
Oh, Jimbo, LSU will pummel that soft Tater offensive line. Then the tater faithful will be all over the innerwebs complaining that LSU’s players were mean and their fans just as bad. Then out will come the newest excuse – the ACC is just too hard academically. Pfffft. What crock of shit.
My money’s on the Tigers in the Chick-fil-A bowl…
I can tell you got more smarts than most, Sonny. You from Sumter County or Clarendon?
I guess this will decide where the “real” Death Valley is? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good luck with all that, Taters!
The Georgia Dome is known as Death Valley?
No, the Georgia Dome is not known as Death Valley, is known as the Georgia Dome. My point — which only you would miss — is that two of the schools that call their stadiums “Death Valley” will be playing each other and the winner will likely lay claim to greater standing for claiming its stadium to be the only Death Valley of note. Although, since LSU called its stadium Death Valley first, and Clemson sadly copied them later, the average college football fan would say that LSU is the “real” or “original” Death Valley.
SOSpurrier,
Pop quiz for you. When was Clemson’s stadium first called Death Valley and by whom? Be careful as it might explode your theory.
Answer: Yawn.
One of the downsides to playing in the SEC is when bowl time comes around and your team didn’t win the SEC championship. This year no fewer that six of the top ten hail for the SEC. Which means that SEC teams have less of a chance to move up in the rankings than other teams do.
If Clemson handles LSU they’ll move up. If USC beats Michigan who knows?
The ACC needs to be eliminated from the BCS bowls…unless they are Undefeated (like the MAC)…
That said: I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE to see NIU kick FSU’s @$$…
I just wish Clemson would have gotten Boise last year…that would have been even funnier than what (70 pts) actually happened…
little t,
when the conferences who comprise the BCS met and setup the present system, did they ask your opinion? didn’t think so.
CNSYD, t is not capable of having an opinion. What he has is a little string comming out the back of his head that when pulled just keeps saying the same thing over and over again.Lisa
Don’t really understand the ACC bashingn I mean every confrence outside of the SEC is about the same.