South Carolina football won its best Valentine’s Day gift 10 years ago.
Exactly 10 years later, South Carolina football fans can recall perhaps the sweetest Valentine’s Day present in the program’s 113 seasons. At the time, Gamecocks were chasing a defensive edge that became the most highly rated prospect in the history of recruiting services.
Fortunately for Gamecocks, he was located far ahead in Rock Hill, South Carolina. This player, as you may already know, was the defender of the entire conference and eventual number one in overall choice Jadeveon Clowney.
Clowney conquered the world with his talent and the main highlights of high school. The end was a man among boys, 1.80 m tall and possessing the speed and strength to attack the opposing offensive lines. He even played a little running back throughout his career, showing his unbelievable athletics.
Despite attracting the interest of all the major universities in the country, his recruitment ended up focusing on the hometown Gamecocks and the power of Alabama. A rumor throughout the recruitment process was that Clowney visited Columbia for his 2010 showdown with defending national champion Crimson Tide, saying he would commit to the school that won the contest.
The Gamecocks and Stephen Garcia would defeat Alabama 35-21, ending a sequence of 19 consecutive wins and achieving the first victory over an opponent at the top of the program’s history. This rumor has not yet been confirmed, but it is a great story.
Clowney’s recruitment, while highly anticipated, was relatively quiet in terms of media exposure and interviews. The high school did not like the spotlight and rarely bothered to speak to the recruiting services.
That silence made his decision much more interesting and certainly made people nervous when he chose to postpone his engagement date to Valentine’s Day (his birthday) 2011, instead of announcing it on National Signature Day. Of course, some of those nerves relaxed, at least for Gamecocks fans, when the stallion’s defender took the podium in garnet and black.
Luckily for Gamecocks, he chose to stay home and pursue a career at All-SEC for three seasons. He still holds the record for most sacks and tackles for defeats in one season, and made perhaps the most viral hit in the sport’s history at the end of its second year. His three seasons in Colombia were the best three-year mark in the program’s history, with South Carolina winning 33 games from 2011-2013.
Gamecocks can look back on that day in mid-February, a decade ago, with memories of the best Valentine’s Day gift the program has ever received.