Memorable South Carolina wins over Georgia in 2000, 2001 helped turn program around
“You got to have a dream,” the actress who played the role of Bloody Mary sang in the Broadway production of South Pacific. “If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”
So, maybe University of South Carolina fans took that philosophy to heart and harbored dreams of success in the early days of the 2000 football season.
But did they believe in the days approaching the Gamecocks’ annual battle against Georgia?
There was Georgia — No. 9 in the national rankings, favorite in the Southeastern Conference’s eastern division over Florida and Tennessee, and led by a Heisman hopeful named Quincy Carter.
And there were the Gamecocks — one win removed from a 21-game losing streak and consigned to the SEC cellar in the pundits’ preseason forecasts.
But, as Bloody Mary sang, “You got to have a dream ...”
The Carolina players had that dream. More important, they had belief.
Certainly, their coach, Lou Holtz, did.
Mike McGee once revealed a few days afterward that Holtz “had called his shot.”
McGee, then USC’s director of athletics and now deceased, liked to visit with his football coach the day before games and said he found Holtz brimming with confidence that Friday in September 23 years ago. “Lou said we’re going to win,” McGee said.
Asked about that conversation during a round of golf the next year, Holtz would not say he “knew” the Gamecocks would prevail, but he thought “we would play well” based on practice-field performances.
The Gamecocks did just that, shocking the college football world in the first of back-to-back USC-Georgia games that the Carolina faithful should always treasure.
▪ 2000 at Williams-Brice Stadium: South Carolina 21, Georgia 10 in a battle the Gamecocks dominated. The win snapped an 18-game SEC losing streak for the Gamecocks.
▪ 2001 at Sanford Stadium: South Carolina 14, Georgia 9 in a clash that saw the Gamecocks take the lead, fend off challenge after challenge, lose the lead and win at the end.
Different sites, different scenarios, but the same results: a couple of the finest hours in USC football lore.
2000: Quincy Carter intercepted 5 times
The Gamecocks have stunned Georgia on more than one occasion through the years, including handing the Bulldogs their only loss in 1959 and engineering an upset for the ages in 2019.
Put Carolina’s 2000 win on that list for shock value.
“There was a lot of trash talk coming out of Athens, things like there were holes in our defense,” Dennis Quinn, one of USC’s stalwarts, remembered in recalling the 2000 game. “We took it personal.”
Plus, he said: “I’m from Georgia, about an hour from Athens. A lot of us were (Georgia natives). That game’s always special for us.”
Still, the Gamecocks had lost 21 straight games — including all 11 in their first season under Holtz — prior to opening the 2000 campaign with a 31-0 win over New Mexico State.
“But we had confidence (in 2000),” said Quinn, a defensive end who collected two of the five interceptions thrown by Quincy Carter. “Even though we didn’t win a game the year before, we had been improving all the time.”
Georgia marched to a quick touchdown that day, but the Gamecocks countered to forge a 7-7 tie. Back came Georgia and ... in stepped Andre Goodman.
“I was surprised. I didn’t think he was going to throw it,” Goodman told reporters after the game. The intended receiver “was this third option, and it was easy to tell. He looked me off the first time, looked toward (USC cornerback) Sheldon (Brown), then down the middle before throwing across his body, and I made a good break on it.”
Goodman returned the interception 70 yards inside the Georgia 5-yard line, and Derek Watson scored the second of his three touchdowns to give USC a 14-7 lead.
After those first two drives, Georgia managed only 84 yards total offense and three first downs, Carter completed 6 of 19 passes for 55 yards and threw five interceptions.
“Our defense showed out,” Carolina running back/slot receiver Ryan Brewer said in reflecting on the 2000 victory. “Five picks ... DQ (Quinn) got two, Andre, Sheldon, Rashad (Faison) all got one. The defensive line, linebackers ... they were so good. The defense won that game.”
Quinn remembers his first interception came after dropping into coverage on a zone blitz and, he said, “on the second one, he threw it right to me.”
Not surprisingly, “the fans were going crazy,” he said.
With the lead and believing in his defense, Holtz turned ultra-conservative on offense. The Gamecocks finally put the game out of reach with a fourth-quarter touchdown following Faison’s interception.
“Even though we went 0-11, we had confidence to start that season,” Brewer said. “We knew what we had done in the offseason, in spring ball and in fall camp. We knew how hard we had worked, and we felt we were ‘there.’ That game created a snowball effect. We could take on the world.”
The Gamecocks used the win for a springboard to an 8-4 record, climbed as high as 17th in the national rankings and climaxed the season by waxing Ohio State 24-7 in the Outback Bowl.
2001: Phil Petty to Brian Scott game-winner
A year later, the Bulldogs had not forgotten.
“I think it’s safe to say they won’t sneak up on us again,” Georgia’s all-star offensive tackle said in previewing the 2001 USC-Georgia game that turned out to be another night to remember for the Gamecocks.
Georgia dominated much of the game, but the Gamecocks certified as real its 2000 change from a team with promises to one of promise.
Carolina would muster only 43 yards rushing on 36 attempts. Quarterback Phil Petty led the team on the ground with 21 yards. Derek Watson, hampered by cramps, mustered 13 on eight carries.
“Super defense,” Quinn said, and, of course, Petty’s completions on three third-and-long situations in a last-gasp drive to cherish always will have a prominent place in Carolina lore.
The Gamecocks allowed 282 yards, only 99 in the second half, in the 14-9 win. Georgia, playing its first season under coach Mark Richt and with new quarterback David Greene, got inside the USC red zone twice and had possession inside the 30 four other times, yet mustered only three field goals.
Sparked by Watson’s 66-yard return of the opening kickoff — key blocks by Brewer and Lenny Williams — USC scored quickly for a 7-0 lead.
Holtz turned conservative again, relying on his defense, and his defense delivered.
The Bulldogs moved to the Carolina 8-yard line in the second quarter, but a Georgia receiver dropped a sure TD pass before Willie Offord intercepted Greene’s next throw.
In the third period, Georgia reached the Gamecocks’ 20 before Langston Moore blocked Billy Bennett’s 37-yard field goal attempt.
“I came through so fast (the ball) actually hit my face mask,” Moore said after the game. “Everybody did their job on the play, and that allowed me to get through.”
Georgia kept threatening and the Gamecocks kept throwing up stop signs.
USC nursed a 7-6 lead into the fourth quarter, but Georgia returned a Watson fumble to the Carolina 10-yard line. A penalty moved the ball to the 5. Georgia got the 1 before a false start penalty pushed the ball to the 6. After no gain and a delay penalty, the Bulldogs settled for a field goal.
“Our motto is, ‘Don’t flinch,’ ” Moore said.
Trailing for the first time, 9-7, with 3:17 remaining, the Gamecocks took the ball at their 33-yard line. But with their offense throttled since their opening drive, what chance did they have?
“We felt confident,” Brewer said.
And Petty and Carolina put together The Drive.
Petty completed three third-and-long passes — the first to Brewer for 16 yards across the middle, the second to Matthew Thomas for 32 yards on a deep pattern and the third to Brian Scott for 16 yards and a touchdown.
Scott had called for the ball, telling Holtz “I can make a play.” And he did. “The ball actually hit the guy’s shoulder pad,” Scott said afterward. “It was man coverage and I felt I could beat him.”
The victory provided a springboard to a 9-3 season that included a victory over Alabama, a climb to ninth in the polls and another triumph over Ohio State in the Outback Bowl.
Now, in 2023, the Gamecocks encounter another Georgia team, this one the two-time defending national champions and No. 1 in the polls, and the oddmakers favor the Bulldogs by a big margin.
That sounds about right, but remember the precedent from a generation ago. And remember Bloody Mary’s words: “You got to have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”
The 8 USC wins over Georgia since 2000
Sept. 9, 2000: South Carolina 21, No. 9 Georgia 10 (home)
Sept. 8, 2001: No. 21 South Carolina 14, No. 25 Georgia 9 (away)
Sept. 8, 2007: South Carolina 16, No. 11 Georgia 12 (away)
Sept. 11, 2010: No. 24 South Carolina 17, No. 22 Georgia 6 (home)
Sept. 10, 2011: No. 12 South Carolina 45, Georgia 42 (away)
Oct. 6, 2012: No. 6 South Carolina 35, No. 5 Georgia 7 (home)
Sept. 13, 2014: No. 24 South Carolina 38, No. 6 Georgia 35 (home)
Oct. 12, 2019: South Carolina 20, No. 3 Georgia 17 (2 OT)
