ATHENS, Ga., to COLUMBIA - Any Southerner so inclined could start a Saturday with breakfast at Cracker Barrel and end it with a late night snack at Waffle House. That's no big thing.
The real trick is squeezing in lunch and dinner in two major college stadiums 180 miles apart.
It's not often you can spend a college game day with 170,000 people in two locations seeing if one team can play its way into a conference championship spot and if two others can simply play nice together.
Saturday was one of those rare days when you didn't have to choose one big game over another, thus alienating one readership clique in a two-state coverage area.
So the day started in Sanford Stadium, where the 1980 national championship team was honored on its 25th anniversary. It ended in Williams-Brice Stadium.
It started with the Georgia Bulldogs snapping a two-game losing streak in division-clinching games. It ended with the South Carolina Gamecocks trying to snap a three-game losing streak to Clemson in the most important game the two play every year.
This day on the calendar is always reserved for the Tigers and Gamecocks. But since for the first time in its Southeastern Conference history South Carolina had something at stake, it seemed only natural to start the day at Sanford Stadium.
Any sane person knew that Georgia finally had an opponent it could handle to secure the SEC East title and a spot in the Georgia Dome. When Kentucky, however, had a punt
return touchdown nullified and led 3-0 in the second quarter, the comatose crowd had to wonder whether the Bulldogs might choke away a third chance.
How was the East finally won? With a fake punt. Once Gordon Ely-Kelso went sprinting up the field for 34 yards and a first down, the tide had irrevocably turned and the Wildcats turned back into pumpkins ripe to be smashed.
By halftime, the Dawgs were safely in command, 24-3, and it was time to hit the road to Columbia.
The obituary on the Gamecocks' remote SEC hopes were officially over when Loren Smith started singing Turn Out the Lights and Larry Munson babbled something about the Dawgs "probably going to the Peach."
"Finally, we won the East," Georgia coach Mark Richt said.
One down. One to go.
Would Steve Spurrier and South Carolina get to say something similar? "Finally, we won the state."
Clemson has owned this series for the last century and renewed its lease during the last decade. Tommy Bowden was 5-1 against former Gamecocks heavyweight coach Lou Holtz. Now Holtz's players were in the hands of a better tactician.
A year after the ugliest incident in the rivalry's 103-year history cost both schools the privilege of playing in a postseason bowl, the Gamecocks and Tigers started the night off with a handshake. The players lined up from 30 to 30 and walked to midfield to officially bury the hate that has too often consumed these flagship programs.
Spurrier is uniter, not a divider. He even shook hands with the son of the coach he loved to torment in his former haunt.
Once the game started, the teams renewed their bitter competitiveness and Spurrier hatched a new chapter in his long-standing coaching saga against the Bowden clan.
Spurrier was 5-8-1 against Bobby's Florida State team and 4-2 against Terry's Auburn. He could raise his overall mark vs. the Bowdens to a level .500 with his first taste of Tommy.
With a partisan crowd in a much more frenzied state than Georgia's faithful was earlier, Spurrier's Gamecocks brought Clemson down to their level for most of the night. South Carolina hasn't been pretty all year, but it's been winning.
It looked like the pattern might hold up against the Tigers. The Gamecocks were winning the field-goal war 9-6 deep into the fourth quarter and had backed Clemson up to a first-and-35 situation that didn't look promising.
But Bowden Tigers remembered who they were and who they were playing, converted the first-down yardage in three plays and finally found the end zone to take a 13-7 lead with 5:58 remaining.
Spurrier didn't have the talent or the magic this time. Clemson hung on for a 13-9 win.
So the day started with a blowout and ended with a barnburner. The big college feast before Thanksgiving was over. It was time to get back into traffic at make tracks back to Waffle House and home.
With two results going against them, the only thing smothered, covered and diced were the Gamecocks.
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
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