When Clemson and South Carolina get together, things get tense and heated. Just take a look at the pregame scene in Death Valley tonight as the Tigers and Gamecocks prepared to renew their rivalry.
As is customary with rivalry games, the teams got into a pregame pushing and shouting match that needed to be broken up by coaches, staffers, and security.
Okay, nothing too bad here, and certainly nothing we haven’t seen this season when it comes to pregame shenanigans. And considering the history of this particular rivalry, this is very tame compared to past incidents between the two in-state rivals.
It’s also somewhat routine for the head coaches to spend a couple minutes chatting with each other before the game as the teams go through their warmups. As South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp was making his way to midfield for a brief pregame chat with his coaching counterpart from Clemson, Dabo Swinney, Muschamp appeared to realize such an interaction was not going to happen as Clemson seemed to gather together and wrap up warmups. Swinney was nowhere to be seen, so Muschamp decided he made the effort and wasn’t going to stand around any longer looking like a fool.
Coach Muschamp goes to shake Dabo's hand, waves it off. Tensions higher. @wachfox #Gamecocks #SouthCarolina pic.twitter.com/ep4MZInl6n
— Matt Dowell (@MattDowellTV) November 27, 2016
But hold on! Here is photo evidence the two coaches did in fact have that pregame handshake…
— Bulldog Baseball (@mchs_Baseball01) November 27, 2016
So perhaps this was all juts a misunderstanding? You guys really should exchange emails before the game so something like this doesn’t happen again.
Just for good measure, a dip into the archives…
