You can ask most people that I know, I'm not really a person who can tell you what they are doing a month in advance. I usually tend to just play everything by ear but that changed on November 7 at about 8:00 PM, because as soon as Clemson defeated Florida State to basically win the ACC Atlantic my plans for December 5 were set, I was going to be going to watch my beloved Tigers play for the ACC Championship in Charlotte that day.
In a season that has been a special one for Clemson, there was only one way to finish out an undefeated run through the ACC regular season and that was to take home the trophy from Charlotte. I had never been to an ACC Championship game before, in fact the closest to a game of this magnitude I had been to was when my brother and myself watched Clemson claim the ACC Atlantic Championship in Death Valley against Virginia in 2009. This game was different though, the Tigers were rolling into Charlotte undefeated with not only an ACC Championship on the line but a chance to get into the Playoffs for a chance at the National Championship. We, myself, my brother and his girlfriend, arrived in Charlotte at around 3:30 on Saturday afternoon as all of downtown Charlotte had turned into one big party. With all of the rowdy Clemson and North Carolina football fans dominating most of downtown Charlotte, I could only imagine what the people arriving for the Billy Joel concert just down the road at Time Warner Cable arena were thinking. We parked about six blocks from the stadium but the whole walk to the stadium saw us passing tailgates (mostly Orange clad ones) and just groups of people excited to be in Charlotte for the game. As we got to the stadium there was even more excitement as the ACC Fest had begun. The first thing I noticed was an autograph session of ACC Legends was going on where I saw Tony Dorsett (Yes, I know he never played in the ACC but it's a NFL Hall of Famer five feet from me, like you would care at that point either), Bobby Ross, Warrick Dunn, and former Spartanburg High and Clemson great Anthony Simmons. After seeing them I heard a large roar come from across the street from the Dr. Pepper viewing area and people were cheering as Florida had just taken a 7-2 lead over Alabama. After a few free samples of Dr, Pepper (okay maybe I was rivaling Forrest Gump on how many Dr, Peppers I had drank but they were just handing out free samples) it was almost time to enter the stadium for the game. On the walk to the stadium gates I got a picture with the Duke Blue Devil, who clearly was not pulling for UNC, but got into a conversation with a Tarheel fan. I don't remember a lot about our conversation, it was a lot of compliments and jabs at the other team, but the one thing I remember him saying was "Hell, I had to come to this game, you never know when it's going to happen again" and that's when it hit me, instead of being that Clemson fan that worried about what might go wrong, it was time to just start enjoying this season. We arrived at our seats in the upper deck above the Clemson endzone just in time to see the start of warm-ups and the hopes of Florida get diminished on the big screen as Alabama took a commanding lead. It started becoming obvious as the crowd filed in that this game was going to be like a home game away from Death Valley for the Tigers, with over 80 percent of the crowd being decked out in all orange. When it was finally game time, the Tigers took to the field to Tiger Rag and were welcomed by the large contingency of their fans spelling out Clemson that had to echo throughout all of Charlotte. I can see it now just down the road, Piano Man with background vocals from the Clemson fan base. I'm not going to recap the whole game for you, as I figure if you're reading this you probably either watched the game or know what happened, but more capture a few moments from the game. One moment I remember vividly was the targeting penalty getting called and needless to say the whole fan base was not in favor of that call and one gentleman even suggested what the ACC could go do to itself. I also remember how the whole fan base as one held our breath and then cheered as DeShaun found Leggett in the endzone to give us the lead at halftime after a very stressful first half. I can still hear the sigh of relief that was breathed when we all realized that DeShaun had returned to the game after the injury scare. The one thing I remember the most though is the excitement and jubilation from all the Clemson fans as we realized that we had just won the ACC and were going to the playoff for a National Championship. There were fans high-fiving and hugging people they had never met before but we were all members of the Clemson fan base and we had all gone through the trials of this season and game together, it was time to enjoy this victory. After the game had been over for about fifteen minutes we decided to start making our way out of the stadium and I began to look around as the excitement from every Clemson fan was obvious, as the whole way down the escalator you could hear the continuing cheer of "1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, C-L-E-M-S-O-N, T-I-G-E-R-S, FIGHT TIGERS, FIGHT TIGERS, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!!" When we made it out to the street there were Clemson fans still just wandering around the streets, high-fiving and cheering. It was like nobody wanted to leave that moment and just soak it all in, we were finally on our way back to compete for another National Championship. As I walked back to the car I began to think how glad I was that I had made it to this game and got to watch my team play its way to an ACC Championship and a chance at the National Championship. I was glad that I made those plans early and decided to come to this game. I then was reminded of the words from the North Carolina fan as I continued to celebrate my teams victory, "Hell, I had to come to this game, you never know when it's going to happen again."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
JamesBoiling Springs native, lover of sports and food. 15x SC Press Association Award Winner. I do some sports writing and radio every now and then. Archives
April 2020
Categories |