It feels like the bowl game was forever ago, I know. We came back from Jacksonville, and me and D both got sick. It took us both a full week before we were better, and even now, we both still have some symptoms.
In a game that originally seemed like we were going to walk away with it. We just ran out of gas. This is the world we live in now. When you lose a number of your top players on Defense, and a number of your contributors on Offense, it makes it hard to win games against tough opponents.
Don't get me wrong, Notre Dame had plenty of players out as well. I jokingly called it the "What scholarship players are left on each team Bowl".
Either way, it was still a really good game.
There were actually a lot of guys still out there playing, and a number of them had really good games. I always hate naming names because you're never going to give everyone credit and then someone gets upset because they were left out.
Off the top of my head, the standout performances were Kai with another TD pass, Boogie made numerous great plays, Gwyn finished his career with some really nice Oline play, and former Gamecock Jordan Burch seemed to be all over the place.
But as we began to run out of gas and ND was standing on the 7-ish, up a TD, and about to score with a little over 8 minutes in the 4th quarter. One man, literally, stepped up and brought us back into the game.
Buchner dropped back, looked over the field, this guy read his eyes and started moving, and as Buchner released the ball ... O'Donnell Fortune ATE EM UP and took the interception 100+ yards back to the house to tie the ball game back up.
We all know how the game went from there, but this extremely young defense with their backs against the wall, and seemingly inevitable loss looming, refused to go away and give up.
That tells you all you need to know about the program that Coach Beamer is building at South Carolina.
And that's also why, O'Donnell Fortune is the Ate Em Up winner against Notre Dame in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
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