From up here in the press box at Williams-Brice Stadium, looking down at a sodden turf and 78,360 fans who slowly watched a guaranteed party transform into a slow-motion heartbreak, you could feel the exact moment the air left the building.
It started with a sky that looked like bruised steel and an 80-minute lightning delay that pushed kickoff back, leaving everyone stewing in the humid Midlands heat. When the lights finally came up, South Carolina looked ready to blow the roof off the place. LaNorris Sellers was slinging it — finishing with 282 yards on 25-of-40 passing — and first-time kicker Malik Orson was dialing in distance, eventually booting four field goals, including a massive 52-yard bomb late in the fourth.
Before Mississippi State could even rub the sleep out of its eyes, the Gamecocks had staked themselves to a 16-0 lead.
Then Kamario Taylor woke up.
Once Taylor settled in, the Bulldogs completely flipped the script. Shrugging off an interception on his very first pass of the night, Taylor delivered an absolute clinic under pressure, throwing for 251 yards and tying his career high with four touchdown passes. He started chipping away with scoring strikes of 30 yards to Sanfrisco Magee and 43 yards to Zion Ragins, before a 23-yard dart to Marquis Johnson pulled Mississippi State within two. A 5-yard toss to Anthony Evans gave the Bulldogs a lead they’d never give back.
It didn’t hurt that tailback Fluff Bothwell was punishing South Carolina through the dirt, gashing the front seven for a season-high 115 rushing yards — his second straight 100-yard outing.
South Carolina clawed back late when Matt Fuller took a 25-yard pass to the house to trim the deficit to 41-31, but the early hole was just too deep. Mississippi State walked out of Columbia with a wild 41-34 comeback win to open SEC play, leaving a stunned home crowd to trudge out into the damp South Carolina night.
Up the Road: Freshmen Magic, Weather Woes at Death Valley
If you thought the weather delay in Columbia was bad, you should have checked the radar up in Clemson.
The Tigers’ clash with North Carolina endured a grueling, stadium-record two-hour and 28-minute fourth-quarter lightning delay. But the real story out of Memorial Stadium was true freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds. Making his first career start, Reynolds joined elite company — standard-bearers like Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence — by engineering a gritty fourth-quarter comeback to seal a 350th all-time win at Death Valley.
Trailing 14-3 early, Clemson rode Reynolds’ arm (20-of-29, 215 yards, 1 TD) and the legs of fellow freshman Gideon Davidson, who broke out for a career-high 105 yards on the ground, including an eight-yard touchdown run late in the fourth to grab the lead for good.
The victory marked Dabo Swinney’s 189th career win and handed Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels a rare collapse, snapping a 67-game winning streak for Belichick-coached teams when holding a 14-point lead.
