Inside Williams-Brice Stadium Saturday night, in front of 82,000 raucous fans excited to see the Gamecocks’ SEC home opener, the energy was high both in the stands and on the field.

As I stood on the sidelines watching both teams warm-up and enter the field for 2001, I saw several players extremely fired up and excited for the ensuing kickoff. You could see the confidence in the way they walked; each drill they ran was done so with a little extra emphasis.

Many of these players fed off the energy of the fans, and several times you could find these players getting in the face of the student section and getting the students fired up as well.

Unfortunately, none of these players donned the Garnet and Black.