South Carolina Football: The Navy Irony for the Gamecocks

I was so excited about this years football team way before I took a second glance at the schedule. ESPN had them as a dark horse candidate for the national championship, and there were two Heisman candidates on the roster. Also, the number one recruit in the country signed with the team, bringing recruiting to new heights. 

Then, I glanced at week three of the schedule. 

Navy. 

Freaking NAVY.

My Gamecock life flashed before my eyes. 

This couldn't be real. Navy? The team that took away South Carolina's best chance at a national championship? The team that may have changed Gamecock history, and not for the better?

That Navy? Yep. That Navy. 

I have already written about how the 1984 Navy team beat the No. 2 ranked Gamecocks at the end of the 1984 season, eliminating the team from a national championship game birth. So I won't rehash that.

However, out of all of the teams in the country, isn't it just a little ironic that one of the out of conference games the latest iteration of the "Greatest Gamecock Team" schedules is Navy?  Doesn't it feel... wrong?

Or does it feel right? Is this the symbolic monkey that South Carolina needs to knock off its back? The team that possibly knocked South Carolina off course, and the team that caused the ultimate disappointment game? Disappointment games have become the norm in Columbia since then.

Maybe this is poetic justice. Maybe it's fate. 

One this is for sure, this game scares me for so many reasons. This is a good Navy team. 

We will see what happens. 

It's great to be a Gamecock. 

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