Close Cousins

Published Nov. 24, 2010 4:14 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Wes Mitchell
GamecockAnthem.com
November 24, 2010

In what many people consider one of the low points of the third-longest uninterrupted rivalry in the country, the South Carolina and Clemson benches emptied on to the field as a full-on, all-out brawl erupted in the fourth quarter of the 2004 contest between the two teams at Death Valley.

Six years later, as the Gamecocks and Tigers are just days away from renewing the rivalry again, South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier says the relationship between the two teams -- and between he and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney -- couldn't be any more different than what fans witnessed in the incident that cost each team a bowl trip.