Have the roles reversed?

For years and years, I would laugh to myself as almost every Gamecock fan would head into the fall with Arkansas checked as a win.  My “circle” of fellow featherheads isn’t a scientific sample or anything, but it’s a pretty diverse group with positive fans, negative fans and in between.  Perhaps like no other team we face every year, for some reason the Hogs were always assumed to be a win………and we almost always lose to them. 

Arkansas is 12-7 against Carolina since we joined the conference and is favored to make it 13-7 this weekend.  Having said that, unlike the previous 19 years, most USC fans I talk with had this game marked as a loss in August.  And why wouldn’t they?  Arkansas is #7 in the BCS, has a tremendous offense and will be jazzed up in the home trough with a bunch of drunk women “oinking” loudly from the opening kickoff.  The odds are in their favor, no doubt. 

Maybe it’s just my natural tendency to cut against public opinion but for some reason I think we’re going to play well tomorrow night.  Yes, yes, pour on here and blister me if I am wrong but I just have a feeling that we are sandbagging just a bit.  Many times, the piggies have ignored our big talk, quietly come in, whipped our fannies and taken off.  This year, they are the ones doing most of the squealing and we’re unusually quiet. 

Gamecock fans always build up their opponents into super heroes that can’t be touched so I am not talking about that.  The insane hype about that boy in Knoxville was comical and of course ended up being nonsense.  Similarly, on the boards this week Arkansas is now being purported to be the finest collection of athletes to ever walk the earth which is par for the course for Carolina posters.

What isn’t par for the course this year is the undercurrent discussion.  Are the roles reversed in 2011?  Will it be Carolina that has quietly ignored all the bluster about how awesome Arkansas is, and how sure of a loss this is?  Will we go into Fayetteville without any fanfare, take the field and proceed to get a victory, get on the plane and fly home before anyone in the Ozarks realizes their pants have been dropped? 

Go for it Gamecocks.  Disappoint the “Hades” out of 1400 AM, The State and everyone in Athens.  Bring home a victory and let’s get ready for the “home” stretch.