I really don’t have much for you on this one, Cates was just the first #12 I thought of, right before Arturo Freeman (who never should’ve been participating in the drill where he tore his ACL, but that’s a can of worms for a different day).

A quick glance at the media guides revealed that he played DB his redshirt freshman year, and even started five games, which I didn’t remember.  He moved to WR as a sophomore, and was the team’s leading receiver as a junior, and second behind Brandon Bennett as a senior.

I thought Toby Cates was a cool customer, I do remember that.  He was of average build, average speed, average talent, in other words pretty darned average.  But he got every ounce of that averageness, which is always worthy of respect.

The question: Is it ever, under any circumstances, OK to pull for Clemson?

Now, fair reader, I know you know the answer to this, and I agree it is a little bit silly to put this topic in my award-winning series.  However, there are those fringe “fans” who make the following arguments:

My husband/wife is a Clemson graduate, so I pull for them when we’re not playing each other. First of all, and I mean this as disrespectfully as it sounds, you are no fan and have no concept of rivalry.  And if your husband/wife is telling you they are pulling for South Carolina, they are LYING, because it is not possible to have two people under one roof that are that clueless about the USC-Clemson relationship.  Check credit card records, phone bills, expense reports, etc., because your black-hearted, conniving spouse is probably playing you for a chump in innumerable ways.  Get out of that sham of a relationship ASAP.

I pull for Clemson because it’s good for the state. This “state pride” argument is asinine.  You know what’s good for the state of South Carolina?  Golf courses and hurricanes that don’t hit the state of South Carolina.  You know what’s good for the Gamecocks?  Clemson losing.  Losing at everything.  Football, basketball, baseball, field hockey.  And recruiting.  I want all the top recruits in the state, and if we don’t get them I want them to go to places like Michigan or Oregon State or Arizona where the chances of them hurting us are greatly reduced.

Now, this part may surprise you a little, but I don’t want Clemson to lose every game, and here’s why:  having hope and losing is much more painful than having no hope and losing (who better than us to grasp that concept).  For example, in football I’d like to see good run of 3-9, 4-8 type seasons out of them (losing to us every year of course).  That way they would have that glimmer of hope that a turnaround is just on the horizon.  I don’t know the ideal hope to pain ratio, but I think it would be somewhere in that range.

And I’ll share this with you as a bonus – the only time you should ever pull for Georgia?

When they’re playing Clemson.

OK, I’ll admit it if nobody else will – I never really wanted Phil Petty to be our quarterback.  I didn’t want a game manager.  I didn’t want a guy who didn’t take chances and make mistakes.  I wanted somebody a little taller, a lot more athletic, with a stronger arm.

But when Phil Petty walked off the field for the last time as a Gamecock, he had done what I wanted most, won a heckuva lot of games (relatively speaking of course).  He persevered through Scott’s last year and Lou’s first, and helped give us a boatload of memories, including:

– The 2000 victory over #9 UGA, then the dramatic final drive and TD pass against UGA in 2001.

– Back-to-back Outback Bowl victories over Ohio State

– The 300-yard game and comeback for the ages against Alabama

– Spraining his ankle against Mississippi State.  What?  Don’t look at me like that.  That was a big, big play that led to “The Fade”.

This one was my favorite though. I was watching at the G-man’s house, and for the only time in my life made an immediate rub-it-in-your-face victory call to an obnoxious Georgia friend/fan.

Two random side notes – I’ll never get enough of Brian Scott’s Huggy Bear strut after that touchdown.  And why, oh why is Ron Franklin not the prime time play-by-play guy for ESPN?  He makes Mike Patrick look like Todd Ellis.  (I’ll apologize to Mike Patrick later and let him know I was just trying to make a point.)