When The Citadel gets on the bus on Saturday and heads to take on Charleston Southern in the biggest football game in Charleston, S.C. history … the Bulldogs’ travel planners won’t have to schedule any restroom breaks along the way.
In a “road trip” that more closely resembles Clemson’s pre-kickoff bus-ride tour around its own stadium more than an actual postseason roadtrip, the Bulldogs will be “traveling”–and we use that term very, very loosely–exactly 16.4 miles up I-26 to Charleston Southern’s campus to Buccaneer Field. The Citadel should enjoy the direction it will be bussing in–seeing as though it also traveled up I-26 to Columbia to beat the SEC’s South Carolina a couple of weeks ago.
There will be no need for stops, no need for snack breaks or gassing up. Heck, you couldn’t even fit an episode of Andy Griffith in on this trip–unless there’s a bit of traffic. Don’t worry though, that inevitable traffic will happen well after The Citadel arrives. The best football game in the history of Charleston is creating some headaches because there aren’t enough seats to accommodate everybody who is interested in coming.
“We’re excited to be playing a game here in the Charleston area, a game close to home where our fans and alumni will be able to come out and support the team and enjoy a really, really good game,” The Citadel’s head coach Mike Houston said this week in his press conference. “There are 16 teams left playing in the nation at the FCS level so obviously there’s no bad teams left. Everyone left in this tournament is a good football team. Charleston Southern has a good football team, they’ll be ready to play on Saturday and so will our bunch so it should be a great contest and a great atmosphere.”
Charleston Southern’s coaches and players said they can’t wait, either.
“We’ve talked with our team and told them ‘Enjoy the week,'” Charleston Southern head coach Jamey Chadwell told the media this week. “There’s gonna be a lot of build up about it and that makes it fun. We’ve never done this before at Charleston Southern, so let’s enjoy it. How special is it to not only be the first team to do it (make the playoffs) but to get a chance to play your rival? It’s good for our program and good for FCS football in our state so we’re going to enjoy the whole process of it.”
By the way–they played each other back in September at The Citadel. The Bulldogs came into the fourth quarter leading by 4 but lost it in the final period 33-20.