Tonight was the biggest night in former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s life. He was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the first overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Lawrence obviously shared the evening with his closest friends, family, coaches, and new wife.
And Darius Rucker.
That’s right, the former Hootie and The Blowfish lead singer and country music guitar picker Darius Rucker was in attendance for the draft night festivities.
Speculation and questions about whether or not Rucker was just randomly chilling in the kitchen corner first sizzled on Twitter when the TV camera scanned the crowd just after Trevor had received the phone call confirming his selection as the #1 pick.
Mr. Hootie’s presence was later confirmed by the Clemson football program and a photo of Rucker with head coach Dabo Swinney, both looking simply overjoyed to be there to witness #16’s dreams come true.
The most interesting part of the picture is that Rucker, a native son of Charleston, South Carolina attended college at Clemson’s in-state rival and arch-nemesis, the University of South Carolina.
Hootie and the Blowfish just as easily could have been named Hootie and The Gamecocks had the band been nicknamed after the mascot of the college town where they first started playing together back in the mid-1980s.
Given just how ugly the rivalry between the two schools has gotten at times, the thought of Rucker and Lawrence hanging out together just might ruffle the feathers of some unhappy football fans down in the Palmetto State.
Darius sneaking in there.
Same.
