Meet the South Carolina field-storming legend who snuck back in a week later

After South Carolina’s massive win over Tennessee, all Will Mackey wanted to do was rush the field. And by God, did he ever.

The problem: it’s only Mackey (before QB Perry Orth comes into the picture).

You see, Mackey’s seat was on the East Side of Williams-Brice Stadium. As the game got close to the end, he tried to get to the student section, which is in the north end zone. Instead, he took a wrong turn and ended up on the south end.

When he tried to rally a group together to storm the field, he wasn’t talking to a rowdy group of students. He was instead just rallying normal adult Gamecocks fans that didn’t happen to be carefree college kids.

But as Mackey made his beeline on the field, he looked at his phone and realized that he was, in fact, alone. So he ran toward Orth. Then just kind of stopped.

That’s when Mackey told SB Nation that he figured out that the jig was up.

“I realized that when I stopped and looked around the perimeter of the entire field and there was not even an inch where there wasn’t a yellow jacket that said ‘Security.’ That’s when I kinda realized it’s not looking like I’m getting out of this unscathed.

“I was walking along the perimeter. No one’s really noticed me yet, until someone in the stands noticed me, and they were trying to pull me back in the stands to get me out of trouble, and that’s when a cop saw and kinda put it together.”

He was walking around for what he estimates as four minutes unnoticed. His Gamecocks polo allowed him a bit of anonymity.

He wasn’t manhandled, tased, or tackled by the boys in blue. He just got a good yankin’ from the law when he was found out, and the police held him for a bit on the field, waiting for players and coaches and everyone else to clear. Then he was let go.

The next day, he went viral.

“I started getting some retweets from people that weren’t even from this area. ‘Oh, that’s kinda cool, look at that,’” he said. “Then I ate lunch, and after I ate lunch, that’s when a wide receiver on South Carolina, Terry Googer, tweeted at me, and then that got a ton of retweets, which then sparked mine.’”

Googer’s retweet started Mackey’s week of interviews and campus notoriety.

But it also came with attention from the school. The University of South Carolina said he couldn’t go to any more home games this season as a student. Mackey said he was waiting to go to his formal student code of conduct meeting to hear his fate.

(When reached afterward, he said he wasn’t sure if he could talk about the details. A request for comment from the school was not returned.)

But last week, all they had said was that he couldn’t buy a student ticket.

Mackey went to South Carolina’s win over Mizzou, but a bit more incognito.

“It wasn’t until when I kinda looked into what was going on, the only information I had received was from the school saying I can’t request a student ticket. I figured if they’re not telling me I can’t buy my own ticket, it shouldn’t be a problem.

“My dad bought me a ticket that was almost right where I was at at the end of the game against Tennessee. I was back in section 15, which is across from the student section. I actually had people recognize me while I was sitting there.

“I thought it’d be funny. I actually wore some fake Ray-Bans that said Gamecocks on the side and wore a fake mustache, trying to act like, you know, I was trying to sneak in. That was more for the laughs than [like] I really needed to wear ‘em. Like I said, the only real rule was I couldn’t be in the student section, but I thought it would be funny to try and make a joke out of it.”

Hopefully, it won’t be his last game at Williams-Brice.