AUGUSTA, GA (WFXG) -
When the Georgia Bulldogs and the South Carolina Gamecocks meet in Columbia Saturday, eyes across the CSRA will be tuned in to watch the region's two most popular teams square off in a key SEC matchup.
And while this game will have an impact on the SEC East, the Augusta-Aiken area will have an impact on the field, as each team has a key player with CSRA roots.
For the Gamecocks, Senior OL Kaleb Broome will be hoping to open holes for star RB Marcus Lattimore.
But just a few years ago, he was blocking for the Aiken High Hornets.
Broome has appeared in four games this season, sharing time at Right Guard.
"At twelve years old, Kaleb was 6'4"," says the man who coached him at Aiken, Carey Johnson. "You could see he had the potential. He started to do the things we asked him to do. He bought in to what we were asking, and I think that was a big part."
Across the field from Broome and the Gamecocks will be Georgia Senior DB Sanders Commings, who once roamed the defensive backfield for Westside High.
"He did a really good job for us," says Westside Defensive Coordinator Ivory Hugee. "He was always a ballhawk. Just a good student, a student of the game."
Hugee says having a former Patriot like Commings playing on such a big stage this weekend can be a motivator for the players currently wearing red, white, and blue.
"He did the same drills. He walked in the same locker room. He wore the same stuff," says Hugee. "It's a great motivating factor for them knowing that he came and did the same thing, and look where he is now."
And like many others in the CSRA, both coaches will be glued to the same Saturday night, watching their former players take the field.
"We contact each other through texts on Fridays," says Johnson. "You know, 'good luck.'"
"I'm a Gamecock fan," laughs Hugee. "But I have to pull for him, so it's kind of tough."
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