Clemson Tigers vs South Carolina Gamecocks Football Preview

Will someone in the state of South Carolina be able to stand prosperity? That’s the question being asked about the South Carolina Gamecocks as they prepare for their road game at Clemson University this weekend.

When Coach Steve Spurrier brings his Carolina crew to Death Valley for a clash with coach Dabo Swinney’s Tigers, this nasty Southern showdown between the SEC and the ACC could turn in one of two directions, and the eventual outcome is a point of considerable curiosity in the college football world.

One week before the SEC Championship Game against Auburn on Dec. 4 in Atlanta, South Carolina faces its annual rivalry rendezvous with Clemson, in a matchup where both sides despite each other with the passion of a thousand suns. One might recall that in the last year before Spurrier arrived on the scene in Columbia, this game got particularly ugly. In 2004, with Carolina visiting Clemson, a late-game brawl unfolded on the field. A sprawling sequence involving many separate trades of punches and body-slinging silliness marred what had been a hard-nosed (albeit inelegant) affair. The incident sullied the reputation of South Carolina coach Lou Holtz and provided the final push he needed to call it a career on the sidelines. If you want to know why Holtz works for ESPN now, that brawl in Clemson is one of the main reasons why (though it can’t deserve sole consideration).

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Getting back to this year’s game, then, the intensity of this rivalry is what has made it hard for favored teams to see things through to the end. Underdogs go at this game hard, and the team with less to look forward to in bowl season often makes a big stand on rivalry day. Last year, in fact, it was Clemson which had the ACC Championship Game looming the week after a date with the Gamecocks, and South Carolina – near the tail-end of yet another miserable season under a visibly frustrated Spurrier – cleaned the Tigers’ clocks in a 34-17 romp.

Carolina didn’t have a more reliable version of quarterback Stephen Garcia last year. The Gamecocks didn’t have stud tailback Marcus Lattimore available to transform both the nature of the team’s offense and the attitude of the Carolina locker room. Spurrier lacked a lot of the resources he has coming into this season’s confrontation with Clemson, but it didn’t matter. South Carolina poured all its mental resources into the pot and smacked a division-title-winning Clemson crew.

Well, guess what? This year, the shoe’s on the other foot. Clemson is the 6-5 team trying to play spoiler on its own home field, while South Carolina is the division champ with another big game to look forward to. This is Clemson’s bowl game; South Carolina encounters its big moment on Dec. 4. Don’t think the Gamecocks are a lock for this game; not by a longshot.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer