WHAT WE ARE HEARING: PREVIEW & PREDICTION FOR NO.12 CLEMSON vs. NO.15 SOUTH CAROLINA

Welcome to the Palmetto Bowl edition of What We Are Hearing!

It’s hard to believe that rivalry week is here already! The Palmetto Bowl is always one of the fiercest, most intense rivalries in all of college football, but this is one of the rare years in which the national stakes are enormous. It’s the only rivalry game that pits two top-15 teams against each other, and it could directly affect the 12-team College Football Playoff field. If the Tigers win, they will finish the regular season 10-2 with an excellent chance of making the playoff, regardless of whether they make the ACC Championship. Alternatively, if the Tigers lose, they would still have a chance to make the playoff by winning the ACC Championship if Miami loses at Syracuse on Saturday night. The Gamecocks would need more help to get into the playoff, but beating No.12 Clemson would make them 9-3 with 6 straight wins, so they would have an outside chance of making the playoff if some other games go their way. Just two years ago, the Tigers were in a very similar situation. A win over the Gamecocks in Death Valley would have put them in the 4-team playoff, but they squandered a fourth-quarter lead and lost by one point to Spencer Rattler and company, thanks to a couple of special teams fumbles. The Tigers are 144-4 since 2011 when leading in the fourth quarter, and that is one of their losses, along with the National Championship loss to Alabama. If you think about it, that game was the beginning of the Tigers’ turnover plague that haunted them all of last season, beginning with the opener at Duke. It was the Gamecocks’ only win over the Tigers since 2013, and it cost the Tigers a playoff appearance.

It will be a high noon showdown in Death Valley thanks to our friends at ESPN. Some say it’s a conspiracy that ESPN wants the SEC team to beat the ACC team and keep Clemson from taking an at large playoff spot from one of the SEC teams in the mix. Whether it’s a conspiracy or a coincidence, ESPN always seems to give the Tigers noon home games against the Gamecocks—even when it’s the second-biggest game in the nation—and night home games to the Gamecocks even when the game has no national relevance. Last year, the Palmetto Bowl was completely inconsequential nationally, but it was a night game in Columbia. Same thing in 2021. Two years ago, as mentioned, it was an enormous game that determined whether Clemson would or would not make the playoff, with the Gamecocks coming off a huge win over top-10 Tennessee, and ESPN gave us another noon game in Death Valley. And the scheme—if that’s what it was—worked two years ago! The Gamecocks won by one point, and it kept the ACC out of the playoff. It will be a raucous atmosphere at noon regardless, but let’s face it: there is nothing like a night game in Death Valley. The Tigers went 11 years between losses in home night games! However, it is what it is, and the team and fans better be ready to do battle at noon.

The Gamecocks come in at 8-3, but they have won 5 straight and could easily be 10-1 with close losses to LSU and at Alabama. They probably should have won the latter. Their freshman quarterback, Lanoris Sellers, is a special talent and has gotten better and better with experience. He is a big kid at 6’3, 240 pounds and very tough to bring down. He makes a lot of big plays with his legs, both running and passing. The Tigers will have to dedicate Carter, Woodaz or Sammy Brown to spy him to keep him from taking off when the pocket breaks down, and the secondary will have to do a great job in coverage while he is extending  plays. Arkansas RB transfer Rocket Sanders also makes the Gamecocks’ running game tough to stop.

The Tigers have had a bunch of players banged up in recent weeks, but they were able to get some rest last week with The Citadel game. Woodaz and Capehart have missed the last two games, but I think both will be back on Saturday. The biggest question mark is on the offensive line, where the Tigers have been a MASH unit for the last month. They’ve had to move guys around out of position, like Parks at tackle with Leigh and Tate out. Hopefully Leigh and/or Tate will be back on Saturday!

PREDICTION

As always, it helps to have the home crowd in this rivalry, but the Gamecocks have played in Tuscaloosa and Norman this season and handled the hostility extremely well. As mentioned, they nearly won at Alabama and beat the pants off Oklahoma. Sellers is just a freshman, but he’s very poised under pressure. I expect him to make some big plays, but to me, it will come down to turnovers and special teams. Those were the factors that cost the Tigers their only loss to the Gamecocks since 2013. The Tigers had two turnovers in the return game, and the Gamecocks’ punter pinned the Tigers inside their 5 three times. In the Tigers’ 5-year losing streak to Spurrier and the Gamecocks, they lost the turnover margin 15-3, including 6 turnovers in 2013! The Tigers have protected the ball well all season, so let’s hope that continues! If it does, I think the Tigers win.

CLEMSON    24        South Carolina    20

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