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Clemson

Clemson players plant their flag on South Carolina's field following victory

Wade-Peeryby: Wade Peery11/26/23

The Clemson football players were waiting a full year before getting revenge on the South Carolina Gamecocks. They saw the celebratory cigars last year, after South Carolina won that one, 31-30, snapping Clemson’s 40-game home winning streak.

And they were sick and tired of it. On Saturday night, the Tigers got their revenge on the Gamecocks in Columbia. They didn’t hesitate to plant their Tiger flag at midfield following the big victory.

Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. got the honors.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney half time comments

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney wanted to see his offense make some progress heading into the second half against South Carolina. The Tigers managed to take a 13-7 lead into the locker room, but have still yet to score an offensive touchdown on the evening.

Their lone TD came when Khalil Barnes recovered a fumble on the opening drive to start the scoring off. Other than that, Clemson managed just two field goals and came out of the first half with just 121 yards.

Swinney spoke with SEC Network at the break, commending his defense for the job it did while also sending a challenge to the offense.

“We struggled early on,” the coach said. “They popped a quarterback draw and one long run. Good, long drive. They did a good job on third down and fourth down a couple of times. But we settled in this last part of the second quarter. Now we just gotta complement them a little bit with the offense.”

The Tigers held South Carolina to under 100 yards of offense in the first half. They also forced turnovers against the Gamecocks on their first two drives of the game. South Carolina’s lone touchdown came on a one-yard QB sneak from Luke Doty with 6:39 remaining in the first quarter.

Still, Clemson struggled to move the ball as well with Cade Klubnik coming away with just 32 yards passing in the opening half. The Tigers had 89 yards rushing, but Swinney wants to see them make more of an effort to move the ball on the ground.

“We’ve gotta get that run game going,” he said. “Just make some of the plays that are there. We’ve had a couple of plays there, we just haven’t made ’em.”