Middle fingers, chicken fingers and another Clemson win in Columbia

Clemson fans have been pointing fingers all season, and for good reason.

They’ll have plenty of time this offseason to continue pointing them in their hope that Dabo Swinney will get this thing fixed.

But this last weekend of this particular November allows the orange-clad masses to pause, take a deep breath and grant themselves a big smile.

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Because this Saturday in Columbia was about some other types of fingers.

Familiar fingers, from South Carolina’s students.

Chicken fingers.

Mmmmm, so delicious.

Middle fingers, so delightful in the facemask of Ricardo Jones after he took a deflected ball back to that end zone for the pick-6 that basically ended it.

A lot of folks have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how this Clemson season fell so far short of grand, Top 5, national championship-contending expectations.

But there’s a piece of Clemson’s world that is still refreshingly and even therapeutically normal even amid all those losses.

None of the losses were to South Carolina, which entered this game favored and now closes its season 4-8.

You won’t savor a whole lot from 2025. But damn right you’ll savor the sweetness of another win in this game.

Another rent check at Williams-Brice Stadium was due as the Tigers won for the sixth consecutive time in Columbia, and for the 18th time there in their last 23 visits dating to 1981.

Clemson won its fourth consecutive game and now has a chance to make it an eight-win season with a bowl victory.

Maybe at 1-3 you thought this season was toast.

Maybe at 3-5, after those back-to-back home debacles against SMU and Duke, you thought there was no way anything good could come from this season.

Heck, maybe even in the days leading to this one you weren’t all that enthused because it was a six-win team facing a four-win outfit.

But Clemson 28, South Carolina 14.

There’s no way you can read the above and not draw some immense satisfaction from it.

No way you can walk away from this season totally down on it.

Not with Shane Beamer on the other side.

Not with LaNorris Sellers being brought to his knees a year after he brought devastation to Death Valley with his Superman showing.

Not with the birds flying and the women crying mid-afternoon Saturday as the final few minutes were basically immaterial.

Defense won the day in this one, as Jones had two second-half interceptions of Sellers — one in the end zone on a third-quarter overthrow, and the second the pick-6 on an underneath ball that Nyck Harbor couldn’t corral.

South Carolina had just taken over at its 5 with 3:29 on the clock, down 20-14.

Clemson’s offense hadn’t been able to land the knockout blow, and its previous possession was a mess that included the fourth illegal-formation penalty of the day for the Tigers and pushed Clemson out of range for a field goal that could’ve made it a two-score game.

Ugh. 

You could feel it coming.

Even after a really nice punt from Jack Smith, Clemson fans were understandably panicky at the sight of that 16 jersey trotting onto the field with a chance to win the game.

But late last year, Sellers and the Gamecocks’ offense seemed to have fourth-quarter magic late in games.

This year they seem to melt: They’ve scored 35 points in the fourth quarter in 12 games.

Clemson’s defense, and first-year coordinator Tom Allen, were all too happy to apply the pressure to make that happen.

In the first half, 159 of South Carolina’s 200 yards came on three long passing plays.

But the bigger theme for the game was Clemson containing Sellers and sacking him five times for 27 lost yards, and limiting the Gamecocks to 41 yards rushing and a 1-of-11 clip on third downs.

South Carolina had four turnovers to Clemson’s one. The Tigers converted seven third downs on 17 opportunities and piled up 25 first downs while holding the ball for almost 39 minutes to just 21:16 for the Gamecocks.

A year after Sellers had 178 total rushing yards (a net 166 including sacks) and two touchdowns on the ground, the junior had 2 yards rushing Saturday with a long of 13.

Clemson had six tackles for loss to go with the five sacks, plus seven quarterback hurries and 11 passes broken up.

Cade Klubnik will finish his career having not thrown a touchdown pass in three starts against the Gamecocks.

But the most important statistic he’ll take away is 2-1.

He threw for 268 yards Saturday while completing 24 passes on 39 attempts.

In the first quarter he somehow missed a wide-open Antonio Williams in the end zone, and then on the next play he threw short for Adam Randall in the end zone and it resulted in a disastrous interception when Jalon Kilgore came down with it.

But Klubnik made up for it with a heady improvised touchdown sprint to the pylon in the second quarter after end Bryan Thomas jarred the ball loose on what had the makings of another mess of a play.

That run on third-and-goal from the 3 put Clemson up 14-7 with 5:48 left.

And yes, it took all of one play for South Carolina to tie the game when some really bad cornerback play allowed Sellers to connect with Vandrevius Jacobs for a 74-yard catch-and-run.

But Klubnik and the offense managed to answer that, taking the next possession 61 yards on 12 plays to take a 17-14 lead into the locker room when Nolan Hauser connected from 32 yards out with less than a minute left.

Hauser, who’d missed one a week earlier against Furman, calmly grooved another one from 42 yards to put Clemson up 20-14.

Klubnik and the offense certainly showed some of the familiar warts, including dropped passes and the aforementioned procedure penalties.

But they were still able to control the game, evidenced by 102 yards rushing on 24 carries by Randall. 

The Tigers had trouble running between the tackles against Furman, leading to some seemingly serious doubts they’d be able to establish a ground game in Columbia.

But some early big plays in the passing game seemed to create some space for the run, and the offensive line controlled things at times.

The final rushing tally was a 147-41 advantage for the visitors in their home away from home, against a team from the SEC.

Swinney improved to 10-7 against South Carolina, and a few days earlier he didn’t particularly like questions about the possibility of losing three out of the last four to his good friend on the other sideline.

He said your view depends on how you do the math, and now the rivalry math looks good for the Tigers.

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Swinney hasn’t lost in Columbia since 2013 when Steve Spurrier was walking the Gamecocks’ sideline.

That’s a long time ago.

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And a lot of fun Clemson has had in Willy-B.

And a lot of birds.

Middle fingers.

Chicken fingers.

They still taste great, huh?

Even amid the most trying season of Swinney’s entire tenure here, they still taste great.

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