The No. 16 South Carolina football team will face off in the 121st edition of the Palmetto Bowl against rival and No. 12 Clemson this Saturday at Clemson Memorial Stadium.
The Saturday afternoon matchup is the first time since November 2013 that both teams are ranked inside the top 20 heading into the rivalry game.
“It’s two ranked teams, it’s a great rivalry,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “It’s the best rivalry in college athletics in my opinion … I think it's great for the state of South Carolina when you got two ranked teams playing a meaningful game at the end of the season. It should be that way every year.”
The Gamecocks enter the matchup on its first five-game win streak since the same 2013 season. The streak is also the longest active winning streak of any team in the Southeastern Conference. Before the team's week 13 victory over FCS opponent Wofford, the Gamecocks had also knocked off three ranked opponents in consecutive weeks for the first time in program history.
The Tigers enter the game on a three-game win streak of its own after its first loss in ACC play to Louisville on Nov. 2. The Tigers are still in position to make the ACC Championship Game and will clinch a spot if No. 8 Miami loses to Syracuse on Saturday, regardless of the result of the Palmetto Bowl.
The win streaks of South Carolina and Clemson have put both teams in the playoff picture late in the season. The Gamecocks as of Nov. 24 have a 23% chance to make the College Football Playoff, which is 1% less than Clemson's 24% chance, according to ESPN's Allstate Playoff Predictor.
While Beamer said that the playoffs are something he has not talked about with his players, he knows they are hearing about it.
“All we can do is worry about ourselves and winning football games,” Beamer said. “I know it's cliché, but it's true — we just try to go 1-0 every single week. We’ve used that mantra ‘They remember November,’ and we’re having a good November right now.”
The Tigers have a similar mindset heading into Saturday's game, freshman running back for Clemson Jay Haynes said.
“We come into every game ready to play, the standard is the standard,” Haynes said. “Coming into this game, we know it's just another game but it's also South Carolina.”
Redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers heads into South Carolina's game against Clemson coming off the two best games of his career as the team's starter. He threw for a career-high 353 yards and five touchdowns against then-No. 23 Missouri and 307 yards on a season-high 85.2 completion percentage against Wofford.
Sellers — a Florence, South Carolina, native — is excited to play in his first rivalry game as a starter at South Carolina, he said.
“You know, it’s Clemson,” Sellers said. “You just got to go into practice, have a good week of practice and we have a good game if we have a good week of practice.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was quick to compliment the young quarterback when asked about the Gamecocks after the Tigers' 51-14 win over the Citadel Bulldogs.
“I think they got a really dynamic young quarterback that really I think is a great leader,” Swinney said. “They’ve got one of the best defenses in the country.”
Swinney's praise of South Carolina's defense stems from its high rank in some statistical categories. The Gamecocks are 12th in the nation in solo tackles for loss and third for sacks during the 2024 season.
FILE — Sophomore defensive back Nick Emmanwori looks down on Clemson’s offense on Nov. 26, 2023. The Gamecocks will face the Tigers on Saturday in the 121st edition of the Palmetto Bowl.
South Carolina's defense will line up against junior quarterback Cade Klubnik and a Clemson offense that ranks fourth in the nation in first-down offense. Klubnik himself is ranked fourth in the nation in passing touchdowns over the course of the 2024 season.
Klubnik’s lone start against the Gamecocks in 2023 saw the junior throw for a season-low 100 yards and one interception in the Tigers' win. This season, Klubnik threw for a season-low 142 yards and one interception against then-No. 1 Georgia in the Tigers' only other matchup against an SEC opponent before Saturday.
Redshirt senior defensive tackle for the Gamecocks Alex Huntley said the team understands how important a win on Saturday would mean for the Gamecocks.
"It's Clemson week," Huntley said. "I think everybody knows what the time is and kind of just go at it how we have been this whole season. We've been doing something well especially this back half, just keep being who we are, trying to go 1-0 each week and dominate."
South Carolina and Clemson have exchanged wins on the opposing team’s home field the past two seasons. The Tigers took home a 16-9 victory last season at Williams-Brice Stadium, and the Gamecocks won 31-30 at Memorial Stadium the year before. South Carolina's win in 2022 marked the program's first over Clemson since 2013.
The 2024 Palmetto Bowl will be held at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 30. Kickoff is at noon, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.