The Clemson Tigers came up just short and were not able to vanquish the South Carolina Gamecocks in rivalry week, as they loss by a field goal, 17-14, in a highly contested, emotional game.
Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer is very confident and has no doubt about where his surging, 15th-ranked team belongs in the playoff, going after a national title.
“It’s hard for me to say we’re not one of the 12 best teams in the country,” a thrilled Beamer said Saturday after watching his team execute another late miracle, courtesy of quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who is not from this planet.
Sellers scored his second touchdown of the afternoon, using his tree trunk type legs. this one from 20 yards out with 1:08 to play, for South Carolina’s sixth consecutive victory, four of them in that stretch coming over ranked opponents. He finished with a highly impressive 166 yards rushing and 164 yards through the air.
With everything at stake for the Tigers, they failed to get the job done against their in-state rival. If Clemson was able to get a win over the 15th team in the College Football Playoff rankings, they would have had a 59% chance to secure their spot in the playoffs.
Embed from Getty ImagesHowever, with the loss, the Tigers have dropped to 9-3 on the season, and their aspirations of making the CFP are slim to none, depending on what happens to the Miami Hurricanes in their final game of the season.
In the loss, Clemson saw a seven-point lead evaporate in the fourth and final quarter, as South Carolina was able to go on a run and scored 10 unanswered points in the win.
Tigers coach, a subdued Dabo Swinney, was proud of his team’s regular season but understood the ramifications of the loss were devasting and could leave them on the outside looking in as far as getting back to the playoff.
“We could’ve had a great year,” he said. “We got better this season, a lot of positives to build on.
“But this one is tough. It’s tough. It hurts,” he continued.
Like the majority of the season, the Tigers point to their run defense as an anchor that really let them down. As stated earlier, Sellers of the Gamecocks absolutely shredded the defense for Clemson on the ground, as he totaled 166 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in the win.
On 3rd and 16 with just over a minute to go, Sellers ripped off a 20-yard touchdown run to give South Carolina the lead.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik and the Tigers’ offense were moving the ball down the field well with limited time, but the junior signal caller was picked off with just under 20 seconds remaining with Clemson on the Gamecocks’ 18-yard line. Klubnik played well, overall, against a formidable defense, but the late interception was obviously a gut-wrenching end to the game.
The loss will go down as a tough one for the Tigers, as a win could have sent them cruising into the CFP without having to worry about playing for the ACC title. Now, they will be awaiting the results of the Hurricanes’ matchup against the Syracuse Orange to see if they can sneak into their conference title game against the SMU Mustangs.
