It’s officially Rivalry Week in college football, which means the Clemson Tigers are facing their bitter rivals, the South Carolina Gamecocks in Week 14 action Saturday in Death Valley.
Clemson (9-2 overall, 7-1 ACC) is coming off a 51-14 win over The Citadel. Cade Klubnik threw for 198 yards and three touchdowns on 12-of-16 passing. Antonio Williams caught five passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns, giving him four in the last two games.
The Tigers were one of the biggest risers in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings, moving up five spots to No. 12 after a chaotic Week 13 that saw several teams ranked ahead of them suffer an upset loss, including three from the SEC: Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M.
South Carolina (8-3 overall, 5-3 SEC) was another team that rose in the CFP rankings this week, moving up three spots to No. 15. Behind redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers, the Gamecocks are ranked No. 14 in this week’s US LBM Coaches Poll.
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ESPN Analytics’ updated Matchup Predictor currently gives Clemson a 56.8 percent chance to beat South Carolina.
But not everyone agrees with that math. On Wednesday, USA TODAY Sports’ college football experts released their predictions for every Top 25 team in Week 14, including Clemson vs. South Carolina. Only two members of the six-man panel, Paul Myerberg and Erick Smith, picked the Tigers to win the 2024 Palmetto Bowl.
Dan Wolken, Eddie Timanus, Scooby Axson and Jordan Mendoza picked South Carolina to pull the upset.
The Tigers have won eight of the last nine in the series, including last year’s 16-7 win in Columbia. South Carolina upset Clemson, 31-30, in the Gamecocks’ last visit to Death Valley in 2022, handing the Tigers their second loss of the season and squashing any faint hopes Clemson had of reaching the four-team Playoff.
Clemson will need a win vs. South Carolina and some help to reach the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. For one, if the Miami Hurricanes slip up on the road Saturday at Syracuse, Clemson would head to the ACC Championship Game to face the SMU Mustangs.
Barring that, and Miami beats Syracuse, the Tigers would need some more chaos to move into a position to grab an at-large berth. If Miami loses to SMU in the ACC title game, that could open a door for Clemson to sneak into the playoff field.
The Tigers would also stand to benefit from a Tennessee loss at Vanderbilt Saturday or a Notre Dame loss at Southern Carolina, among others. Whatever happens, there’s been no shortage of madness this season, and there could be some still to unfold.
Kickoff for Clemson vs. South Carolina is set for noon ET Saturday. The game can be seen on ESPN.
Clemson leads the all-time series with South Carolina, 73-43-4. Dabo Swinney is 9-6 against the Gamecocks as Tigers head coach.
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