Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: USC vs. Clemson

Ty’Son Williams

The North Carolina transfer was forced into a bigger role because of an injury to A.J. Turner. He responded with 53 yards, that included several nice runs to move the chains in South Carolina’s loss to Clemson.

Punt game

Gamecocks punter Joseph Charlton boomed a few, averaging 52.7 yards a kick. Five of his seven were longer than 50, two landed inside the 20 and the net average was 44.3.

D.J. Wonnum

The team’s star defensive end stuffed a pair of Kelly Bryant runs off tackle and knocked down a pair of passes.

Nixon at work

South Carolina defensive back Keisean Nixon has gotten all his defensive work in garbage time, but he managed to pull in his second interception of the season late in the loss.

Jake Bentley

The South Carolina signal caller was held to 126 yards, 42 in the opening half. He also had a miscommunication that led to an interception returned for a touchdown.

Over-aggression

Several Gamecocks defenders admitted they might have been overexcited at the start of the game. That manifested itself in a slew of penalties (nine for 76 yards), including several personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct calls.

Tackling

Clemson didn’t need much help in the open field, but the Gamecocks provided it with multiple examples of sloppy tackling. The most egregious came on the first play of the second half, when Hunter Renfrow tore through USC’s defense for a 61-yard score.

Fans throwing things

There were reports of fans throwing objects on the field, and multiple times requests went out over the PA system asking fans not to. After the game, Ray Tanner called the behavior unacceptable, but said it was a small group responsible.

Ben Breiner

This story was originally published November 25, 2017 at 11:41 PM with the headline "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: USC vs. Clemson."