Clemson coach Dabo Swinney offers first thoughts on USC, Spencer Rattler
Dabo Swinney has spent the last 359 days in a situation he hasn’t experienced in a decade as Clemson’s football coach.
Sitting on the wrong side of the fierce in-state football rivalry between the Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks, who won last year’s annual meetup.
“It’s not fun, that’s for sure,” Swinney said Sunday.
Amid a run of six straight College Football Playoff appearances, four national title games and two national championships, Swinney’s Tigers won seven straight games against USC from 2014-21, often in blowout fashion.
But coach Shane Beamer and company turned the tide last season with an unforgettable 31-30 upset of Clemson in Memorial Stadium, which snapped a 40-game home winning streak and knocked the Tigers out of the CFP field.
Entering his 15th Palmetto Bowl as Clemson’s head coach and 21st overall including his time as an assistant, Swinney said his program’s ready to get started on preparation for an always-intense regular-season finale (7:30 p.m., SEC Network).
And, hopefully, find a way to avenge its first loss to South Carolina since 2013 in a game featuring two teams on three-game win streaks after slow starts.
“I’m going on my 21st Clemson-South Carolina game,” Swinney said. “I’ve got a lot of great memories, and I’ve got some bad ones. That’s kind of why it’s a rivalry game. But it means a lot to a lot of people, and we all know that. That’s why it’s a goal of its own. It’s a season of its own regardless of what your record is whether you’re undefeated or you haven’t won a single game.”
Clemson enters the game 7-4 and 4-4 in the ACC, having completed conference play Saturday with a 31-20 upset of No. 22 North Carolina. Add in wins over No. 12 Notre Dame and Georgia Tech earlier this month, and Clemson’s won three straight after a 4-4 start.
The Tigers came in sixth among teams receiving votes in Sunday’s AP Top 25 poll — essentially No. 31 nationally — and appear to be peaking at the right time after falling out of the CFP race and ACC championship game race early with their worst start to conference play since 1998.
“Just a really really good team effort in all three phases,” Swinney said. “We were able to do some really good things. Some mistakes in all three phases, too. Just a great, great team win. Hard fought and we’re really proud of them.”
Dabo previews South Carolina game
Swinney said Sunday he and his staff were just getting into South Carolina film study that afternoon and he’d be in a better spot to preview the Gamecocks in detail later in the week. But he’s certainly taken notice of USC’s own “November to remember” push.
After a blowout loss at Texas A&M on Oct. 28, South Carolina was 2-6 and needed four straight wins to reach the six-win threshold for bowl eligibility. The Gamecocks have gotten three-fourths of the way there with victories over Jacksonville State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky at home.
“We’ve been at home these past three weeks,” Swinney said. “I think they’ve been at home as well. It’s a tough place to play. I don’t really know much more than the fact they’ve been able to create some turnovers — I know that’s been a factor — and they’ve got some guys that are playing with some consistency for them, making some plays. Quarterback’s a really good player.”
Indeed, South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler torched Clemson last year, going 25 of 39 for 360 yards and two touchdowns and a rushing touchdown.
Even with two interceptions, Rattler dazzled in his first Palmetto Bowl and made winning play after winning play, including unleashing a 72-yard bomb to receiver Antwane Wells Jr. to bring South Carolina within 30-28 and leading a fourth-quarter, game-winning drive.
Rattler crossed the 3,000-yard passing mark in Saturday’s 17-14 win and enters the Clemson game with 3,074 passing yards and 19 touchdowns against seven interceptions. His No. 1 target, veteran receiver Xavier Legette, has 65 catches for 1,187 yards and seven scores.
Swinney said he was disappointed with how Clemson managed UNC quarterback Drake Maye as a rusher in Saturday’s win. Maye, the reigning ACC Player of the Year, had 87 rushing players excluding sack yardage, a cause for concern given Rattler’s scrambling capability.
“We’ve gotta clean up some stuff for sure,” Swinney said. “The quarterback, he just made too many plays … So it’s definitely a game that we can build off of as we get ready to play another really good quarterback in Rattler.”
Swinney is 8-6 against USC in his 15-year career as the Tigers’ head coach (the teams didn’t play in 2020 because of COVID-19). Beamer is 1-1 against Clemson and 0-1 against his biggest rival at home, with Clemson winning 30-0 in Columbia in 2021.
Swinney’s team is an early 7.5-point betting favorite against South Carolina, but he knows that doesn’t mean much. The Tigers were a 14-point home favorite last year and still found themselves on the wrong side of a game they’ve been hearing about ever since.
“This week is unique and it’s different,” Swinney said. “The preparation is the same, but it’s a game that everybody’s gonna live with for the next year and you’re gonna hear about it all the time. So it’s great to win it, and it stinks when you don’t. That’s for sure.”
