Flatline: South Carolina ends down season with loss to rival Clemson
On Saturday, South Carolina and Clemson played a game about nothing that meant everything.
The Gamecocks and Tigers faced off at Williams-Brice Stadium with no stakes. Well, no tangible stakes. The 122nd meeting between these teams had no bearing on the College Football Playoff, a conference race or bowl eligibility. It was just a game, which is easy to say until the game ends.
Clemson beat South Carolina 28-14 on Saturday. It was the Tigers’ ninth win in their last 11 meetings with the Gamecocks and also their sixth straight Palmetto Bowl win in Columbia, where USC hasn’t beaten its rival since 2013.
For as much as this 2025 season fell short of Clemson’s standards, the Tigers (7-5) will always have Saturday. They will be able to use the win over USC (4-8) for the next 12 months for whatever they so please. Clemson fans get their bragging rights. Their players get a joyous moment in a torturous season.
And coach Dabo Swinney gets to use this as a point of evidence that Clemson remains close to again competing for championships — despite missing the ACC title game after entering this year as the AP’s preseason No. 4 team.
If you think that’s nothing, you may be right. But it sure beats the alternative. It sure beats being South Carolina.
“An extremely disappointing finish to an extremely disappointing season,” Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer said.
Imagine being Beamer right now. As your team has sputtered all season, you’ve assured everyone that you’re close, pointing to close games against Missouri, Alabama and Texas A&M because, well, South Carolina was in the game in the fourth quarter (before losing). And then, magically, it happened again.
Down by six late in the fourth quarter, South Carolina had the ball on its own 5-yard line. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers ran on the field, conjuring up memories of his 2024 heroics against Clemson. Can he do it again?
The answer was no.
Once again, South Carolina withered with the game on the line.
On the first play of that fourth-quarter drive, with more than three minutes left and the Gamecocks needing a touchdown to take the lead, Sellers’ pass to receiver Nyck Harbor was batted and tipped up in the air. Clemson safety Ricardo Jones intercepted it and ran 12 yards for the touchdown.
The Gamecocks were again close. And again on the losing side. South Carolina was outscored in the fourth quarter in nine games this season. The Tigers outscored USC 8-0 in the final quarter.
Meanwhile, Clemson put a pretty bow on an ugly season, winning its final four games — vs. Florida State, at Louisville, vs. Furman and at South Carolina — to give itself a chance for an eight-win season. The Tigers will learn their bowl fate next Sunday.
“It wasn’t what we set out for our story to be, but that’s our story, and that’s what life’s all about it,” Swinney said. “When good things happen to you, how do you respond? And when bad things happen to you, how do you respond? And man, you saw a group of young people that have responded to a lot of adversity, a lot of disappointment, a lot of negativity, a lot of that stuff. They’ve stayed together. They’ve continued to believe.”
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Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik — starting against South Carolina for the third and final time — was fantastic, completing 24 of his 39 passes (62 percent) for 268 yards and one interception. Even better was the Tigers’ defense, which sacked Sellers five times, forced the Gamecocks into four turnovers and held USC to under 50 rushing yards.
In any case, Clemson will take back the Palmetto Bowl trophy despite the feeling that somehow, someway, the Gamecocks were going to win.
At halftime, Clemson controlled everything but the scoreboard (up 17-14). In the first two quarters, the Tigers possessed the ball almost three times longer than South Carolina. They had three times as many first downs. More yards. More everything. Heck, through one half, Clemson had run 47 plays. The Gamecocks took just 19 snaps.
Two plays worked in USC’s favor in a big way.
The first: One of those beautiful “just let Nyck Harbor run as fast as he can” plays. The former Olympic-level sprinter blew past Clemson’s secondary, and Sellers — who had enough time in the pocket — threw a 53-yard dime that hit Harbor in stride for the touchdown.
The second: On the opening play of the drive, Sellers threw what seemed like an ill-advised throw into double coverage. And then Vandrevius Jacobs leapt about four feet in the air, snatched the pass, absorbed a hit, kept his footing and ran untouched for a 74-yard touchdown.
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It would’ve been the most miraculous play of the afternoon — if not for the one that preceded it. Sellers threw for a career-best 381 yards one year after he willed the Gamecocks to a win over Clemson inside the Tigers’ Memorial Stadium. But it wasn’t enough Saturday.
“Had momentum and thought we were going to win the game in the fourth quarter,” Beamer said. “And what a story it would be. And it didn’t happen. Turnovers, lack of execution, coaching, all of it.”
And now Beamer is 2-3 as a coach in the rivalry series, with all three of his losses coming at Williams-Brice Stadium (2021, 2023, 2025).
There are moments throughout a football game where things happen that don’t quite make sense, where it feels like the luck, fortune, divine intervention — whatever you want a call it — is too powerful to overcome. And that’s what it felt like when Klubnik fumbled in the red zone in the second quarter ... only for the ball to roll right in front of him. He grabbed the pigskin and ran about for about 10 seconds before scoring a 3-yard touchdown.
South Carolina looked like it was in prime position. And then it wasn’t.
This story was originally published November 29, 2025 at 3:34 PM.
