Clemson vs. South Carolina Football Game Notes

Nov. 26, 2010

Clemson and South Carolina Meet for 108th Time This will be meeting number-108 between Clemson and South Carolina and the 102nd consecutive year the two schools have met. That is the third longest streak of consecu¬tive years played in a rivalry in the nation. The only rivalries longer are Kansas vs. Nebraska at 105 games and Minnesota vs. Wisconsin at 104 games. Those games have already been played this year. The series dates to 1896 and the first year of football at Clemson, the fourth season for South Carolina. Clemson holds the advantage 65-38-4 since that first meeting in Columbia, a game won by South Carolina 12-6. Clemson’s first win took place the following year, an 18-6 victory in Columbia. Clemson has won 62.6 percent of its games against South Carolina and has a .590 overall winning percentage in its history (647-442-45). Clemson has more wins over South Carolina than any other school and those vic¬tories represent over 10 percent of Clemson’s all-time victory total (647). When Clemson won in 2004 it was Clemson’s 600th all-time win. The two teams played in Columbia as part of Big Thursday every year until 1960. For the 57 Big Thursday games, Clemson had a 33-21-3 advantage. Since the teams have gone to a home and home schedule in 1960, Clemson has a 32-17-1 advantage. Clemson’s winning percentage is nearly identical home and away over that time. Clemson is 16-8-1 against South Carolina at home since 1960 and 16-9-0 in Columbia. This is the 50-year anniversary of the first game in the rivalry at Clemson, a 12-2 Tigers victory Played on November 12, 1960. That was not the last game of the regular season that year. In fact Clemson still had two more games that season, at Boston College and a home game with Furman. Three of the last five meetings have been decided by five points or less. Between 2005-07 the margins went in descending order: Clemson won by four points (13-9) in Columbia in 2005, then South Carolina won by three points (31-28) in 2006 at Clemson, then Clemson won by a 23-21 score at South Carolina in 2007. That streak was broken in 2008 when Clemson won by 17 (31-14) at Clemson. South Carolina won by 17 last year, 34-17. The Clemson and South Carolina seniors of 1965 experienced four consecutive games decided by four points or less and that is the only time it has happened in the history of the series. Clemson won in 1962 (20-17) and 1963 (24-20), then South Carolina won in 1964 (7-3) and 1965 (17-16). But, even those players did not play in all four games. In 1962 freshmen were not eligible, so those 1965 seniors didn’t even dress for the 1962 game. The Tigers have won six out of eight and 10 of 13. South Carolina’s only wins since 2002 have come at Clemson in 2006 and at Columbia last year. South Carolina won last year and will be trying to beat Clemson for the second consecutive year. South Carolina has not beaten Clemson three games in a row since the 1968-70 era when Tommy Suggs was the South Carolina quarterback. Clemson has won 10 in a row in the series when the Gamecocks are trying to beat Clemson in consecutive years. South Carolina did go consecutive years without losing in 1986-87. The game ended in a tie in 1986 and South Carolina won in Columbia in 1987. The visiting team won seven years in a row between 1991-97. The home team has won the last two by exactly 17. This year’s Clemson senior class has a 2-1 record against South Carolina. Clemson classes who have beaten South Carolina four consecutive years were the seniors of 1900, 1919, 1930, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1983, 1991, 2000 and 2005. In 2005, Charlie Whitehurst became the only quarterback for either team in the series to start four victories. Clemson has an overall record of 49-30-3 in Columbia over the years, including a 30-18-2 mark in Williams-Brice Stadium. Clem¬son has been especially successful in Columbia since 1988. The Tigers are 9-2 in Columbia since then with the only losses coming in 2001 and 2009. South Carolina’s last three victories in the series have been in games that started at noon. This year’s game will start at 7PM and Clemson has won each of the last six games played at night (1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007). The last time Clemson lost a night game in the series was 1996 when a Gamecocks team coached by current Clemson offensive line coach Brad Scott, defeated the Tigers 34-31 at Clemson. This weekend’s game will be played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the fifth year in a row. Clemson has a 9-4 record against South Carolina when the game is played the Saturday after Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving Day. The only game played on Thanksgiving was the 1963 contest that was moved from the Saturday before Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving due to the death of President John F. Kennedy.