By Johnny Falduto
No. 24 Clemson and South Carolina football will meet for the 120th time in history as the Tigers travel to Columbia to finish their 2023 regular season on the road against the Gamecocks. Kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
Both teams come into Saturday night’s game as winners of three straight and with an undefeated record in the month of November. Last weekend, Clemson (7-4, 4-4 ACC) continued its winning ways with a 31-20 win over Drake Maye and North Carolina, while South Carolina (5-6, 3-5 SEC) pulled out a 17-14 win over Kentucky at home. The Gamecocks need to win the season-finale against Clemson in order to be bowl-eligible for the third consecutive season.
Clemson leads the all-time series 72-43-4 and will look to get back on the winning side of things after South Carolina snapped the Tigers’ series record-tying seven-game win streak in last season’s 31-30 win at Memorial Stadium.
Rattler, Legette, UofSC’s Pass-Heavy Offense
Fifth-year quarterback Spencer Rattler (3,074 YDS, 19 TD, 7 INT, 70.6% CMP) leads the Gamecock offense that ranks in the bottom half of the SEC production-wise with 27.7 points and 380.73 yards of offense per game. Of those 380.73 total yards per game, 293.09 of them are coming through the air – the third highest mark in the SEC. 55.46% of South Carolina’s plays from scrimmage this season have been passing plays, the 19th most out of 133 FBS teams. Rattler’s top target in the pass-heavy offense has been breakout WR Xavier Legette, who ranks seventh in FBS with 1,187 REC YDS on 65 REC (18.3 AVG) to go along with seven touchdowns. “#17 (Legette) is a superstar,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said on Tuesday, “It seems like every week I look up and there’s some freak on the outside that we’re seeing.” Outside of Legette, Trey Knox (36 REC, 312 YDS, 2 TD) has been heavily involved in the passing game from the tight end position, and RB Mario Anderson (130 CAR, 672 YDS, 3 TD, 5.2 AVG) gets the bulk of the carries in the run game.
Clemson Defense vs. Top Quarterbacks
Clemson is no stranger to highly-skilled veteran quarterbacks as of late. In the month of November alone, they have gone up against three quarterbacks who rank in the Top 45 nationally in pass efficiency rating: No. 6 Drake Maye (North Carolina), No. 41 Sam Hartman (Notre Dame), and No. 45 Haynes King (Georgia Tech). Despite facing that group, Clemson leads the nation in opponent passer rating this month (81.04). Maye, Hartman and King went a combined 43-99 (43.4 CMP%) for 492 YD, 3 TD, and 7 INT, two of which came against Clemson’s backups in the 42-21 win over Georgia Tech.
Spencer Rattler’s Home/Road Splits
The fact that this game is being played in a night-game environment at Williams-Brice Stadium is significant not only because of how challenging it will be for Clemson, but also when looking at Spencer Rattler’s home/road splits up to this point in the season. Simply put, he is a different quarterback at home versus on the road. In the Gamecocks’ five games away from home this season, Rattler is completing 63.2% of his passes for an average of 240.6 yards per game. His average pass attempt is 6.3 YDS, and he’s thrown four interceptions to just two touchdowns. At Williams-Brice Stadium, Rattler’s completion percentage jumps up to 77.4% (+14.2%) and he’s averaging nearly 100 more yards per game at 336.8. His yards per attempt jumps to 10.6, and he’s thrown 19 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions.
Advantages for Clemson
Clemson has established the run in each of its last three wins against Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina, averaging 227.7 yards on the ground in each of those games. With South Carolina’s defense ranking 52nd in FBS against the run, there will be opportunities for RBs Will Shipley and Phil Mafah to continue that trend and settle things down for Cade Klubnik in the hostile environment. Should Klubnik need to make plays through the air, South Carolina’s pass defense is about as vulnerable as you will find in college football, ranking 118th against the pass.
Defensively, Clemson will get after Spencer Rattler just about as good as any team has so far this season, and the Gamecocks rank in the 120s in terms of sack rate allowed. Add in the fact that Rattler is 51-104 (49% CMP %) for 780 YDS, 5 TD and 5 INT on the 36.2% of his dropbacks in which he’s been under pressure and Clemson’s eighth-ranked pass defense, and it could spell a long night for South Carolina’s offense.
Kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network. For the live play-by-play call, tune into 105.5/97.5 in the Upstate, theroarfm.com, or The ROAR mobile app.
