After a year of a new normal, fans of Clemson and a bunch of other college football programs are luxuriating in getting back to the good old days in a few months.
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The communal fall-Saturday rituals are set to return in full force and color, and it’s something for everyone across the country to savor and treasure even more now after the singular weirdness of last season.
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At Clemson, there’s far more than normalcy alone to look forward to. There’s the virtual certainty of the Tigers again ranking in college football’s elite class and contending for their third national title in six years.
ALSO SEE: 21 FOR 21: Death Valley | 21 FOR 21: Returning To Form? | 21 FOR 21: Uiagalelei | 21 FOR 21: A No. 1 Ranking? | 21 FOR 21: Breakout season? | 21 FOR 21: Hors d'oeuvre | 21 FOR 21: Early-season Perception | 21 FOR 21: Talent Show | 21 FOR 21: Talent Acquisition
To commemorate the transition to 2021, and to pass the time between now and the Sept. 4 showdown with Georgia in Charlotte, Tigerillustrated.com is exploring 21 topics and questions related to the season – Dabo Swinney’s 13th as head coach, and his 19th overall in Clemson.
In Part 10, we ask: With a new coach in charge at South Carolina, what shape does the rivalry take?
Down in Columbia, our Rivals.com friends at GamecockCentral.com have recently filled their front page with news on the baseball program, the men's and women's basketball program, and football recruiting.
The lack of news and analysis of the 2021 football team is the right editorial play in part because it's an accurate reflection of the lack of anticipation and excitement about Year 1 under Shane Beamer.
Not that there isn't some long-term hope about Beamer's ability to get the ship turned around. But the operative part of that is "long-term."
From the outside looking in, it feels like the Gamecock fan base is cringing about the possibilities of what's ahead this season. And anyone who is familiar with that fan base's traditional penchant for eternal optimism even under bleak circumstances knows it's saying something when there's not a great deal of enthusiasm during an offseason.
Sometimes not even the standard shots of Garnet Kool-Aid are enough to chase the sour taste of a 2-8 record from last season, or the knowledge that a portal-scavenged roster ranks 125th out of 127 FBS teams in percentage of returning production.
So while it's not exactly newsworthy that South Carolina will be bad, and likely once again easy pickings for Clemson on its visit to Columbia, there is some intrigue in the question of how the rivalry might be different with Beamer running the show.
First off, it's amazing how much things have changed since the afternoon of Nov. 29, 2014. South Carolina brought a mediocre team to Death Valley that day, but Clemson fans were still very much spooked about the five-game losing streak to the Gamecocks.
The apparent fact that the Tigers were going to have to soldier on with Cole Stoudt after a knee injury to Deshaun Watson brought a decided air of uneasiness.
When South Carolina moved the ball swiftly on its first two possessions and took a 7-0 lead, plenty of Clemson fans were already preparing for the 6-bombs -- and preparing to give Dabo Swinney ever-living hell during the offseason for this unforgivable, defining stain on his tenure.
But then a great defense settled in and dominated, and Watson was good enough on one leg to vanquish the Gamecocks in a 35-17 victory.
While the most enduring memories of that game are of Watson hopping around on his healthy leg, or of Artavis Scott hopping down the sideline for that touchdown, or of a frothing defense suffocating Steve Spurrier's offense, our favorite recollection is this:
Swinney weeping as he walked off the field, feeling the release of all that pressure and torment administered by Spurrier. You could see the full weight of the rivalry on his face that day, and it felt like he and everyone else knew a new era was at hand.
Clemson was a really good program quickly ascending to greatness. South Carolina was a really good program quickly tumbling down the mountain.
Consider these trends:
From 2011 to 2013, South Carolina was 33-6. Since, the Gamecocks are 38-48.
From 2011 to 2013, Clemson was 32-8. Since, the Tigers are 80-10.
The Gamecocks began the 2014 season ranked in the Top 10 and slipped out of the Top 25 by October. They have since played 80 of their past 81 games as an unranked team, the only exception when they were ranked No. 24 in September of 2018 after an opening victory over Coastal Carolina (they were destroyed 41-17 at home by Georgia a few days later and haven't sniffed the Top 25 since).
Clemson hasn't been ranked outside the Top 5 since October of 2017, and since 2014 its only time outside the Top 10 was early in 2015 when the Tigers began the season ranked No. 12 (they finished No. 2 after losing narrowly to Alabama in the national championship).
OK, so the Gamecocks are so far behind that it feels like piling on to unearth more of these statistical trends.
South Carolina fans are more preoccupied with 2021 games against Kentucky, East Carolina and Troy determining the fate of their season than the likely annihilation coming at the hands of Clemson.
And these days Clemson fans find their minds much more on playoff-caliber obstacles such as Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia.
The gaping dichotomy of these Palmetto State adversaries was underscored last summer when plenty of Gamecock fans reacted with relief to the news that COVID was shelving the 2020 rendition of the rivalry.
That meant Clemson would have to wait a year to extend its winning streak over the Gamecocks to seven straight, which would tie the longest streak in the rivalry's history (Clemson won seven straight from 1934-40).
But the bigger-picture view, and the elephant in the room, is that it prolonged what seems a distinct likelihood: Clemson winning 10 straight over its friends from Columbia.
Crazy things happen in college football, which remains unpredictable in so many ways. In 2015 a bad South Carolina team came within five points of a great Clemson group that gave Alabama all it could handle.
And just three years ago Jake Bentley and South Carolina went up and down the field against a team that finished 15-0 (Clemson beat the Gamecocks by three touchdowns but it felt closer).
How does Clemson allow 35 points to a 7-6 South Carolina team and then just 16 to an Alabama team that entered the national championship hailed as perhaps the best ever? Again, weird things happen and that's the general rule.
That said, Clemson has beaten South Carolina by an average of 25.3 points during the six-game winning streak. And while Swinney is fond of saying the best is yet to come for the Tigers, in Columbia things could well get worse before they get better.
So while the results-based portion of this rivalry figures to remain the same for some time, the overall feel could be different based on the tenor of leadership.
Will Muschamp came off as a meathead in numerous ways, including the bizarre way he chose to bow up and snarl at Swinney and Clemson. The bluster created a false sense among Gamecock fans that they weren't far from knocking off the Tigers, and in reality the programs were drifting even further apart.
Now the Gamecocks' roster is a mess, and a Clemson team that lost two of the best players in college football (Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne) is right there near the top as it looks to win its third national title in six years.
Bottom line is Muschamp's bluster toward Clemson seemed unnecessary and even silly because it didn't provide him any discernible or even theoretical advantage.
Beamer seems, smartly, to operate differently. And while there's no need for him to kiss the ring and project subservience to Swinney and Clemson, there does seem to be a measure of reciprocal respect between the two coaches that never existed during the Dabo-Muschamp era.
Swinney's take on the Beamer hire spoke volumes. He said more favorable and even flattering things about the new guy in 30 seconds than he said about Muschamp in five years.
It's clear Swinney respects the hell out of Beamer and his family lineage. It's clear Beamer respects the hell out of Swinney and not just the monster he's created, but the way he's created it.
There are some clear similarities between the two, from lack of coordinator experience upon their hires to the general feeling that they're two of the good guys in the profession who care about relationships and developing their players personally as much as athletically. As cold and transactional as the game is becoming with the transfer portal and coaches making ridiculous amounts of money, there's still room for the human touch and programs that emphasize strong-rooted, character-based culture.
Beamer seems cut from the Dabo cloth in that way, and here we must point out the irony of Gamecock fans using the Dabo example as a reason the Beamer hire can work after spending years calling Swinney a fraud and little more than a cheerleader who wasn't cut out for big-time football.
Some might say that the hunky-dory vibes between Swinney and Beamer could evaporate when they begin competing on a regular basis and one guy loses a big-time recruit to the other, or if Clemson tacks on a late score in a rivalry game that's long since been decided.
While it's true that mutual admiration doesn't last long in cutthroat, competitive rivalries, the fact is this is not a cutthroat or competitive rivalry and probably won't be for years to come.
Some Clemson fans might lament this, saying it's better for both schools and for the state when the Tigers and Gamecocks are good simultaneously. Others luxuriate in humiliating South Carolina and want them to be as bad as possible, the memories of all those 5-bombs still in the back of their minds.
Either way, there's an objective truth that brings rare mutual agreement from two fan bases that despise each other: The Gamecocks aren't in Clemson's league and have smaller fish to fry.
Muschamp didn't have the smarts or self-awareness to recognize this and stay in his lane. Our bet is Beamer will, and it's the right play.
When Muschamp got routinely undressed by Swinney, it was personal. From this point, it'll be just business as the streak continues.
Tigerillustrated.com will have continuing Dabo Swinney Camp coverage later today.
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