In its 10th game of the 1989 season, a trip to North Carolina, Clemson continued to distance itself from the numbing mistakes and inconsistency that produced galling losses to Duke and Georgia Tech weeks earlier.
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The Tar Heels were headed for their second consecutive one-win season under Mack Brown, and Clemson used an overpowering third quarter to win 35-3. The Tigers had six sacks, linebacker Levon Kirkland had an interception that the offense converted into a quick touchdown, and Joe Henderson ran for 163 yards on 25 carries.
Next was a trip to Columbia against a South Carolina team that had won six games under first-year coach Sparky Woods. The Gamecocks got off to a promising start in 1989 but slid after star quarterback Todd Ellis was lost to a season-ending injury.
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Clemson was a 14-point favorite and had dominated South Carolina the year before in a 29-10 victory, so it appeared the rivalry was taking on its traditional orange-tinted glow. But Danny Ford was taking nothing for granted. He still remembered the bitter taste of a 20-7 loss on his last trip to Columbia two years earlier, and he spent all week reminding his players of that experience.
Ford said the matchup in the regular-season finale would be "our hardest game to win all year," more difficult than Florida State.
Both teams were battered and bruised. Clemson tailback Terry Allen had been ailing with a knee injury for weeks, but he was determined to play after missing the 1987 game in Columbia with a rib injury.
ESPN chose to televise the game to the nation in primetime. Doug Nye of The State called network executive Mike Soltys and asked him about the risk of returning to the site of Florida State's 59-0 demolition of the Gamecocks a year earlier. That massacre was also beamed nationally by ESPN.
"We've still got people around here shaking their head over that Florida State game," Soltys said. "That was awful. We're just hoping for a good game."
The broadcast team of Ron Franklin and Kevin Kiley had to use their filler material early. Clemson quickly commenced a 45-0 destruction that remains the most thorough in the long history of the rivalry aside from a 51-0 Clemson victory in 1900.
The Tigers were up 14-0 before the Gamecocks ran two offensive plays. They were up 24-0 at the half after Allen ran for 97 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries before reinjuring his knee.
Wearing orange pants for the first time in an enemy stadium, Clemson ended the game with a 455-155 advantage in total yardage. During the fourth quarter, as South Carolina fans filed out of Williams-Brice Stadium, Clemson faithful taunted them by mimicking the Seminoles' famous Tomahawk Chop.
Sophomore fullbacks Tony Kennedy and Junior Hall had played sparingly to this point, but injuries to Allen and Wesley McFadden allowed them to join in the fun. They combined for 98 rushing yards and had long touchdown runs as Clemson's offensive line abused the Gamecocks' defensive front.
"It was wide open," Kennedy told reporters afterward, reflecting on his 40-yard jaunt to the end zone. "I was shocked. There wasn't anything to do but run."
Woods knew before the game that his team was vastly outmanned up front. In the post-game press conference, he was asked to identify the turning point.
"I think it was when we kicked off," he said. "It started right then."
After going to the Florida Citrus Bowl in 1987 and 1988, Clemson was headed for the Gator Bowl to face West Virginia. The Mountaineers played Notre Dame for the national title the year before and were fueled by dynamic quarterback Major Harris, who finished third in the Heisman voting.
Ford had compiled a 5-0 record in Florida bowl games during his career, and a major part of his formula was arriving early and going through a rigorous pre-Christmas practice schedule that resembled summer two-a-days.
Clemson was a seven-point favorite, and players heard an overdose of Major Harris hype in the days leading up to the game. The Tigers also weren't in the best of moods after a flu bug swept through the team and caused 23 players to miss at least one practice session.
"It's going to be a struggle," Ford told reporters the day before the game. "We're a little bit bedridden right now with the flu bug and a little heavy-legged."
Ford also spent the week denying reports from famous oddsmaker Danny Sheridan, who claimed on CNN that Ford would leave Clemson after the season.
Harris guided his offense 96 yards for a touchdown on the Mountaineers' first possession. But from there, Clemson's defense began to harass Harris at every turn.
The Tigers were up just 10-7 early in the fourth quarter but poured it on for a 27-7 smashing that left everyone wondering how dominant this young team could be in 1990.
