Clemson Football: South Carolina fans have forgotten history

It doesn’t take much for people to forget history. In this case, South Carolina fans have forgotten how dominant Clemson football has been against them.

The Clemson football program has been built to another level compared to the rest of College Football minus Alabama.

The Tigers have made the last four CFB Playoffs and have won two of the last three National Titles. In the meantime, Clemson has gone on a five-game winning streak over its rival and the gap between the Tigers and Gamecocks continues to rise.

For some reason, though, we’ve continuously seen South Carolina fans hold on to the same stat: They continue to say that Clemson is just 5-5 against them over the past 10 years and that the series ‘will even out’ in the future.

Now, before we talk about the rivalry specifically, we’d like to mention a couple of things. Since we’re talking about ‘forgetting history,’ I do want to mention that I understand that the Clemson football program is on an unprecedented level right now. I understand that the Tigers have never had this amount of continued success in the history of its program.

I’d also like to point out that though it had never happened before, it’s happening now and it’s not going away any time soon.

That being said, we’re here to talk about the rivalry.

So, the history that South Carolina fans seem to have forgotten is the entirety of the rivalry itself. Clemson is 70-42-4 against the Gamecocks all-time. South Carolina’s five-game winning streak (2009-13) was tied for the program’s longest winning streak over Clemson in its history and just so happened to come during the best era of football in the program’s history.

But, that’s over now.

You see, South Carolina fans continue to think that the Gamecocks are about to ascend to the Steve Spurrier era days. The problem is this: Even if the Gamecocks were at the same level as they were under Steve Spurrier, they’d still not be as good as Clemson is currently.

Another issue is the fact that those years were the best in school history. No Gamecock team had ever had the consistency that Spurrier brought to that program, but it’s gone now.

Yes, the Gamecocks may be 5-5 in the last 10 tries against Clemson, but they have also only won 10 out of the last 30 games between the two programs. That’s history and that’s what this rivalry has been.

Clemson wins and then there’s a surprising year where South Carolina wins. The rivalry isn’t 50/50 and it has never been 50/50. It’s certainly not 50/50 now considering the fact that Clemson has the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation and the Tigers are competing for National Championships year-in and year-out while South Carolina is getting beat by 28 points in the Belk Bowl.

So, in short: The past certainly hasn’t looked good for South Carolina in the rivalry against Clemson. The present doesn’t look good at all for the Gamecocks, and the future doesn’t look much better when it comes to the rivalry.

The Tigers have dominated the rivalry and that will continue to be the narrative when it comes to the Palmetto Bowl.