Clemson Football: Ranking the 5 best Palmetto Bowl games of the Swinney era

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Clemson
Clemson

The defending national champions went to Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia for a night game on ESPN with a lot at stake. A loss to Carolina would halt any chance that the Tigers would have at repeating as an earlier loss in the season to Syracuse meant that the Tigers had to beat Carolina and win the ACC to get back to the College Football Playoffs.

As we know, Clemson would win the game 34-10, however, the game was never that close. The Tigers entered the fourth quarter up 34-0 and played all of their reserves while the Gamecocks kept their starters on the field in order to erase the goose egg off the scoreboard.

The biggest deal about this game was the starting quarterback for Clemson. Kelly Bryant became the first quarterback from South Carolina to start and beat the Gamecocks since Clemson legend Woodrow Dantzler beat them 28-14 in 2000.

The 2017 game would also help Coach Swinney tie the series at five wins and five losses as the head coach of Clemson football in the Palmetto Bowl series.

Clemson would go on to beat Miami 38-3 in the ACC Championship game and would lose to Alabama 24-6 in Sugar Bowl behind a couple bad Kelly Bryant turnovers.

Schedule

Schedule