Clemson didn’t need style points. It needed the trophy and the bus ride home up I-26 with the stadium half-empty and the Gamecocks stunned into silence.
Mission accomplished.
Behind a throwback, run-heavy game plan, a workhorse afternoon from Adam Randall and a defense that flat-out erased South Carolina after halftime, Clemson closed the regular season with a 28–14 win at Williams-Brice Stadium — capped by freshman safety Ricardo Jones jumping a route for a late pick-six that blew the rivalry wide open.
Randall pounded out 102 rushing yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, Cade Klubnik added a bruising goal-line score and Nolan Hauser drilled two key field goals as the Tigers controlled the clock for nearly 39 minutes and held the Gamecocks to 0-for-8 on third down.
LaNorris Sellers and South Carolina landed their shots early — two long touchdown bombs that turned the second quarter into a track meet — but never scored again after the 5:29 mark of the second quarter.
Tigers trade haymakers, then steal back momentum before half
After a scoreless first quarter that featured a red-zone interception from Klubnik, Clemson finally cracked South Carolina with a 78-yard march to open the second. Randall carried the drive, and on 3rd-and-3 from the 10 he bounced outside and finished through contact at the pylon for a 7–0 lead.
Sellers answered almost instantly. He hit Vandrevius Jacobs twice to move the chains, then dropped a 53-yard strike to Nyck Harbor over the top for a lightning-quick tying score that ignited the home crowd.
Clemson came right back with its best drive of the day: 11 plays, 85 yards, all guts. Klubnik mixed in quick-game throws to Cole Turner and T.J. Moore, the backs kept churning out 4- and 5-yard chunks, and after a face-mask penalty at the goal line, Klubnik muscled in on a quarterback sneak from the 3 to make it 14–7.
But the fireworks weren’t done. On the very next snap, Sellers ripped a 74-yard bomb to Jacobs, who ran past single coverage and walked into the end zone to tie it 14–14 and threaten to tilt the game back toward garnet and black.
Instead, Clemson steadied itself again.
Klubnik piloted a crisp two-minute drive in the final minutes of the half, leaning on Moore over the middle and freshman tight end Christian Bentancur to move into range. Hauser drilled a 32-yard field goal in the closing seconds, and the Tigers jogged to the locker room with a 17–14 edge and the feeling they’d finally seized control of the tempo.
Defense clamps down as Clemson grinds away
From there, the game flipped from shootout to slugfest — and Clemson’s defense owned it.
The Tigers opened the third quarter with another clock-eating march, chewing up more than five minutes before Hauser banged through a 42-yarder for a 20–14 lead. Meanwhile, the defensive front, led by freshman linebacker Sammy Brown and linemen Will Heldt and Stephiylan Green, tightened the screws on Sellers and the South Carolina run game. The Gamecocks finished with just 50 rushing yards on 16 attempts, and every obvious passing down played into Clemson’s hands.
Jones delivered the first dagger late in the third quarter, picking off Sellers at the Clemson 23 to snuff out the Gamecocks’ best scoring chance since the second quarter. Clemson didn’t turn that takeaway into points, but it further flipped field position and pushed South Carolina into desperation mode.
By the time the fourth quarter hit its midpoint, the Gamecocks’ offense was living in third-and-long. A 46-yard drive to the Clemson 34 ended on downs, and the Tigers answered with another grinding possession that bled clock and timeouts even though it didn’t produce points.
Ricardo Jones slams the door
The defining moment came with just over three minutes remaining and South Carolina backed up at its own 5-yard line, still trailing just 20–14 and clinging to hope.
On first down, Sellers dropped back and never saw Jones breaking on the route. The freshman safety jumped the throw, snagged his second interception of the day and raced 12 yards into the end zone just inside the front pylon. Clemson dialed up a bit of trickery on the conversion, with Randall throwing for the two-point play to push the lead to 28–14 and effectively send Tiger fans into celebration mode behind the visitors’ bench.
South Carolina’s final gasp — a short drive to the 40 — ended with a fumble, the Gamecocks’ fourth turnover of the afternoon. From there, it was all victory formation and hugs on the Clemson sideline.
Klubnik finished with a steady 268 passing yards despite the early interception, repeatedly finding Moore (101 yards) and Antonio Williams (seven catches) in critical spots to keep drives alive and let the run game and defense do the rest. Randall’s 24-carry workload and the Tigers’ nearly 20-minute edge in time of possession told the story of how Clemson wanted this rivalry game to look — and how completely it bent it to its will.
On a day when South Carolina had the explosive highlights, Clemson left with the only stat that matters in this rivalry: the scoreboard, and another year of bragging rights.