Clemson’s regular season started with lots of disappointment, but ended on a high note. The Tigers finished with a four-game win streak to cap off the 2025 regular season. Their last victory came against in-state rival South Carolina.
To begin the regular season, Clemson played another SEC opponent, LSU. There are quite a few differences in the performance by the Tigers when comparing the win against the Gamecocks, and the loss to Bayou Tigers.
Both the play calling and execution were at a much higher level against South Carolina. Three specific areas of improvement truly made the difference in the Tigers’ final stretch.
Leaning on the run
The biggest difference between the first and final games of the season was Garrett Riley’s reliance on the run game.
In the week one matchup with LSU, Clemson ran the ball only 20 times. Adam Randall had just five carries for 16 yards and a touchdown. The lack of a run game was a major factor in the Tigers’ loss.
It was said both on this site, and by Dabo Swinney himself, for the Clemson offense to improve it needed to lean more on Randall and the run game. That sentiment proved to be true against South Carolina.
Randall had his most carries in a game all season against the gamecocks with 24, and rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 4.3 yards per carry as well.
The ground game being so effective helped keep Clemson ahead of the sticks. This gave the Tigers more manageable third downs. Against LSU, the Tigers were 23% on third down conversions. In the South Carolina game, Clemson was 41.2% on third down.
The run game made a huge difference in the Palmetto Bowl. Making that improvement on the ground from week one set up the end-of-season run this team put together.
Defensive Front Dominated
Another major improvement made by this Clemson team was the level of execution by the front seven of the defense.
The Tigers’ defense played well against LSU, but it wasn’t the dominant showing they had against the Gamecocks. Clemson’s pass rush was especially impressive against South Carolina.
The Tigers were only able to get one sack against the Bayou Bengals. Against the Gamecocks, they had five sacks. Tom Allen’s unit also gave up just 41 rushing yards against South Carolina. They held LaNorris Sellars to just 2 yards on the ground.
TJ Parker, Will Heldt, Sammy Brown, and Wade Woodaz made their presence felt. Parker and Heldt combined for 4.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss. Stephiylan Green and Peter Woods got the penetration needed on the interior, to make their jobs easier. This was the defensive front we expected to see all season long.
Playing complementary football
One more thing Clemson did much better in its last regular season game of the year, compared to its first was playing complementary football.
It was not a perfect showing, but both sides of the ball did their job in putting the opposite side in a position to succeed. The offense moved the ball well and forced South Carolina to make long drives when giving the ball back. They had 415 yards of total offense. The defense got the ball back to their offense quickly. Clemson held the Gamecocks to over 15 minutes less of possession time than the Tigers’ offense.
South Carolina struggled to put a long drive together. Once the Clemson defense also started getting takeaways, it was game over.
It was a much more complete game in all phases by Clemson against the Gamecocks, than against LSU. It might have been the Tigers best overall performance all season.