For South Carolina, Saturday’s rivalry game is about snapping a three-game losing streak and keeping this year’s seniors from losing out for the third straight time in the regular season. For Clemson, it’s about keeping the momentum rolling into their first-ever appearance in the ACC championship game and not looking ahead to their game against georgia Tech.

Clemson has won the past two games in this series, but to coach Dabo Swinney, bragging rights aside, this game is about being able to run the ball, winning the matchups up front, and playing a similarly balanced game to what they were able to do in last week’s win over Virginia.

As for the Gamecocks, they head into this game on a downward spiral, having fallen in three straight and four of their past five outings. The team recently had a bye following a 24-14 loss to top-ranked florida on November 14th.

"I'm proud of a lot of guys," said head coach Steve spurrier following the loss against his former team. "A lot of guys played their hearts out. Unfortunately we didn't play great and had a bunch of turnovers."

South Carolina is now just 6-5 overall on the campaign and could even finish with a losing campaign if it was to suffer a defeat here and in its bowl game.

The gamecocks and Tigers have a long history against one another and this will be the 107th all-time meeting between the schools and the 101st year in a row they have clashed on the gridiron. Clemson leads the all-time series, 65-37-4, and that includes a 31-14 victory in last season's meeting.