By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
CLEMSON — It’s funny how life works. It’s funny how football works and it’s funny how success is measured in both.
Though the 2012 Clemson seniors won an ACC Championship, won three ACC Atlantic Division titles, were the first group of seniors to have back-to-back 10-win seasons and won 35 games in their four-year career, it seemed like none of that mattered after following Saturday night’s 27-17 loss to No. 12 South Carolina.
Despite all the good they have done, the 2012 seniors will be remembered unjustly for the one thing they could not do – they never beat the Gamecocks. This group of Tigers became only the second Clemson class in the long history of the rivalry to lose four consecutive years to South Carolina.
The only other time the Gamecocks did it was from 1951-’54.
“We have done a lot of positive things, but in sports, it is a lot like life. What have you done for me lately?” Clemson center Dalton Freeman said. “Losing this one is going to put a damper on my career and everyone else’s career, but that’s one of those things everybody has to put behind them and use it as motivation for the years to come and not let it happened again.”
Unfortunately for Freeman and the other 11 seniors, they will not get another opportunity to beat USC. But despite going 10-2, they will be responsible for guiding the rest of their teammates and getting them ready to play in a bowl game, which will most likely be the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Dec. 31.
At 10-2, with a chance to become only the third team in school history to win 11 games in a season, there is still a lot to play for.
“It is all about us,” Freeman said. “The good news is, nobody has lined up and just beat us. We beat ourselves. When we have played our style of football and have controlled the ball and taken care of the ball, good things happen. But when we go out there and sputter and beat ourselves, bad things happen.”
But despite Saturday’s loss to the Gamecocks, winning 10 games is nothing to be ashamed of.
Big numbers. Clemson finished the regular season with a 1,000-yard rusher, a 1,000-yard receiver and a 3,000-yard passer. Quarterback Tajh Boyd has thrown for exactly 3,550 yards, Andre Ellington has rushed for 1,031 yards and DeAndre Hopkins has 1,214 receiving yards this season.
Back-to-back. Andre Ellington rushed 15 times for 72 yards in tonight’s game, which gives him 1,031 rushing yards for the season. He now has back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. He is just the fourth player in Clemson history with two 1,000-yard seasons. The others are James Davis, Woody Dantzler and Raymond Priester.
Another record. Despite having one of its worse games of the season offensively, Clemson still set the school season record for total offense. Clemson needed 280 yards against the Gamecocks to reach the record and gained 328. Clemson now has 6,220 for the year.
Low points. The 17 points the Tigers scored Saturday marked their lowest point total of the season in a game and the lowest since they scored 13 points in a loss to South Carolina last year.
Streak is over. With the win, the Gamecocks ended Clemson’s 13-game home winning streak, which was the longest in the program’s history. The last time Clemson lost at home, was to South Carolina, 29-7, in the 2010 home finale.
They finally lose in the orange and white. Under head coach Dabo Swinney, Clemson was 20-0 when wearing orange jerseys over white pants. They are now 20-1 following Saturday’s loss to the Gamecocks.
Shutout. Clemson did not score in the second quarter this evening for the first time all year. Clemson has scored 194 points in the second period this year, most in school history in any quarter.
New marks for Hopkins. Hopkins established an ACC mark for most games catching at least one touchdown pass. Tonight was the 11th game he caught at least one touchdown. The previous ACC mark was 10 set by Herman Moore of Virginia in 1990, Peter Warrick of Florida State in 1998 and Leonard Wilkerson of Miami in 2010. Hopkins finished the regular season with a school-record 16 touchdown receptions this season and has 25 touchdown receptions for his career. He needs just one touchdown catch to tie the ACC record, 17 by Clarkston Hines of Duke in 1989. Hopkins will enter the bowl season needing just six receiving yards to break Sammy Watkins season receiving yardage record. Watkins had 1,219 last year and Hopkins has 1,214 this year.
New marks for Boyd. Boyd threw a touchdown pass in the first quarter to give him 34 touchdown passes on the season. That is a Clemson single-season record for touchdown passes. Boyd broke his own record of 33 touchdown passes from last year. He also extended his touchdown responsibility record. He has 34 passing and nine rushing for 43 total. Also, Boyd’s nine rushing touchdowns are the most by a Clemson quarterback in a season since Woody Dantzler had 10 in 2001.