DAVIE, Fla. — It goes without saying top-ranked Clemson will need Artavis Scott when it faces No. 4 Oklahoma in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The Tigers’ All-ACC wide receiver leads the team with 84 catches for 805 yards and five touchdowns.

Perhaps Scott could have done even more damage had he not played the last part of the regular season with a damaged knee. He had the knee scoped earlier this month and is said to be ready to go for the Orange Bowl.

Though Scott appeared to be a little gimpy at times on the practice fields at Nova Southeastern University on Sunday in Davie, Fla., Clemson head coach Dab Swinney said the sophomore is good to go.

“He looks great. He looks really good,” Swinney said.

The best news, according to Swinney, is Scott does not have to play through the pain anymore.

“He was huge. He made a lot of huge plays,” the Clemson coach said. “The three or so games that he played with that little meniscus, he played well. But he looks great, feels great and we need everybody at their best right now.”

Tigers want to win regardless. Though the Orange Bowl is a huge game considering what’s at stake as part of the College Football Playoffs, Swinney says the goal is still the same no matter if it is the Orange Bowl or the Russell Athletic Bowl – “You always want to win your game.”

“We were in the Russell Athletic Bowl last year, and heck, we wanted to win,” Swinney said chuckling. “I promise you. You don’t care. Regardless of how the outside world may look at it, we want to win. Whatever game we play, we want to win.

“I can assure you when we came down here (in 2013) and we played a 12-1 Ohio State team that was 24-1 (two years combined) coming into that game, that was a big game for us.”

Clemson won that 2014 Orange Bowl Classic, 40-35. The Buckeyes were No. 6 in the country at the time.

“We are kind of treating (this game) the same, but everybody knows there is an opportunity to play in January. But you have to earn that,” Swinney said. “Two thousand and fifteen is coming to an end on the thirty-first regardless, whether we win or lose. But we want to have one more opportunity, make them print one more ticket to see the Tigers play so that is what our focus is. But that has not been any different than it has been the last several years or any game during the regular season, we want to win.”

Did Spurrier’s Gamecocks make an impact on Swinney’s program? Swinney was asked if having a top 10 rival in the same state during South Carolina’s run of three straight 11-win seasons help Clemson get to where it is today?

The Gamecocks, who just had their worst season since 1999, did beat Swinney’s Tigers five straight years from 2009-2013. However, Clemson has won the last two games in the series.

“We have had a top 10 rival in our division so we did not have to … We try to win our conference. I mean obviously, when you have a big-time rival in your state that certainly is a competitive nature in building your program,” Swinney said. “But heck you have to go undefeated to win our division. That is a really tough division that we are in.

“We were 7-1 two years in a row and we could not even win our division so we had to go undefeated this year to get it done so we have had our hands full within our league and certainly that is kind of a season of its own when we play South Carolina. They have been a great team and obviously they did not have a great team this year, but they have been a great team for several years.”