You’d be hard-pressed to find a player on Clemson’s football team who wants to beat South Carolina more than offensive lineman Gage Cervenka. The native of Greenwood, South Carolina grew up a fan of the Tigers and does not like the Gamecocks at all.

Now a fifth-year senior, Cervenka is hungry to finish his career unbeaten against South Carolina and help the Tigers earn their sixth straight victory in the rivalry series when the two teams meet at noon Saturday in Columbia.

“It would be huge,” Cervenka said. “I don’t ever want to lose a game, but this one means a lot more because I’m an in-state guy, so unfortunately I had a lot of Carolina fans growing up around me. Any time I can brag and say I’ve never lost to them would be huge, so that’s something I’ve striving to do. I think that’s how the whole team feels. We’re going to have to win out to get what we want to achieve as a goal, so that’s something we’re striving to do and the next step. So, I’m really excited for it.”

When Cervenka was in high school, he remembers South Carolina fans taunting him and other Clemson fans with the phrase “fear the thumb” leading up to the matchup in 2013, and then Gamecock fans flashing what is referred to as “five-bombs” after the Tigers lost their fifth straight in the series (2009-13).

Now, those memories make Cervenka even more motivated to beat South Carolina and get revenge with his own five-bomb – five wins over the Gamecocks in his five years at Clemson.

“We were unlucky against them, and we had some really good teams,” Cervenka said of the losing streak. “They had some good teams, too. But I remember losing and all the Carolina fans always saying, ‘Fear the thumb’ and constantly bragging and all this. So, that’s the biggest thing I hate is just them thinking that they can brag and all that. But yeah, that was a tough time.

“I grew up a Clemson fan, so I’ve been a part of this rivalry for a long time. … This is the last time I get to participate in it as a player, so I’m really excited for it. But it was just a tough time through that time. But I definitely feel like being able to capitalize on my time being able to win this fifth one for me would be huge and something I can look back on, say we got it back.”

Cervenka knows what it is like to play at Williams-Brice Stadium, with some fans flipping birds and throwing trash on the field, and he expects it to be another hostile environment on Saturday.

But being the enemy in a road rivalry game is something Cervenka embraces.

“Sometimes you’ve got to make sure you keep your helmet on when you’re going into the halftime and things like that, something that you don’t always think of when you’re at other places,” Cervenka said, “because there’s that possibility you might get hit with a bottle or something like that, and there’s a lot more middle fingers going at you than you would see at other places.

“It’s something I enjoy — we’re going to war, we’re going to battle, and that really kind of sets the mood for like OK, I’m ready to go in there and fight. So, it’s always fun to go into. It’s not always welcoming, and when you’re on the road that’s what you want.”

Emotions tend to run high in a rivalry game, and Cervenka understands the importance of keeping those emotions in check.

While this will be the season finale for South Carolina (4-7), which is not bowl eligible, Clemson (11-0) has bigger goals in mind beyond just winning the state championship as the Tigers try to defend their national title.

“You can’t have too much emotion because too much, you can kind of get yourself in trouble,” Cervenka said. “If you play with too much emotion against a rival, tempers flare, you might do something stupid and hurt yourself for the future, things like that. So you definitely play with emotion, play with heart, but the preparation’s going to be the same. We have a goal that we want to do here, and this is just the next step. This is somebody else in our path that is trying to stop us from achieving our goal is just kind of how we look at it.”

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