In the 24 hour, seven day and 365 day world that is Clemson-South Carolina, the needle continues to point towards the upstate.
The Tigers will roll into Columbia on Saturday as two-touchdown-plus favorite. Barring a meltdown of epic proportions, they’ll make it two in a row, setting themselves up for a winning streak against the Gamecocks. It has happened before, just ask Lou Brown.
The way things are trending on both the field and recruiting trail, Clemson could put together a stretch that rivals the thumb run.
In August, we wrote about Clemson’s edge in the battle for state supremacy.
Three months later, nothing’s changed. Actually, it’s gotten worse for South Carolina. After Steve Spurrier bailed, recruits started jumping ship, too.
That’s to be expected. Clemson dealt with the same kind of fall-out when Tommy Bowden departed before the 2008 season was over. See: Hollomon, DeVonte.
Seven years later, Clemson is poised to return the favor, if you don’t already count the Mark Fields coup of 2014.
South Carolina’s lost two commitments that have serious interest in Clemson: P.J. Blue and Bryan Edwards, both of whom are being recruited to play safety at Clemson. J.J. Givens is still committed, but he’s looking around, too. Like Blue and Edwards, Givens is on the Tigers’ board as a safety.
Clemson is projected to take one prospect for the position with the 2016 signing class. On the surface, it would appear that Edwards is the guy if he wants to be. Coming off an official visit to Clemson, the Tigers are probably in as good of position as anybody, if not a little bit better.
Georgia is positioning itself to be a factor and South Carolina hasn’t been ruled out either. Exactly how everything shakes out depends on one pretty significant development: Spurrier’s replacement. Word on that is right around the corner and Edwards will graduate from Conway next month.
But even if he opts to play wide receiver in the SEC, Clemson could have two more shots to yank another recruit out from under South Carolina’s nose.
The thought of that has to make Clemson folks downright giddy, right?