COLUMBIA, S.C. — After Clemson’s 28-14 win over South Carolina, which gave Dabo Swinney’s team nine wins in the past 11 games against the in-state rivals, the head coach was asked if he had a message for Gamecock fans.

Seeing as how Swinney dropped five straight in the series early on during his tenure, the general consensus might be the head coach knows what Shane Beamer is going through at South Carolina, having now dropped three of five to the Tigers.

“Listen, they don’t want to hear from me,” Swinney laughingly said after the win. “I am like the last person they are going to want to hear from. I got a lot of those ‘F You’s’ walking in. They ain’t going to want my opinion.”

However, despite South Carolina just wrapping up a 4-7 season and not qualifying for a bowl, Swinney believes in Beamer’s ability as a head coach.

“All I can tell you is Shane is a good football coach, and he is a better person,” Swinney added. “He cares. I think these are reactionary games, where you can really overreact.”

With South Carolina having won two of the past three coming into Saturday, Beamer and the Gamecocks had an opportunity to really seize some momentum over their biggest rivals with a victory. Instead, the Tigers won by two touchdowns, clinching the program’s sixth straight win in Williams-Brice and its 18th in the past 23 meetings in Columbia.

However, Swinney has been exactly where Beamer is. In fact, during his five-game losing streak to the Gamecocks from 2009-13, there were some Clemson fans who actually called for his job.

The Tigers would then snap that streak in 2014 and go on to win seven in a row themselves before South Carolina’s win in 2022 snapped their losing skid. With Saturdays win, the Tigers have won nine of the past 11 in the series.

“I lost five in a row,” Swinney said. “And we were really good teams. We had 15 turnovers to their three, and that was a bad run. But we were a good team, and they were a good team. But you hang in there, and I am glad Clemson people did not give up on me.”

Photo by Bart Boatwright