Greg McElroy details why South Carolina is a 'must-win' for Clemson in 2023

Bragging rights can sometimes mean more than anything in college sports. That’s why, to Greg McElroy, it’s going to be very important for Dabo Swinney and Clemson to handle their business this season against South Carolina.

McElroy talked Tigers versus Gamecocks during an episode of ‘Always College Football’ from this week. He said that this kind of conversation hasn’t been one that has normally been had about Clemson considering what they had done over the course of the last decade.

“(Clemson) has been a remarkably steady program. A program that would define a bad season as a season in which they lost multiple games,” said McElroy. “Now is the standard unfair in Clemson, South Carolina? Probably not. The standard is the standard. They set the standard by being elite from 2015 all the way until 2021. They just haven’t maybe been quite as consistent in the last two seasons.”

With that standard in mind, McElroy highlighted the importance of knocking off the Gamecocks for Clemson in 2023. South Carolina’s 31-30 comeback win was quite the statement to end their regular season and caused significant damage to end the Tiger’s. That’s why, in Columbia this fall, he says they need to maintain their status in that rivalry considering how last fall’s contest went.

“If they lose to South Carolina again this year? Then you have consecutive losses to South Carolina,” McElroy said. “We know that rivalry. We remember how Steve Spurrier treated that rivalry, we remember how Dabo treated that rivalry. If, for whatever reason, they lost to their in-state rival yet again? That would be a difficult game to spin.”

“To lose on your home field to a team that hadn’t looked great for a vast majority of the season? And a team that had just had an emotional victory the week before? It wasn’t them that was sloppy. It was Clemson that was sloppy. And special teams and mistakes by Clemson ultimately allowed the Gamecocks to steal that one there in Death Valley,” said McElroy. “I think that is a massive game for the Clemson program and the perception of the Tigers moving forward.”

Clemson had won seven consecutive Palmetto Bowls before last season. Now, in order to maintain their stature, McElroy says that game will hold a ton of weight at the end of this campaign.