OPINION
BY WILLIAM HALLIDAY, Freshman
Clemson and South Carolina football programs have been bitter rivals for decades now. But which is truly better? According to the historic rivalry facts it is Clemson. But there are other factors that can be put into the debate of why Clemson is the better program.
To start, the overall record between Clemson University and The University of South Carolina is 67-44 and Clemson leads. But that is just in the rivalry.
Since Clemson and South Carolina started playing football, Clemson has dominated in stats and records throughout the decades. Clemson has won a national championship in football and South Carolina has not and Clemson has a better overall record than South Carolina.
In their conferences, Clemson has won many more conference championships then South Carolina has. Overall Clemson has won 15 and South Carolina has won once. The one championship that South Carolina won was back in the 60’s when they were in the ACC.
According to Sportsreference.com, a reputable NCAA football record source, South Carolina’s overall record is 553 wins and 529 losses while Clemson’s is 682 wins and 448 losses. Clemson has 129 more wins than South Carolina. South Carolina has 81 more losses than Clemson does. So overall records show that Clemson has the historically better program.
Another hot topic in the rivalry is the win streaks and scores. South Carolina’s five year winning streak from 2009-13 was impressive but mcubed.net and many other websites show that Clemson has the largest win streak in the rivalry with the seven year winning streak from 1934-1940. The largest win in the rivalry was also set by Clemson when they won 51-0 over The Gamecocks in the year 1900.
Winsipedia also proves that Clemson has produced more NFL players than South Carolina. Clemson has produced 229 while Carolina has produced 193.
So Clemson is clearly better in stats and historical reference. The rivalry is still very tense though because both teams want bragging right. “I went to Clemson University in the 90’s and it is as crazy of a rivalry now as it was back then,” states Clemson graduate Meredith Halliday. “It has always been a fun game no matter what the score is.”
Clemson has also had less coaches than South Carolina. South Carolina has had 33 different head coaches while Clemson has only had 25. Clemson has also kept their coaches longer. The longest running coach at Clemson was Frank Howard with 30 seasons, while the longest running Carolina coach was Rex Enright with 13 seasons.
Carolina has had a Heisman winner, George Rogers, who won the award in 1980. Clemson has not had a Heisman Award winner. But Clemson has had one Heisman finalist, Deshaun Watson, who placed third in the Heisman finals in 2015. But overall Clemson is the better team and has been since both teams started playing CFB.
Clemson is a better team overall in the rivalry. Stats, websites, coaches, and fans can prove it. South Carolina has had a couple of shots, but as of now Clemson is the better team in the rivalry and will be for a while.
