Palmetto State Pow Wow; (6) Clemson And (10) South Carolina Eye BCS Bowl Berths

It’s no secret that Clemson and South Carolina don’t like each other; the two coaches can attest to that. But the nice thing is that they get to settle it out on the field to close out the end of the regular season each year. It’s that time, with the Tigers and Gamecocks set to kick off this Saturday night at 7 pm ET on ESPN2.

Despite the fact that this is a non-conference game, this is still very important. Clemson is in line for an at-large BCS Bowl berth. Their only loss on the season came to Florida State. And while the Tigers will not be playing in the ACC Championship game, a victory over South Carolina would put them at 11-1 on the season and almost a lock for A BCS bowl.

South Carolina still can play in the SEC Championship game with a loss by Missouri. The Tigers play Texas A&M 45 minutes later than this kick off. You can bet that some of those on the Gamecocks sideline will be paying attention to what’s going on in College Station. But even if Missouri wins, South Carolina could be in a similar situation as Clemson with a chance to play in a BCS bowl game by beating the Tigers.

The Gamecocks have won four in a row since their loss on the road to Tennessee. That includes putting up 70 points last week against Coastal Carolina. This will be the toughest offense that the South Carolina has faced since Week 2 against Georgia. The Tigers can run and pass the ball very effectively, and will put a lot of pressure on the defense to create stops.

Clemson anchors the country’s 10th-ranked scoring offense, putting up 42 points per game. Senior quarterback Tajh Boyd is the leader of this Tigers team, as they put up 338 passing yards per game. With weapons like Sammy Watkins on the outside, they can really stretch a defense

Since only scoring 14 points against Florida State in the middle of October, the Clemson offense has been on a tear. Over the course of their last three games they have not scored fewer than 52 points, and since the loss to the Seminoles their lowest output was 40 points to Maryland the next week.