Normally, this is the week Clemson is getting set to play in-state rival South Carolina. But as we all know, 2020 has not been a normal year.
For the first time since 1908, Clemson and South Carolina will not meet on the gridiron. The SEC decided college football’s oldest uninterrupted rivalry in the South, and the second longest in the country, was not important enough to play. The SEC decided back on July 30 its 14 schools would play just conference games only.
So, instead of getting ready to play the Gamecocks at Death Valley for a 112th straight year on Saturday, which was on the original schedule before the pandemic hit, third-ranked Clemson is instead getting ready to play a team from up North in Pittsburgh, a program it has only faced three other times in its rich history.