There’s no way to spin it- Clemson blew South Carolina out of the water last Saturday night, 56-7, and proved in every way to be the superior team and program at this point.



While the lopsided score may have been a surprise, the state of the two programs is not. The Tigers are contending for national championships and winning conference championships. The Gamecocks are trying to become bowl-eligible.



That’s just how it is right now. For those of you who don’t like that result, you can point fingers of blame at coaches, players, administrators and whoever else you want to, but it’s not going to change the current reality.



The good news is this. It was one game and things change quickly in college football. Let’s look back at the last time Carolina was blown out by a national title contender on the road late in the season: It was 2008 in The Swamp in Gainesville, Fla. The Gamecocks faced the then-No. 1 Gators on a November afternoon and were promptly spanked, 56-6. The next time Carolina played in Gainesville, the Gamecocks blew Florida out, 36-14, and won their only SEC East title.



There wasn’t a person in the stadium that day that would have predicted that. At the time, South Carolina looked mediocre and the Gators, who would go on to win their second national title under Urban Meyer in four years, looked like they were cranking back up the dynasty train. Two years later, Carolina was in the Georgia Dome and Meyer quit at Florida.



We all remember the Kick 6 in the Iron Bowl in 2013, right? Did you know that the season before, Alabama defeated Auburn 49-0 in Tuscaloosa?



There are no predictions here along those lines with regards to the Clemson series in the coming years simply because it’s not something you can do with any accuracy, but it is to point out that in college football things can change from season-to-season (and even during the season sometimes) so there’s no need for the emotional, inaccurate accusations that institutionally, South Carolina isn’t “as committed” to winning football as the Tigers are. Both programs are over-the-top committed to having championship-level programs and it’s obvious.



Specifically, Gamecocks fans need to understand that Saturday night’s result was about football players. Clemson has better players across the board than South Carolina, three times the team speed, a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback (and I’d vote for him over Lamar Jackson), veteran running backs who are elite, loads of elite receivers, a great defensive line, an emerging offensive line, a good kicking game and they fixed their special teams coverage units this year because they have the depth to do so. Chad Smith and Tanner Muse, for example, are both guys who would be starting and playing the entire game for the Gamecocks on defense if they were in Columbia, but Clemson has the luxury of being able to have them specialize in coverage.



Those are all the fruits of the Tigers head coach, Dabo Swinney, having a plan to get Clemson to the next level, sticking with it and being flexible enough to make needed adjustments along the way. This is his eighth full season at Clemson. Tip your hat to him. He made it work.





But that’s where the Tigers are and we cover the Gamecocks here, so let’s talk about how this program moves forward.



This season’s offense was extremely green out of necessity. Most people that understand football and the development process know that it is a recipe for disaster to have true freshmen starters at even two key positions, especially if one is quarterback. The Gamecocks had three true freshman starters, including quarterback and young talent (wide receiver Deebo Samuel and tight end Hayden Hurst) at other key spots, too. South Carolina has to get its offensive line to improve, but there are four starters coming back next season, so that’s a start.



The facts are that quarterback Jake Bentley, running back Rico Dowdle and wide receiver Bryan Edwards all over-performed for true freshmen this season and all three will be back in 2017, along with Samuel, Randrecous Davis, Chavis Dawkins and then some at wide receiver and Hurst, KC Crosby and Kiel Pollard at tight end. If you are judging these guys as players simply because of how they looked Saturday night or at times this year, you don’t understand that football is developmental and that for all of these guys, the experience they got this season was extremely valuable and accelerates the development process.



Defensively, the Gamecocks have to get better and faster through recruiting, but you still have true freshmen on the defensive line like Dennis Wonnum, Keir Thomas and Kobe Smith who got a lot of snaps this year and will be even better next year. Chris Lammons, Jamarcus King and Rashad Fenton all return in the secondary. Bryson Allen-Williams played his best football down the stretch of this season and will be a senior in 2017. Plus, Carolina is going to add more speed and depth in the 2017 recruiting cycle.



The point is, there are players on the roster who have promise who are in the early stages of their development at the collegiate level who are going to improve dramatically. Up at Clemson, do we think Grady Jarrett and Vic Beasley were all-stars during their first seasons? Carlos Watkins? How about Mike Williams and Wayne Gallman? No. Sure, there are guys like Christian Wilkins and DeShaun Watson who are just studs right out of the gate (both are special), but development occurs in every program.



So you can gripe about the schemes and the intangible stuff like effort, inspiration, etc., all you want, but there really is no need to focus on that unless you just are masochistic.





The reality of the situation at South Carolina is that it is a rebuilding situation and even with that, the Gamecocks are 6-6 and heading to a bowl game. It’s always better to be rebuilding at 6-6 than it is at 2-10 because that means it is going to happen quicker. Since Clemson is on everyone’s mind, I will remind everyone that the Tigers had to endure a 6-7 season in 2010, a 70-33 embarrassing loss to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl, five straight defeats at the hands of the Gamecocks from 2009-13 and even as recently as the 2013 season got blown out by Florida State, 51-14, at Death Valley. That didn’t stop them from getting to where they wanted to go and I guarantee you ever Tiger fan on the planet cared less about the losing streak to Carolina the minute the final seconds ticked off the clock at the Orange Bowl last New Years Eve and Clemson was ticketed for the national championship game. It took seven full seasons under Swinney and a lot of bumps in the road to get there.



So, my advice for all of the supporters of the Gamecocks would be to take this loss in stride and think about two quotes from former coaches Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz and move forward.



“It is what it is,”- Spurrier



“Things are never as good as they seem. Things are never as bad as they seem,” -Holtz