Once again, bragging rights are owned by the Clemson Tigers in the Palmetto State, and that is the way it is supposed to be, right?

Sure South Carolina has to win every once in a while and that is what makes a rivalry interesting. However, Clemson is supposed to win in most years and that is just what we expect in this rivalry.

Thanks to Saturday’s 16-7 win in Columbia, the Tigers have won eight of the last nine games in the rivalry. Yes, the Gamecocks owned a five-game win streak prior to Clemson’s current run of dominance in the series, but that was an outlier in a rivalry the Tigers have owned since beating the Gamecocks 24-0 in 1898.

The 1898 game was year three of the series and Clemson’s second win over USC. Since then, Clemson has not trailed in the 120-year-old rivalry. To put that into perspective, for 45,665 consecutive days (125 years, 10 days) the Tigers have had the advantage over the Gamecocks.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is true.

Why do Clemson fans feel like it is their birth right to beat the Gamecocks on the gridiron? Because it is true.

From the beginning, Clemson has dominated the series. The Tigers won 13 of the first 17 meetings (13-3-1). Carolina did not win back-to-back games over Clemson until the rivalry was 25 years old.

USC did win three straight from 1924-’26, but the Tigers followed it up with four straight wins, once again restoring order. The Gamecocks won three straight after that, but starting in 1934, Clemson rattled off seven straight wins, which set the longest win streak in the series for either team.

South Carolina was more competitive during the Frank Howard years (1940-’69) and even won four straight games over Clemson from 1951-’54. Though Howard is considered the Legend at Clemson, he is the only Clemson coach that has coached in four or more games to have a losing record against the Gamecocks (13-15-2).

USC beat Clemson in Howard’s last two years as a head coach and then again in 1970 to own a three-game winning streak. However, the Gamecocks went 40 another years before winning back-to-back games in the series.

During that same stretch, the Tigers had a three-game win streak (1976-’78) and four 4-game win streaks (1980-’83, 1988-’91, 1997-2000, 2002-’05). From 1976-’83, Clemson won seven of eight in the series and from 1997-05 it won eight of nine meetings over the Gamecocks.

After Carolina’s five-game streak from 2009-’13—its longest in the series—the Tigers have won eight of the last nine meetings, including a record-tying seven straight from 2014-’22.

And to drive home why Clemson fans feel beating South Carolina is their birth right, look at it this way, 54 of Clemson’s 73 wins in the series have come in Columbia. Back when the game was played every year during the State Fair in Columbia and was called “Big Thursday,” Clemson owned a 33-21-3 record in those 57 meetings.

The Tigers now own a 54-32-3 record over Carolina in Columbia, including an 18-6 record that dates back to 1977.

My friend, Clemson legend Levon Kirkland, likes to say, “It is time to collect rent” when Clemson travels to Columbia. And he is right.

During Clemson’s current five-game win streak in Columbia, the Tigers have beat the Gamecocks 37-32 in 2015, 34-10 in 2017, 38-3 in 2019, 30-0 in 2021 and then of course 16-7 this past Saturday night. That is a combined score of 155-52. USC has scored just 20 points in the last four meetings at Williams-Brice.

In those four games, the Gamecocks are averaging 5.0 points and 189 yards per game.

On Saturday night, Clemson did what it always does in this series, it collected rent. Because it does seem like Williams-Brice Stadium is Clemson’s second home.