COLUMBIA, S.C. — When this season began, Clemson and South Carolina both had quarterback concerns. Big ones.
These days, the only question left about the Tigers’ Cade Klubnik and the Gamecocks’ LaNorris Sellers is which of these stellar passers might lead his team to a potential College Football Playoff berth when the nonconference rivals meet Saturday at Clemson’s Death Valley, where another edition of the Palmetto Bowl will cap the regular season.
Sellers doesn’t spend much time considering what’s ahead for South Carolina (8-3), which went 5-3 in Southeastern Conference play this season and has won five straight games overall. The Gamecocks are 3-0 in their past three meetings with ranked foes, beating Vanderbilt, Missouri and Texas A&M — which counts for nothing, of course, when it comes to facing Clemson. Or anyone else.
“As fast as it goes good, it can go bad in a hurry,” said Sellers, a 6-foot-3, 242-pound redshirt freshman from Florence.
Consider it more of a slow simmer for Sellers and Klubnik, his counterpart at Clemson (9-2), which went 7-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play this year and still could reach next week’s league championship game against SMU in Charlotte, North Carolina, if Miami loses to Syracuse this weekend.
“We defied the odds, and that’s what a championship team is,” said Klubnik (6-2, 210), a junior from Austin, Texas.
Not many were discussing Klubnik or Sellers earlier this season.
Clemson’s quarterback was coming off a truly mixed bag his first year as a starter. He was often off target, took too many sacks and struggled to balance his desire to make the big play with what the team needed at the moment. The result was a 4-4 start to 2023 that pushed the Tigers, who had become regular ACC and CFP contenders under coach Dabo Swinney, out of the mix before November.
Those questions about Klubnik resurfaced when Clemson lost 34-3 to preseason No. 1 Georgia in the Aug. 31 opener at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Klubnik was shaky at best, missing open receivers and throwing a critical interception when the Tigers were still in it.
Since then, Klubnik has been a different quarterback, making winning plays. He has thrown 29 touchdown passes over the past 10 games and had several eye-popping moments to keep Clemson’s chances alive of reaching the first 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff. Trailing at Pittsburgh 20-17 on Nov. 16, Klubnik broke off for a 50-yard touchdown run through a host of defenders with less than two minutes left to lift the Tigers to a 24-20 victory.
“It’s one of those plays you’re always going to remember with Cade Klubnik,” said Garrett Riley, Clemson’s second-year offensive coordinator.
AP photo by George Walker IV / South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers passes during an SEC game against Vanderbilt on Nov. 9 in Nashville.Sellers, too, has made special plays at the biggest moments for South Carolina. He faced a difficult challenge stepping in for starter Spencer Rattler, who led the Gamecocks the past two seasons and has made three starts for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints this year.
Sellers, like Klubnik, had trouble with turnovers at the wrong time. It didn’t help that he came out of South Carolina’s game against LSU in September with an ankle injury and watched as the Gamecocks blew a 17-point lead in the final minutes to lose 36-33.
A few weeks later, Sellers threw an interception that sealed a 27-25 win for Alabama after South Carolina led the host Crimson Tide entering the fourth quarter.
The light has come on for Sellers of late, though, as 13 of his 17 touchdown passes this season (and just two of his six interceptions) have come during South Carolina’s five-game winning streak. His most masterful performance came against Missouri two weeks ago, when he threw five touchdown passes and twice led the Gamecocks on go-ahead fourth-quarter drives after they lost the lead in an eventual 34-30 win.
“I always like saying he never gets rattled because it reminds me of Spencer Rattler,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer joked. “But (Sellers) never gets rattled.”
There’s been plenty of college chaos the past couple of weeks that has let Clemson and South Carolina dream about the 12-team playoff.
The Tigers, 12th in the most recent rankings released by the CFP selection committee on Tuesday, have won nine of their past 10 games. A 10th victory this season — this one over surging South Carolina, which is No. 15 in the CFP rankings — could impress committee members even without an ACC title.
As for the Gamecocks, only three SEC teams have fewer losses this season, and beating Clemson would be a fourth straight victory over a ranked team — a factor sure to garner attention from the selectors.
None of it matters if Klubnik or Sellers can’t excel Saturday in front of a packed house, 81,000 strong, at Clemson.
“This is the game that’s got a lot of national implications,” Swinney said.
And plenty on the line for two quarterbacks seeking a strong finish that will be remembered in the Palmetto State for ages.