Ten thoughts from the weekend

1. How much of an appetite would there be for a Clemson-Auburn matchup in the Chick-fil-A Bowl?

If Clemson loses to Virginia Tech on Saturday night, the answer to that question could determine whether Clemson plummets all the way to Orlando for the Champs Sports Bowl.

It would be an incredible, embarrassing fall for a team that was in the BCS title conversation not long ago.

Clemson and Auburn have already played this year, and they're playing in the Georgia Dome to open next season. On the surface, you'd think the Chick-fil-A would not be interested in such a scenario.

But Gary Stokan, head honcho of the bowl, seems open to it. He watched Auburn's thrashing at the hands of Alabama and spoke with reporters.

"Next year will be a different team," Stokan said. "Both teams will be ranked in the top 20 and be contenders to win their divisions and conferences. This year, if we do it, will be a rubber match. Next year, if we do it, would be the Guinness World Book of Records. It would be three matchups within a calendar year. Who's ever done that? That would be great PR for Clemson and Auburn."

2. Apparently the Champs Sports is interested in a Florida State-Notre Dame matchup. But the Chick-fil-A could snag the Seminoles and force the bowl to take Clemson, assuming the Tigers lose in the ACC title game.

My feeling is that Auburn-Clemson would not resonate as much as Auburn-Florida State. The Seminoles actually have some momentum, their fans seem fairly happy even though they didn't win the Atlantic Division, and Clemson is reeling.

Given Clemson's plummet, and given that the two teams will play next season, how many Clemson fans would go to Atlanta? It certainly wouldn't be a sparse Clemson crowd, but I'm guessing a number of fans would choose to stay home.

And I have my doubts about the marketability of "hey, two teams have never played three times in the same year!" pitch.

3. Speaking of staying home, it was almost stunning to see so many empty seats in the upper deck of Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night.

My memory of these games goes back to the early 1980s, and I can't think of one time the joints weren't packed for this game. Gobs of empty seats are unheard of.

Looked to me as if the seats were in Gamecock sections, but I'm not certain of that. Regardless, we can't complain that this rivalry doesn't get the recognition it deserves when we can't even fill the stadiums -- and for a rare matchup of ranked teams, no less.

Maybe we're reaching a tipping point as a result of a convergence of factors: the availability of games on television, TV picture quality, DVR, the economy, the rising cost of attending games, etc.

You could say Thanksgiving weekend played a role, but I tend to doubt it.

Heck, Death Valley was stuffed to the gills in 1998 when these two teams entered with a combined three wins.

All that unoccupied aluminum was a sad sight.

4. Tried to take some time to walk around a few hours before Saturday's game to take in the sights and sounds, and I'm just not big on that atmosphere outside the stadium.

Spending the last eight years at Clemson has made me strongly partial to the on-campus setting with the hills and the trees and all. The dilapidated warehouses and the barbed wire down there just don't do it for me.

And it seems like a much rougher crowd, too. Just much more of an urban, NFL-type feel if you ask me.

5. The last time I can remember South Carolina being remotely this close to sustained dominance of Clemson was the late 1980s.

Clemson was lucky to salvage a tie with the Gamecocks in 1986. South Carolina dominated the Tigers in 1987. And in early 1988, the Gamecocks rolled to a 6-0 start on the strength of a dominating win over Georgia.

Then a massive steroid scandal struck their program. Then they fell apart over the second half of the season. Then coach Joe Morrison died. Just like that, it all went poof for the Gamecocks. Clemson smashed South Carolina for four straight years after that 1987 game.

For a small time after the 1987 season and during the 1988 season, it seemed as if the Gamecocks had surpassed the Tigers. But that wasn't close to what we're seeing now.

This is all new and unsettling territory for Clemson fans. They're simply not used to getting crushed by their rivals. To have seen it happen three years in a row is almost apocalyptic in this neck of the woods.

6. The Gamecocks' defensive line completely pillaged Clemson's offensive front, and some people will cite that as evidence of SEC superiority.

Maybe. But maybe not. Heck, N.C. State and Georgia Tech mauled Clemson's line about as thoroughly as South Carolina's did.

This is just a bad offensive line right now.

7. I usually don't like playing the what-if game, because the snake bites both ways.

But it's interesting to wonder what might've happened had Sammy Watkins not dropped that touchdown ball in the first quarter ... and had Tajh Boyd not dropped that heave from DeAndre Hopkins in the second quarter.

That said, it's hard to say anything would've been dramatically different when there was zero confidence Clemson could stop South Carolina.

During a few brief moments, after Clemson knotted the score at 10 on the touchdown drive and the field goal that followed the botched punt, you got the feeling that the Tigers might be able to keep the game close. Otherwise, there was never really any doubt. And that lack of doubt has to be absolutely galling to Clemson fans, because for so long in this rivalry that mentality has been reversed.

8. I remember interviewing Clemson players in Columbia after they lost the 2001 game at South Carolina. They weren't used to losing to the Gamecocks, having won their previous four tries.

Chad Carson was fighting back tears. Other players were devastated.

I only saw a few players after the game, so it was a small sample size. But what I saw wasn't devastation.

Maybe the players were staying on message after Dabo Swinney told them to flush it and start getting their minds ready for Virginia Tech.

But you wonder if some of these guys don't hurt the way their predecessors hurt, don't expect to beat South Carolina the way their predecessors did.

This is what happens when you start losing to a rival regularly. Seems now it's the Gamecocks who expect to beat the Tigers.

9. Over the summer, I asked former Tiger great Levon Kirkland to assess the state of Clemson's program. He ended up talking a lot about South Carolina and the importance of turning the series back in Clemson's favor.

“Unfortunately for us, South Carolina has gotten better. The turnover with Coach Bowden affected us in a way that now we’re struggling with the Gamecocks. They’ve gotten better. They’re battle-tested. I think we have a tremendous amount of talent, but I don’t know if we’ve been as battle-tested as they have. The Gamecocks now have the confidence they can beat us when they want to. Now it’s up to us to kind of fight that demon. Because when you lose to a team a couple of times – and we’ve only lost twice in a row, but that’s really unlike us – when you’re that losing team you kind of wonder: ‘Can we?’ You start wondering if you can beat them. South Carolina is at the point now where they feel like they can really beat us, and they feel like they’ve got the horses to do it. It’s on Clemson now to turn the tables. That’s got to be one of the games where you say it’s gotten to the stage where we’ve got to take it to them, that they’ve got to kill us to beat us.

“For us, we have to prove our mettle now. We have to prove it on the field. Enough about the talking and all that stuff. I think we can. But it’s going to be tough. Losing to the Gamecocks is a little different for a guy like me who’s used to beating these guys on a regular basis. Even before when they beat us, you almost understood you’d beat them three or four straight times. Now they’ve beat us twice and you kind of wonder."

Kirkland, by the way, was undefeated against the Gamecocks from 1988 to 1991.

10. Remember when Clemson scored a combined 115 points in back-to-back weeks against Maryland and North Carolina?

Sources close to the situation confirm that, yes, such an event took place this season.

It's hard to believe given what's unfolded during the last four games, when the Tigers have scored a total of 74 points.

It's beginning to look a lot like last year as far as this offense goes. It has been miserable for all but, say, one or two quarters since those explosions against the Terps and Tar Heels.

Saturday's 153-yard output was Clemson's worst since a 129-yard effort in 1998 against Florida State.

Since that day, the Tigers have registered less than 200 yards on just 6 occasions:

199 yards against Georgia in 2003 (30-0 loss)
173 yards against Florida State in 2004 (41-22 loss)
166 yards against Virginia Tech in 2006 (24-7 loss)
188 yards against Alabama in 2008 (34-10 loss)
198 yards against Wake Forest in 2008 (12-7 loss)
192 yards against Virginia in 2008 (13-3 win)

The worst output by last year's offense: 213 in a 31-7 win over Maryland.