Trips to Columbia taught Clemson players how heated rivalry is

The majority of the players on Clemson’s depth chart are not from the state of South Carolina and did not grow up around the Palmetto State rivalry, but it does not take the out-of-state players long to realize just how intense the matchup with the Gamecocks is.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney plays a highlight video for his team each Monday during the week of the South Carolina game to offer a glimpse of what Saturday’s game will be like.

“I’ll never forget just watching that video, you could just see the emotion in the game itself. And then that week in practice all of the guys, it just felt like a different week,” Tigers linebacker Shaq Smith said. “You would’ve thought we were playing in the…