For its final meeting of 2024, the Laurens County Touchdown Club played host to 2 high school and 1 college teams that have a combined 14 in a row win streak, and representatives of the state’s two largest programs promoting their Nov. 30 rivalry game.
It was the Clemson - Carolina meeting featuring Don Munson for Clemson and Chet Tucker for the University of South Carolina.
But first, at its Thursday lunch, the club handed out players of the week honors: Nov. 1, Will Thompson, Laurens District High School; Nov. 8, Garrett Murphy, Laurens Academy; and Nov. 15, Nathan Bell, Laurens Academy.
Players of the Week are sponsored by Farm Bureau Insurance of Laurens County.
The Crusaders - winner of 6 games in a row - this Friday at WW King in Batesburg-Leesville take on Richard Winn for the state independent schools’ 8-man Championship. LA defeated Jefferson Davis, 34-28, on Nov. 15.
Clinton High School — winner of 5 games in a row - play this Friday at home against Chester in the second round of the 2A Playoffs. Clinton defeated Pelion, 56-0, on Nov. 15.
And, just to make it a 2-football weekend in Clinton, Presbyterian College Football - winner of 3 games in a row - takes on Butler in the season finale at Bailey Memorial Stadium. PC defeated Marist, 42-23, on Nov. 16.
Red Devil Football Head Coach Corey Fountain summed up the coaches’ feelings going into the playoffs, “The best time of year to be playing football is when the grass is brown.”
He told LA Football Head Coach Jolly Doolittle, about the Crusaders playing for an unexpected State Championship, “You are where we want to be down the road.”
Fountain said Chester’s 5-5 record is not indicative of the quality football team the Cyclones have. Once again (as they have battled before in 3A), Clinton will contend with one of the state’s most talented quarterbacks, Trooper Floyd.
The winner faces the winner of the Batesburg-Leesville - Andrew Jackson game on Nov. 29. If the winners are Clinton and Batesburg-Leesville, that will mean that former Laurens Head Coach Greg Lawson will return with another team to Clinton’s Wilder Stadium.
BLHS is the No. 1 team in State 2A.
On behalf of his Crusaders, Doolittle said, “I don’t know how many people thought we would be playing (for the championship). But that doesn’t matter as long as the men in our locker room did.”
The Crusaders’ mentor said his team doesn’t think about the next Friday night, but rather the next practice, in the on-going effort to get better.
Laurens Academy is 9-2 on the season - the team it will play this Friday, Richard Winn, won the Sept. 12 matchup between the two schools, 56-20. But for the next 6 games, with two postponements, the Crusaders never lost again.
PC Football Head Coach Steve Englehart said his team is playing its best football of the season now. Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against Butler will be Senior Day and the Cancer Awareness Game at Bailey Memorial Stadium. “We continue to push, continue to work, and continue to love each other,” he said.
At 9-2, Butler comes in with an outside chance to be tied for the Pioneer Football League championship. But PC has aspirations of its own - first 4-game winning streak since 2007 and first 6-win season since 2014.
For their parts, Carolina and Clemson face challenges this week from Wofford and The Citadel, respectively. The Gamecocks know they cannot take the week off — in past seasons, USC has lost games they expected to win to The Citadel and Appalachian State.
Munson complemented the Laurens County Touchdown Club for its support of high school and college athletics. “You honor these schools. We need to do more of that, not cut them down. They get enough of that on social media.”
Looking at the Nov. 30 game, Munson said Clemson and Carolina fans might not be excited about a noon kickoff; but he said he and Tucker like it because “we hate night games - you get home at 2 or 3 in the morning then you have to be up for church.”
Clemson will not look past The Citadel, he said, because “something we have learned, anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”
Munson said the Tigers’ offensive line is banged up but “I like our defense - our first 22 (players) are good.”
“We have great respect for The Citadel as well as great respect for Carolina,” Munson said. “It’s fun. It’s one of the great rivalries in college football.”
In being a long-time part of the Clemson program, Munson said, “God has blessed me very richly.”
Tucker, who said he holds the distinction of being 0 for 2 as a Gamecocks place-kicker, said he started his career on high school games’ radio. He said he was supposed to call the Chester - Fort Mill game but a lightning storm knocked out the stadium’s press box and lights.
Tucker said the Gamecocks’ offense has the luxury of playing behind “a spectacular defense” that now has Carolina on the outside looking in at the National Championship 12-team playoffs. He said Carolina will have to get by Wofford and Clemson and then hope other 2-loss SEC teams lose in the final weeks of the season. He said Carolina’s chance of making the playoff — expanded this season for the first time — has gone from 12% to 34% with the Gamecocks’ recent success and the sudden impact of freshmen players.
Beating 5-5 Wofford will take “a good effort by the South Carolina team,” he said.
Tucker looked at rankings to show the closeness of the Clemson and Carolina teams: strength of record, Carolina is 16th, Clemson is 17th; power index, Carolina is 13th, Clemson is 12th; AP poll, Carolina is 18th, Clemson is 17th; and in average win potential, Carolina is 21st, Clemson is 18th.
He said based on strength of schedule, Carolina is 8th, playing in the Southeastern Conference, while Clemson is 46th, playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The rivalry game is Saturday, Nov. 30, at noon in Clemson’s Death Valley stadium.
Even as rivalry weekend wraps up the college football regular season, the Laurens County Touchdown Club expects to extend its season into January, 2025 — the Annual Awards Banquet will be Jan. 8 at The Ridge recreation center in Laurens, for designation of the All-County Team, Coach of the Year, and Player of the Year. It is being pushed back from December to accommodate the Touchstone Energy Bowl in Myrtle Beach, which has selected Cal Pitts, of Clinton, as an offensive lineman.
The Laurens County Touchdown Club is an affiliate organization of the Laurens County Chamber of Commerce. Game Day Sponsors for Thursday’s lunch were PRTC, Laurens Electric Cooperative, and the University of South Carolina Union - Laurens Location (at the former Bell St. High/Middle School campus in Clinton).
