Bragging Rights: ‘Five-Bombs’ still loom over Clemson’s head

The most important item obtained when defeating a rival isn’t a trophy or another tangible object.

It’s simply bragging rights.

One year – 365 days – of being able to say “our team is better than yours” until the two teams meet again. Few hours of gameplay on the gridiron later and the cycle repeats for another year.

It’s amazing how a few hours of a football game can impact so many lives going forward in the state of South Carolina.

For some years, the battle for the Palmetto State had a delicate balance. From 1992 to 1997, Clemson and South Carolina traded wins back and forth. Each fan base had its year of bragging rights; then it was the other’s turn.

Other than that, it hasn’t been so back-and-forth.

One year of bragging rights would turn into two, and then two into three.

Losing streaks in a heated rivalry are never okay and enduring trash-talk for over 1,000 days without being able to do anything about it can have a lasting effect.

Both South Carolina and Clemson have been on the losing end of long streaks in this rivalry.

Most recently, Clemson was on the wrong end of a five-year skid against the Gamecocks from 2009 to 2013.

1,825 days of bragging rights for South Carolina and sleepless nights for the Tigers.

All year leading up to what would be the highest ranked matchup between the two teams in 2013, fans in garnet yelled, “fear the thumb!” at Clemson fans signifying that a fifth win was on its way.

South Carolina had never beaten Clemson five years in a row until 2013, so fans took the opportunity from that day on until November 2014 to commemorate their team’s accomplishment.

Losing to your rival can make life miserable, but those next 365 days were even more so for the Clemson faithful and head coach Dabo Swinney.

For the next year, Swinney would go into public around the state and get asked to take pictures with fans. What Swinney didn’t know was that a lot of those fans were Gamecock fans.

South Carolina fans would pose with Swinney and smile wide, but then they would flash what is now referred to as a “five-bomb” holding up their hand with Swinney smiling.

The trend lasted all year until Clemson finally got back to its winning ways in Death Valley in 2014.

Even with the relief of the streak being over and now a three-game winning streak in his pocket, the “five-bombs” are still the first thing Clelin Ferrell thinks of when he thinks of South Carolina.

“I just think about coach Swinney talking about how when they beat us five years in a row, coach Swinney would sometimes take pictures with different South Carolina fans just because they would come up to him and ask for pictures,” Ferrell said. “A lot of times they would be in the picture doing this (five-bomb). When he told me that story and someone had finally told him what it meant. He was like, ‘dang, I didn’t know that was going on.’”

Ferrell said that Swinney told the team the story of the “five-bombs” last year before Clemson thrashed South Carolina 56-7.

“I would have random people show me something, and I’d be like, ‘Well, son of a gun.’ I had no idea,” Swinney said Tuesday. “That’s just part of the rivalry. Those people don’t know me. They don’t like me because I work at Clemson. I don’t take that personally.”

Swinney said that he didn’t take the “five-bombs” personally, but Ferrell noted that Swinney had a different kind of reaction when he found out what was going on.

“It was hilarious because it was just like ‘dang,’ he was smiling so extra hard, and he doesn't even know the kind is like, ‘Yeah, we beat you the last five years.’ A lot of us were in there laughing because that was really funny. But then you see when he found out what that meant, he was so mad.”

While Ferrell found comic relief in what South Carolina fans were doing, Kendall Joseph had a bit of a different take.

“It wasn’t too funny, to be honest. It was disrespectful,” Joseph said. “You’ve got a head coach that’s taking time out of his day to take pictures with fans and disrespecting him like that.”

Since then, the bragging rights have taken a swing of momentum now in Clemson’s favor. The Tigers are looking to win four in a row for the ninth time in series history. Joseph was quick to point out that Clemson fans probably wouldn’t act the way South Carolina fans did back then.

“I highly doubt Clemson fans would do the same thing to the coach over there. So I didn’t think it was too funny.”

The carousel of the rivalry will continue to take its ups and downs for both programs. Neither side wants to feel the effects of a losing streak.

Or the bragging rights that come with it.

“My freshman year, the seniors that finally broke that streak, you could see the relief on their face and the pure joy of ending that streak because that’s something that doesn’t fly around here,” Joseph said. “Guys take it personally; we don’t ever want to be on that side. I haven’t been on that side, and I don’t ever plan on it now." 

"We’re excited to keep the streak going.”