Kelly Bryant on bringing own energy: "We played their little fight song all week."

“Nobody has had more pressure on him than Kelly (Bryant),” Dabo Swinney said after the 34-10 victory over South Carolina.

Quarterback Kelly Bryant has led his team to an 11-1 record, back to the ACC championship, and two wins away from another national championship appearance.

Bryant orchestrated a great performance against the Gamecocks and finished 23-of-34 for 272 yards and two touchdowns. He feels his offense and his team is finding its groove here in the later part of the season.

“I feel like everything is coming together for us on both sides of the ball and special teams,” Bryant said. “We’ve been in a rhythm here lately and now we are just trying to keep it going.

“I feel like we have been hitting our stride here lately. Seeing the guys' confidence go up and guys develop as the season goes has been good for us as an offense.”

The redshirt junior has been scrutinized a lot for his deep throws this season but connected with a few big ones Saturday night, including a 40-yard dime to Tee Higgins to set up a score.

“I just had that confidence. I never got down on myself and the coaches throughout the course of the season showed me where we’ve been hitting them on film.”

Bryant was asked if his team fed off of the crowd’s hostility toward them:

“Coach Swinney always talks about it. When you go into environments like this when everyone is against you, you have to bring your own energy. We played their little fight song all throughout the week, We brought our own energy to the sideline and were vibing to it as well.”

Clemson kept the vibe all night and it started before kickoff as Austin Bryant blew kisses to South Carolina’s student section during warm-ups. He was responding the double-birds and bottles thrown on the field at the team before the game even began.

Kelly Bryant said that he wasn’t surprised that the student section did that because of prior experiences he saw his freshman year.

Down 20-0 after halftime, South Carolina tried to fire its fans back up by playing the “little fight song” Bryant mentioned. Clemson players jumped up and down on the sidelines waving their towels just as the fans were doing.

The atmosphere didn’t bother them. They were having fun.

Swinney didn’t like that fans were throwing bottles and was issued a 15-yard penalty for stepping out of his coach’s box to talk to officials about it. Bryant said it meant a lot to have a coach that would stand up for his team like that.

“That just shows what type of coach he is. He is trying to protect us from what is going on in the stands. Knowing that he has our backs makes us want to play harder for him.”