Though South Carolina qualified for a bowl game this season, the Gamecocks still have a bad taste in their mouths.

That’s because they were blown out by in-state rival Clemson 56-7 in the regular-season finale.

As junior defenders Bryson Allen-Williams and Dante Sawyer prepare for the bowl game and look forward to the 2017 season, they made a promise to The State that they’d never let their team get blown out like that again:

“Never again,” junior linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams said. “That is something we have been posting around the locker room, that we have been saying to ourselves. We never want to get beat like that again so we have to do everything we need to do this offseason, everything that we have to do in the fall to not allow things like that to happen next year.”

Sawyer said the loss was a real eye-opener as to how far the Gamecocks still have to go to be able to compete with the nation’s top programs:

“It was a shock, but we moved on from it. It won’t happen again,” junior defensive lineman Dante Sawyer said. “It hasn’t been settled, we will worry about it next year when it comes around.”

South Carolina will take on USF in the Birmingham Bowl on Thursday, Dec. 29. The game kicks off at 2 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen on ESPN.