South Carolina’s recent struggles against Clemson are no secret, and reminders aren’t necessary for coach Will Muschamp and quarterback Jake Bentley. After all, Muschamp famously said that on his first day on the job, 38 people tell you to beat Clemson.

“We understand we need to do a better job on our side of it,” Muschamp said of the current four-game losing streak to Clemson after the Gamecocks beat Chattanooga on Saturday.

Part of the issue has been that Clemson has held the upper hand in quarterback play in Bentley’s first two meetings in the rivalry. The Gamecocks’ signal caller also has struggled in the lopsided losses. But in his first extended comments about the game this season, Bentley said he didn’t think about it defining his legacy.

“Not really,” he said. “I try to take each game by itself, and not think about what ifs, and what’s going to be,” Bentley said. “We’ve got to approach this with the mind-set this is the 2018 Carolina team, and go from there and be able to talk about everything else years from now.”

The difficult part for Bentley is that while he’s a team player, much of this South Carolina team’s struggles haven’t been his fault, especially lately. Muschamp said as much Saturday night, saying that Bentley has played “at a high level” since the end of the Oct. 13 Texas A&M game. The Gamecocks rang up a season-high 602 yards against Chattanooga but have also topped 500 three other times this season.

While Clemson’s defensive line will test South Carolina like no other team has this season, it’s the South Carolina defense that is a concern. The Gamecocks will no doubt get players back from injury, as several were held out against Chattanooga. But even when the lineup has been relatively healthy, Muschamp has lamented tackling and other fundamental concerns. That will get a stern test from a Clemson team that rattled off 35 unanswered points in a win over Duke on Saturday after it fell behind 6-0 after the first quarter.

Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

This is an interesting time in the rivalry because Clemson hasn’t won five straight in the series since the 1930s, while South Carolina is bowl eligible, and Muschamp is the first South Carolina coach to make three bowls in three years. Still, South Carolina fell considerably short of making a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.

Progress is being made, but more importantly, are the Gamecocks keeping up with Clemson or making inroads in recruiting, coaching and strategy?

The four-game Clemson winning streak is one thing, but South Carolina has also been outscored 162-66 during that span.

“There’s always a chip on your shoulder in the rivalry,” South Carolina linebacker T.J. Brunson said. “But you have to prepare the same way as always.”

Initially, it appears that Muschamp and the players are trying to tamp down any hype leading up to the game and not looking to make significant changes.

“We just need to be consistent,” defensive lineman Daniel Fennell said. “Need to play our game. As the defense is called, we have to all do our job. The offense has to score the way they know they can. The way they have in the past couple weeks, and we’ll be fine.”

Added wide receiver Shi Smith, “It’s our rival; it means a lot, but we’re going to take it just as we did last week.”