Former Gamecock, current FSU player says he knows how to quiet the Clemson crowd

Jaheim Bell scored a rushing touchdown in the Gamecocks' win over Clemson last year. Now with FSU, he says Death Valley will go silent if they hit the Tigers in the mouth. (Photo: Eric Canha / USATODAY)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Sep 21 07:00:06 GMT-04:00 2023

Current Florida State and former South Carolina Gamecock tight end Jaheim Bell has a simple plan for his teammates in dealing with the Clemson crowd this Saturday: hit the Tigers in the mouth, and the crowd will go silent.

Bell was a Gamecock last season when South Carolina broke Clemson’s long winning streak with a 31-30 upset victory. He had nine carries for 29 yards, a touchdown and two catches for another two yards, and he feels he understands what it’s like to play in front of the orange-clad faithful.

“It’s a real, high-environment game. There’s a lot of emotions,” Bell said. “You’ve got to find a way to put that to the side and do the right things. When it’s high emotions it causes you to do things that you don’t normally do, so you’ve got to find a way to stay focused.”

He also says he knows how to deal with it.

“I told those guys that when I went in there last year, it was a real hostile environment, but you’ve got to find that in between of having emotions and being able to lock in,” he said. “I’ve been telling those guys how it is down there. But, once you hit them in the mouth a few plays, it’ll calm down.”

The Seminoles are piping in crowd noise during practice, but Bell feels like the crowd will only be in full voice early, and then once the ‘Noles hit the Tigers in the mouth, the noise factor will go away.

“I think it’s close (the simulated noise), but like I said, once you hit them in the mouth a few times, that’s gone away. Once you do that, the crowd has nothing to be excited about,” Bell said. “Once you hit them in the mouth a few times, it'll be fine.”

Seminole quarterback Jordan Travis said that he knows the crowd can be a factor, but one way to quiet the crowd is simply to go out and score early points.

"Just the whole communication thing. Just communicating with the line. It's loud man, but at the end of the day, we can control, just control what you can control,” Travis said. “You can't control the crowd. Go up early and go score a bunch of points. You can control that. Just go out and ball out, that's our goal.”

What does he see out of the Clemson defense?

"They're a great team. Obviously they have athletes across the field, their D-line is really good, backers are really good, DBs really good,” Travis said. “Bunch of athletes that are fast. Once again, it doesn't matter about them. Their schemes are good, coaches are good. It doesn't matter about this team. We know who we have on our side of the ball. And that's all that matters."

Travis said playing at a place like Clemson is something he dreamed about as a kid, and he hopes to minimize the distractions and execute.

“We just talk about no distractions. You can’t get distracted. At the end of the day, the crowd is a distraction. We can’t allow it,” Travis said. “We have to go out and dominate and be ourselves. That stuff doesn’t matter. Communication matters. The crowd and the people in the stands should not affect our performance and execution. It’s an amazing atmosphere, and it’s something you dream about as a little kid to go out and play in front of all of those fans, especially at Death Valley. It’s a blessing from the Man upstairs.”