Sapp Out for Season

INJURY UPDATES: Clemson interim head coach Dabo Swinney began his weekly Sunday teleconference by announcing bad news on the injury front.

Starting junior bandit end Rick Sapp, who went down with a knee injury in Saturday's 13-3 win at Virginia, is out for the rest of the season with a partial tear in his ACL.

Swinney said Kevin Alexander will move from the strongside to start in Sapp's place.

"We'll move Kevin Alexander over- those are probably are best two guys - we'll go with Kevin and Da'Quan and [Andre] Branch and Kourtnei [Brown] will be the backups and we'll go play ball," he said.

Sapp entered yesterday's game leading the team in tackles for loss with 10 and also had two sacks.

Senior safety Chris Clemons, who suffered a knee sprain Saturday, could be ready to go for Saturday.

"He has a chance for this weekend," Swinney said of Clemons. "We are monitoring him. He has a sprain. I think he'll be ready by Saturday. We'll know more in the next couple of days. We'll brace him up. I think he'll be able to play."

FOCUS ON THE GAME: Swinney was asked Sunday whether or not the outcome Saturday could have an impact on his candidacy for being Clemson's next permanent head coach and he responded by respond by saying, "I've said that from day one: this is not about me. This is about these players. That's what we said the last seven weeks would be about and that's what the what's it about in the last week.

"Everybody has job considerations because you have families and this is your livelihood. These coaches have done a great job of putting everything aside and going to work.

"That's something I'll never forget no matter what happens with this job situation. We are 3-1 in our last four conference games which is something that is better than most the last half of the season.

"I'm proud of the coaches, proud of the players. My only thoughts are on these kids getting ready to play South Carolina and see if we can find a way to get a win and get to a bowl."

KORN TO HAVE MRI: Swinney said Sunday night backup QB Willy Korn is going to have an MRI to see if something is wrong with his shoulder.

Korn suffered a bone bruise in his only start this season against Georgia Tech and hasn't been the same since. He looked out of sync during pre-game warm-ups before the Virginia game and did not play his usual one to two series either.

"It is something we are concerned about. I did not feel good about putting him in there [against Virginia]," Swinney said. "We are probably going to do an MRI on him at some point to see if there is something in there that is creating some issues for him that we don't know about."

QUICK HITS: Clemson is listed as an early 2.5 favorite over South Carolina by oddsmakers.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "We'd take any bowl. Any bowl out there. Hawaii would be great if we can work that out. From where we've been, and how we've gotten off the mat to win two of the last three on the road with these conference games. We are a long ways away from where we were six weeks ago as a team so I'm proud of that. I'd like to reward the seniors with a nice bowl reward plus you'd like for the young guys to get practice time." - Dabo on what it would mean to play in a bowl game.