Putnam heard Sandstorm all night last year, knows to keep his helmet close in Columbia

Clemson looks to restore its series success after a tough loss last year at home to the Gamecocks, which Will Putnam heard all about into the early morning.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Nov 20 18:25:44 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Will Putnam has heard enough of Sandstorm to last a lifetime but expects to hear a lot more of it Saturday night. What he hopes is he doesn’t hear it when he gets back home.

Following last year’s 31-30 loss to South Carolina in Death Valley, Putnam returned to his off-campus apartment and only wanted to unwind and think about what went wrong. His neighbor, a big Gamecock fan, decided to play Sandstorm all day. And all night. Right up until 3 AM.

And Putnam knows he will hear it a lot this week, too, and said he knows he will hear a lot of boos as well.

“It's awesome. I think as a player, I really enjoy when people are booing you really loud. I think that's really fun, too,” Putnam said Monday. “I think that's just as fun as when people are cheering you on just as much. I love the boos. It think it's awesome. It gets me going a little bit. Just like Sandstorm, that will be playing at practice all week. It's awesome. It's what makes everything fun.”

Putnam said he learned early on that a certain piece of equipment must always stay handy in Williams-Brice Stadium.

“Oh yeah, keep your helmet on. That's something that has stuck with me ever since I got here,” Putnam said about the advice he received from older players. “Any game at the end of the game, win or lose, I always keep my helmet on running off the field. They have their net, and people are still throwing stuff, trying to get through it. I like it. I think it's a great environment. It's probably the best road environment. It's the best one I think that I've played in. Always loud. People are always there. People are always really nice, greeting you on the bus right over (Putnam said smiling). But yeah, it's awesome. I think that's what makes college so special - just those rivalries and stuff like that. People are being really passionate about that stuff. It's always exciting.”

Putnam said the players understand what’s at stake in the rivalry game.

“Right afterwards, you know it, coaches know it, everyone knows it. But I would say for us, it's really just because it's just a big game for our fans, for the state, just the whole community,” he said. “Whether we win or we lose, you definitely know who won the last one. It doesn't matter what the record is, who won the most in the series or anything. It just all depends on who won that last game.

“We lost the last one, and that's very well known. They made it known from just how that whole game went down. That's why we're really looking forward to this opportunity to set the record straight and do the best we can, and that's to try to win another football game.”

Putnam said he remembers how special it was to hold the trophy after the win in 2021.

“For me, that whole year, my ankle was bothering me, and I had a bad fever, and I was sick. My ankle hurt, but I played through that game,” he said. “We ended up getting a really big victory. It was just awesome to be a part of that. It was great. It was also another night game. I have a picture somewhere of me just holding that trophy with a couple of other guys. After all that stuff we'd been through, all the stuff I've been through, it was like, man, this is great. That was another season, too, where we fell short of the ACC Championship. Everyone was like, man, Clemson is done. They suck, all this stuff. Being able to get that, I think, really brought in perspective about everything. That's what we're looking forward to do again this year.”