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From 2014-23, Clemson cemented itself as one of the College Football Playoff’s powerhouses of the tournament’s inaugural decade. In the 10-year history of the four-team format prior to 2024, only 15 programs earned at least one College Football Playoff berth, and Clemson ranked second in CFP berths, CFP title game appearances, total CFP wins and CFP titles in that span.
Clemson returned to the College Football Playoff in 2024 in the format’s first year of expansion to 12 teams. Clemson is tied for the second-most College Football Playoff berths all-time and ranks third in College Football Playoff wins.
Prior to the streak’s conclusion in 2025, Clemson was one of three programs (alongside Alabama and Ohio State) to finish in the CFP Top 25 in each of the system’s first 11 years.
Clemson’s six-year streak of College Football Playoff berths from 2015-20 remains the longest streak in the format’s history.
Including ACC Championship Games, bowl games and College Football Playoff National Championship Games, Clemson entered 2026 having won at least one postseason game in 15 of Dabo Swinney’s 17 full seasons since taking over as Clemson’s full-time head coach in 2009.
Clemson and Alabama are tied for the most seasons with a postseason victory in that span.
Clemson won at least one postseason game in 14 straight seasons from 2011-24, the longest streak in FBS history.
In 2025, Clemson extended its school-record bowl streak to 21 years. Clemson’s 21-year bowl streak is the longest in the ACC and the fourth-longest in the country, as well as one of 12 streaks of 20 or more years in FBS history.
Though Clemson opted against a bowl appearance in 2004, Clemson has been bowl eligible in 27 consecutive seasons, dating back to the 1999 Peach Bowl.
Clemson is one of only 13 programs in history to appear in at least 50 bowl/CFP games all-time.
Clemson has a 168-38 record since 2011. In 2023, Clemson became the second program to reach 150 wins in that span. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia rank 1-4 in the country in wins since 2015, with the four teams combining for eight of the 10 national championships in that time frame.
Clemson’s lofty perch in that ranking reflects not only its relative dominance against middle- and lower-tier opponents, but also its success in matchups with other accomplished programs.
Among current power conference teams, 46 different programs recorded at least 100 wins from 2011-25. Clemson has played 23 of those 46 programs since 2011 and is 82-33 (.713) in those contests and is .500 or better against 17 of the 23 teams.
In 2024, Clemson became the 14th FBS program — and first ACC member — ever to reach 800 all-time victories. That year, Clemson moved past Auburn into sole possession of 13th place all-time.
Clemson introduced its iconic Tiger Paw logo on July 21, 1970. Since it was introduced, Clemson ranks 13th nationally in wins and tied for seventh in national championships.
Whether looking at the last five years, 10 years, 25 years, 50 years, 100 years or all-time, Clemson ranks among the sport’s flag-bearers. Clemson is one of only six schools to rank among the 15 best in wins in each of those time spans alongside Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Clemson rebounded from a 1-3 start in 2025 to finish the season with seven wins. The 2025 season marked the 30th time in school history that Clemson started a season with one win or fewer through the first four games of a season, but of those 30 instances, it marked the first time the Tigers reached seven wins.
In doing so, Clemson reached seven wins for a 15th straight season, one of only 23 such streaks in the AP Poll era, which dates to 1936.
Looking at the College Football Playoff era alone, only six of the more than 130 active FBS programs have won at least six games at the FBS level in every season of the era. That number dips to four when pushing the total to seven wins.
Clemson’s 7-6 mark in 2025 gave Clemson a winning record for the 15th consecutive season, tied for the third-longest active streak in the FBS.
From 2011-24, Clemson tied for the third-longest streak of nine-win seasons in major college football history (14).
The nine-win-season streaks by Clemson (Dabo Swinney) and Florida State (Bobby Bowden) were compiled by single head coaches. The top two streaks were split among multiple head coaches, including Bob Devaney (four from 1969-72), Tom Osborne (25 from 1973-97) and Frank Solich (four from 1998-2001) for Nebraska, and Nick Saban (16 from 2008-23) and Kalen DeBoer (two from 2024-25) for Alabama.
Clemson’s 12 consecutive 10-win seasons from 2011-22 represented the third-longest streak in FBS history, alongside Saban-era Alabama squads and Bowden-era Florida State teams.
Of Clemson’s 20 all-time seasons with 10 or more wins, 13 have come under Dabo Swinney in the last 15 seasons prior to 2026. Clemson’s 13 seasons with double-digit wins are tied for second-most in the nation since 2011.
There have been 22 seasons of 14 or more wins since the NCAA split Division I in 1978. Clemson accounts for four of those 14-win seasons, matching Alabama for the most 14-win seasons in that span.
Clemson has won eight of the last 11 ACC championships. Its eight conference titles are the most of any program nationally in that 11-year window.
The trophies have substantiated Clemson’s conference dominance. The Tigers’ .856 winning percentage against conference competition since 2015, including postseason play, ranks third in the nation.
With a 2024 win against new conference mate Stanford, Clemson became the third program in the nation to win 100 games against conference opponents (including postseason play) since 2011.
Clemson won its 22nd ACC title and 28th overall conference title in 2024. Clemson’s 28 conference titles all-time are tied for the 10th-most among active FBS programs.
Clemson has won 83 of its last 97 games vs. ACC opponents, a time frame that includes ACC Championship Game wins against North Carolina (2015 and 2022), Virginia Tech (2016), Miami (2017), Pitt (2018), Virginia (2019), Notre Dame (2020) and SMU (2024).
Clemson has a winning record against 13 of its ACC counterparts in its last 10 meetings (or all meetings against teams it hasn’t faced 10 times) with each opponent.
Clemson has won its most recent game against 10 of its conference counterparts and has an active winning streak of six or more games against five ACC foes.
For more than a quarter-century, Clemson’s ACC success has not been a roller-coaster ride of lofty heights and deep lows. The last time Clemson finished a season below .500 in regular season conference play was in 1998, when Tommy West’s 3-8 squad went 1-7 in ACC play.
In 2025, Clemson extended its streak of being .500 or better in conference play to 27 years, tied for the longest active streak in the country and tied for the fourth-longest of any streak since 1966.
Early in his head coaching tenure, Dabo Swinney laid out his belief to then-Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips that the Tigers needed to add tough non-conference challenges on top of their tests in ACC play to serve as a foundation for the program’s growth.
“I had a conversation with Terry Don and said, ‘Terry Don, I know we are not very good right now, but we need to play people because that is going to help me teach and help me develop the culture and the mindset that you have to have to win at the highest level,'” recounted Swinney. “I didn’t think we had that, and that’s what we committed to. That’s what we’ve done.”
That scheduling philosophy and culture change has resonated in the Clemson program, and since 2011, as Clemson ranks among the national leaders in wins against power conference opponents in that time span.
Clemson’s 139 power conference wins since 2011 include at least one victory against 27 different programs, including Wake Forest (14), Boston College (13), Georgia Tech (11), Syracuse (10), NC State (10), Florida State (10), Louisville (9), South Carolina (9), Virginia Tech (7), North Carolina (7), Virginia (4), Notre Dame (4), Auburn (4), Miami (Fla.) (4), Maryland (3), Ohio State (3), Pitt (3), Alabama (2), Texas A&M (2), Oklahoma (2), Duke (2), LSU (1), Georgia (1), Iowa State (1), Kentucky (1), Stanford (1) and SMU (1).
Clemson is one of four programs nationally — and is the only non-SEC program — to have a winning record against all four power conferences since Dabo Swinney’s first full season as head coach in 2009.
On a year-by-year basis, Clemson has finished the season atop the country in wins against power conference opponents a national-best four times since the institution of the College Football Playoff in 2014. That includes 13 wins against power conference opponents in 2018, the first team ever to reach that figure.
College Football Hall of Famer Frank Howard, known as “The Bashful Baron of Barlow Bend,” compiled a 165-118-12 record in 30 seasons at Clemson from 1940-69.
With a 31-23 upset of No. 12 Notre Dame in 2023, Dabo Swinney earned his 166th career victory as Clemson’s head coach, surpassing Howard to become Clemson’s all-time winningest coach. Swinney accomplished the feat in his 209th career game.
Clemson’s 38-10 win at North Carolina in 2025 was Swinney’s 300th overall game on staff at Clemson, including his tenure as Clemson’s wide receivers coach from 2003 through the first half of the 2008 season. He became the third person in Clemson history to serve as a head coach and/or assistant coach for 300 career games for the Tigers.
With a 2024 win against Florida State, Dabo Swinney earned his 174th career victory to pass his friend and mentor (and College Football Hall of Famer) Bobby Bowden for the most career head coaching victories as a member of the ACC.
In 2023, Swinney’s 101st career regular-season conference win pushed him past Frank Howard (100) for sole possession of the Clemson record for career regular season conference victories. Howard went 100-48-5 in conference play across the Southern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, including 66 ACC wins.
Swinney has accrued 11 combined conference championship and national championship rings since his first full season in 2009. He leads all active coaches in that span and ranks second overall among all coaches active or inactive. He trails only Nick Saban, against whom Swinney posted a 2-1 record in national title games.
Swinney’s career covers windows of six BCS conferences, five Power Five programs and the current Power Four landscape. He leads all active coaches in career championships (conference and national) won as a power conference head coach.
Though championship rings carry no statute of limitations, even when seeking to exclude Clemson’s historic run in the 2010s, Swinney still ranks second among active coaches in combined conference and national titles in the current decade.
In total, Swinney’s nine ACC titles are the second-most since the conference’s founding in 1953.
The 2026 season is Dabo Swinney’s 19th season (and 18th full season) as Clemson’s head coach. With the 2026 and 2027 seasons remaining to accrue victories in the category, Swinney already ranks tied for fourth in FBS history in wins in the first 20 seasons of a head coaching career (including coaches who did not coach 20 seasons).
If Swinney were to maintain his current .779 winning percentage through his 20th season in 2027, it would rank 10th in FBS history through 20 seasons but fourth of any coach who started his career after World War II.
Swinney ranks second among coaches (and first among active coaches) in both College Football Playoff berths and victories.
Swinney has coached against 10 College Football Hall of Fame coaches in his head coaching career. Swinney is .500 or better against eight of the nine coaches and has a 22-14 overall record against Hall of Famers.
With a win against future Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Belichick in 2025, Swinney joined a list of head coaches across the collegiate and pro levels to defeat both Nick Saban and Bill Belichick that includes Bill Cowher, Gary Kubiak, Eric Mangini, Mike McCarthy, Dick Jauron, Tony Dungy, Herm Edwards, Dick Vermeil, Romeo Crennel, Jim Harbaugh and Steve Spurrier. Swinney’s success against the Saban/Belichick duo includes a 28-point win in his most recent bout against both marquee coaches.
Swinney ranks in the top 10 all-time in career bowl/CFP games and wins.
Swinney is the only head coach ever to lead an ACC team in 20 career bowl/CFP games. His win in the 2023 Gator Bowl was his 12th career bowl victory, passing Bobby Bowden’s conference record for bowl wins as head coach of an ACC team.
Over the last decade-and-a-half, Clemson became a beacon of stability in the increasingly unstable environment of college football. Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney is in his 24th overall season at Clemson in 2026, including his 18th full season as head coach (and his 19th including an interim stint in 2008).
By date of initial hire (including interim hires), Swinney is the third-longest-tenured head coach in the FBS and the second-longest-tenured among power conference head coaches.
From the start of Swinney’s first season as full-time head coach in 2009 through the end of the 2025 season, there were 529 head coaching tenures in the FBS (excluding those by interims) but only one such tenure at Clemson. Clemson is the only school in the ACC with only one head coach since the start of the 2009 season, and among the 27 schools ever to qualify for the College Football Playoff, only Clemson has had only one head coach since 2009.
Since the conference’s founding in 1953, no program has won more regular season games in Atlantic Coast Conference play than Clemson. In 2020, Clemson earned its 300th official regular season victory over an ACC opponent, becoming the first program to accomplish the feat.
After being named Clemson’s full-time coach in December of 2008, Head Coach Dabo Swinney set about securing his first signing class in 2009.
His first class, which he tabbed the “Dandy Dozen,” brought home Clemson’s first ACC title since 1991 during their junior campaign in 2011. With exception of Clemson’s current freshman and sophomore classes, every Clemson prior signing class under Swinney tallied at least one ACC title to their credit in their tenures at Clemson, and every prior signing class from 2012-24 earned at least one College Football Playoff berth.
Clemson finished the 2010s with 117 victories, tied for the third-most victories in a decade in major college football since the 1890s, trailing only Penn (124 in the 1890s) and Alabama (124 in the 2010s).
Clemson’s 57 wins this decade are its second-most through the first six years of a decade in school history and rank tied for seventh nationally in that span.
Since 2015, Clemson is 32-13 (.711) against AP Top 25 teams, the third-best winning percentage in the country.
Clemson is also 14-11 (.560) against AP Top 10 opponents in that time frame, one of only seven teams in college football to produce at least a dozen wins against Top 10 foes in that span. Expanded to include the Coaches Poll, Clemson has earned at least one ranked win in all 17 of Dabo Swinney’s full seasons as head coach.
Clemson’s success also hasn’t been limited to opponents with bloated preseason rankings at kickoff time. Since 2015, Clemson’s 71 wins against teams that finish .500 or better are third-most in the nation.
Entering 2026, Clemson…
Since the advent of the College Football Playoff prior to the start of the 2014 season, Clemson is 73-9 at home. Clemson’s .890 winning percentage at home in that time frame ranks fourth in the nation.
When Dabo Swinney was elevated to interim head coach in October 2008 and ultimately to the full-time position that December, one of his stated priorities was to restore Clemson’s Death Valley dominance. He is one of only two active head coaches in the FBS with 100 or more career home wins with their current institutions.
From 2015-23, Clemson produced at least one home win against AP Top 25 opponents in nine straight seasons, which had been the nation’s longest active streak prior to its conclusion in 2024. Since 2015, Clemson is one of only six schools to win at least one home game against an AP Top 25 squad in nine different years.
Clemson has won 44 of its last 54 true road games dating to the start of the 2015 season. Clemson’s .815 winning percentage in true road games is the fourth-best road winning percentage in the nation since 2015, and Clemson’s 44 road wins in that span are tied for the most in the country.
Clemson went 4-1 in road games in 2025. The Tigers won at least four road games in a season for the eighth time since 2015. Its eighth such season tied Clemson with Ohio State and Boise State for the most seasons with four or more road wins in that span.
Clemson’s current backs will seek to continue Clemson’s recent run of high-scoring backs over the last decade. Entering 2026, Clemson had a running back reach double digits in rushing touchdowns in 10 of the previous 11 seasons. Clemson’s 10 seasons with a running back scoring 10 or more rushing touchdowns in that span are the most in the country.
Adam Randall led Clemson with 1,281 all-purpose yards in 2025, giving the Tigers a 1,200-yard all-purpose back for a national-best 11th straight season. No other program has an active streak longer than four years.
Clemson pass-catchers produced six individual multi-touchdown games in 2025, including three by the duo of Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore.
Clemson was one of only five schools with at least five different players who had recorded a multi-touchdown receiving game in 2025.
Wesco was lost for the second half of the 2025 season when he sustained a scary injury vs. SMU that required hospitalization after he landed on his head and neck while being flipped on a punt return.
Prior to that seventh game of the 2025 season, Wesco had produced one of Clemson’s most productive first six games of a campaign of the last 30 years. The only Clemson player in that span with more touchdown catches through the first half-dozen games of a campaign was DeAndre Hopkins in 2012, a season in which Hopkins finished the year with an ACC-record 18 touchdown catches.
Wesco reached 1,000 career receiving yards with a 126-yard performance at Georgia Tech on Sept. 13, 2025. He reached quadruple digits for his career in only his 15th career game.
Wesco joined Sammy Watkins, Artavis Scott and Justyn Ross as the fourth Clemson player ever to reach 1,000 receiving yards in the first 15 games of their careers.
After a five-year stretch from 2017-21 in which Clemson’s tight ends reached 50 receptions only once, Tiger tight ends have combined for 50 catches in each of the last four seasons.
Clemson was one of only six teams nationally whose tight ends reached 50 receptions in all four seasons from 2022-25.
Since 2015, Clemson has produced a total of 33 All-ACC selections along the offensive line, including 13 first-team honors. Clemson’s 33 all-conference selections by offensive linemen are an ACC high and the second-most of any power conference program. Clemson also ranks tied for third nationally in first-team selections in that span.
SportSource Analytics produces an Offensive Line Efficiency metric that takes into account tackle for loss percentages, sack percentages, percentages of rushes gaining 4+ yards and success on third-or-fourth-and-short. Clemson is among the national leaders in that total metric since 2015.
Two seasons into his collegiate career, linebacker Sammy Brown has recorded seven career games in which he has been credited by gameday stat crews with 10 or more tackles.
Brown was one of only 14 FBS players to record at least 10 tackles for loss and five or more sacks in each of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. One of the other 14 was defensive end Will Heldt, who reached the figure at Purdue in 2024 and at Clemson in 2025.
Beyond Clemson teammates Brown and Heldt, the list also included Minnesota’s Anthony Smith, Purdue/Akron’s CJ Nunnally IV, Coastal Carolina/Louisville’s Clev Lubin, Texas’ Colin Simmons, Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton, Iowa’s Ethan Hurkett, Illinois’ Gabe Jacas, BYU’s Jack Kelly, Boise State’s Jayden Virgin, Louisiana’s Jordan Lawson, Texas State’s Kalil Alexander, and San Diego State’s Trey White.
Now in his second season as Clemson’s defensive coordinator, Tom Allen and Clemson’s defense have been tasked with adding to Clemson’s largely outstanding track record of defensive play in the College Football Playoff era.
Clemson ranked in the Top 30 in the country in total defense in 11 of the first 12 seasons of the CFP era and also ranked among the Top 15 in scoring defense in nine of those campaigns (including five Top 5 finishes in the category).
Clemson and Michigan have each finished in the Top 10 in total defense in eight of the 12 seasons of the CFP era, tied for the most in the nation.
Prior to Clemson’s four-game winning streak to close the regular season, Clemson’s defense was maligned after it surrendered 39 of the 46 points scored by eventual ACC champion Duke on Nov. 1. Clemson’s defense responded by holding four straight opponents below 20 points before allowing 22 points in the Pinstripe Bowl. Clemson ranked 15th in the nation in scoring defense (15.0 points per game) after Nov. 1. Five of the 14 schools ranked ahead of Clemson qualified for the College Football Playoff.
After that 46-45 loss to Duke on Nov. 1, Clemson ranked tied for 64th in the nation in scoring defense at 24.0 points per game. With its performance over its final five games, Clemson jumped to a season-ending rank of 30th at 20.5 points per game.
Clemson’s defense calls Death Valley home but might as well file for dual residency in opponents’ backfields. Since 2012, Clemson leads the nation in both sacks and tackles for loss.
In September 2023, Clemson became the first program in the country to record 500 sacks since the start of the 2012 season. In October 2025, Clemson also became the first program to reach 1,500 tackles for loss in that span.
Clemson has led the country (or shared the national lead) in tackles for loss five times since 2012. No other program has done so in more than two seasons.
Clemson is the only school in the nation with at least 30 sacks in all 12 seasons of the College Football Playoff era. Clemson reached the mark yet again in 2025 in a five-sack performance at South Carolina.
Clemson has lost 27 games since 2015, the fourth-fewest in the nation in that span. Eleven of Clemson’s 27 losses since 2015 — more than 40 percent — have come against AP Top 10 teams. The opponents to whom Clemson has lost since 2015 have a combined final record of 255-100, a winning percentage of .718.
Clemson has not lost to a team with a losing record at the time of the game since losing to 2-5 Boston College in 2010, Dabo Swinney’s second full season as head coach.
With Duke’s victory over Clemson in 2025, the 2025 season marked the 15th consecutive year that the ACC champion has either A) been Clemson (nine seasons), or B) had to defeat Clemson in the regular season en route to the title (six seasons). The last ACC title to not go through Clemson in some capacity was in 2010 (Virginia Tech).
Since 2011, the Tigers have played 56 games with a final margin of eight or fewer points, and Clemson’s .732 winning percentage in those one-possession contests is the best in the country in that time frame.
Clemson fielded one of the nation’s most balanced offenses in the first 12 seasons of the College Football Playoff era. Clemson, Alabama and Oklahoma were the only schools to enter 2026 having exceeded both 30,000 rushing yards and 44,000 passing yards since 2014.
Since 2018, Clemson has reached both 200 passing yards and 200 rushing yards in 36 games. Clemson is 34-2 in those contests.
Clemson has ranked among the top 20 schools in the power conferences in average players per game in each of the last 10 years, including a top-four rank in that category in eight of those campaigns.
Per data available via the NCAA stat database, Clemson ranked first among power conference schools in total players played and in the top 15 in average players per game.
Even prior to the adoption of new redshirt rules, Clemson routinely played close to 60 players or more per game under Swinney.
In the immediate aftermath of a nail-biting 20-19 road win at No. 19 Louisville in mid-November, Head Coach Dabo Swinney spoke passionately to ESPN’s Paul Carcaterra about the fight of his 2025 team.
“The tougher it’s gotten, the closer they’ve become, the stronger they’ve gotten and the more they’ve dug in,” Swinney bellowed. “And that’s not normal, not in today’s world. That’s not normal. Usually when you have some adversity, you divide, [and] people are looking for the sideline or the training room, but not these Tigers, not these seniors… The record don’t define you; how you respond is what defines you — in everything. In life, in football, everything. Our record ain’t what we want it to be, but we’ve got a hell of a great group of young people right there… A lot of people have quit on ’em. There ain’t no quit in that bunch, and there ain’t no quit in me. Go Tigers!”
Clemson’s 1-3 start through four games in 2025 was its first 1-3 start since 2004. That year, Tommy Bowden’s Clemson team went 5-2 over its seven remaining games to finish the year with a 6-5 record. The Tigers earned bowl eligibility that year but declined postseason opportunities.
Clemson opened a season with one win or fewer through four games 30 times in its 130-season history through 2025. The Tigershad fought back to finish .500 or better in 10 of those campaigns (1906, 1914, 1934, 1937, 1961, 1963, 1967, 1985, 2004 and 2025).
In 16 of the previous 29 seasons with one win or fewer through four games, Clemson was led by a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. That includes four such seasons under Jess Neely, 11 seasons under Frank Howard and one season under Danny Ford.
The 2025 Tigers became the first team in Clemson history to rebound from a 1-3 or worse start to win seven games.
Aided in part by another elite academic performance by Clemson Football, Clemson Athletics tied for second among institutions in Graduation Success Rate (GSR) with a 96 percent mark for the 2015-18 cohort in data released by the NCAA in November 2025.
After posting a 99 percent mark for each of the previous two cohorts, Clemson Football recorded a 98, tied for fifth in Division I and tied for third in the FBS. Clemson and Harvard represent the only two Division I programs to post a 98 percent or better over each of the last three cohorts, and Clemson is the only program in the FBS to accomplish the feat.
Football’s 99 percent marks for the 2016 and 2017 cohorts tied the highest ever recorded among public Power Five football programs in the now 21 years the NCAA has tracked the metric.
