Clemson Football Accomplishments 2017

Team Accomplishments

• Ranked No. 1 in the nation by Associated Press, USA Today Coaches and College Football Playoff Poll entering the bowl season.   Second time in three years that has been the case.
• The Tigers finished fourth in both the AP and USA Today polls, the third consecutive top four finish for the program, a first in school history and just the second program in ACC history to do it. It marked the sixth straight top 15 finish and seventh straight top 25 finish in both polls.
• Clemson and Alabama are the only schools with an active streak of at least seven straight top 25 seasons.
• The final ranking marked the seventh straight year Clemson finished higher in the postseason poll than the preseason poll by the USA Today Coaches poll, and at least the same ranking by Associated Press.
• Clemson  played the fourth most difficult schedule in the nation according to the Sagarin rankings, the eighth most difficult by the NCAA.
• The December 3, CFP Poll marked eighth time in 25 CFP polls Clemson has been ranked No. 1 and 18th consecutive time Clemson has ranked in the top four.
• Won ACC Championship for third consecutive year with 38-3 victory over No. 7 Miami (FL). First time in 29 years Clemson won three consecutive ACC titles (1986-87-88). Just the third time in school history Clemson has won three in a row (1965-66-67).
• It was Clemson’s 17th ACC Championship and fourth in the last seven years under Head Coach Dabo Swinney. Before 2011, Clemson had not won an ACC title in 20 years. All members of each of his last nine signee classes have won at least one ACC championship.
• Won at least 12 games for the third straight year, joining Florida State (2012-13-14) as the only ACC teams to do it.
• It was just the fourth year Clemson has won at least 12 games in a season. The others are 1981, 2015 and 2016.
• Ranked 14th in the nation in average home attendance with 80,773.
• Program now has seven consecutive seasons of at least 10 wins, just the ninth program in FBS history to do it. Clemson and Alabama are the only schools with an active streak of at least seven straight 10-win seasons.
• First FBS program to defeat three top 15 (AP poll) teams in the month of September.
• Won six games over top 25 (ranking entering the game) teams, the most top 25 wins in Clemson history for a single season.
• Won school record four true road games over top 25 teams. The list included wins over No. 14 Louisville, No. 12 Virginia Tech, No. 20 NC State and No. 24 (CFP) South Carolina.
• Won school record and national best five games away from home over top 25 teams. That includes the above list and a win over No. 7 Miami in ACC Championship game.
• Clemson is the first Power 5 team in 10 years to win four games on the road against teams that finished the year with at least eight wins (Louisville, Virginia Tech, NC State and South Carolina).
• The 2017 team ranked in the top 10 in every AP and USA Today poll, giving the program a record 43 consecutive top 10 rankings, tied for the longest active streak of top 10s with Alabama.
• Set school record with 52 consecutive top 25 rankings in the AP poll dating to 2014. Streak is active entering 2018.
• Set school record for wins in a decade, the program now has 88 in the decade of the 2010s, one more than the 87 Clemson had in the 1980s. Of course there are still two years left in the decade to add to the record.
• The 2017 senior Class won 50 games, the first 50-win class in ACC history (50-7).
• Team won 12 of 14 games in 2017 and 43 of last 47 dating to the last three games of the 2014 season.
• Posted 27-1 record at home over the last four years, the most wins at home in a four-year period in school history.
• Posted an 11-2 record in matchups with top 15 teams and 15-2 record against top 25 teams over the last three years.
• Posted 10 wins by at least 10 points in 2017, tied for the most in a season in Clemson history with 1989 and 2015 teams.
• The Clemson defense led the ACC in total defense, rushing defense, pass defense and scoring defense. No previous Clemson team had led the ACC in all four categories in the same year.
• Clemson team reached these accomplishments in 2017 with an offense that returned players who accounted for just 23 percent of the total offense in 2016, third lowest percentage in the nation.
• Clemson posted a 9-1 record against teams with a winning record in 2017, most wins in the nation against teams with a winning mark. The nine wins are the second most in one season in Clemson history.   Clemson had 11 in 2016.
• Clemson has 82 wins over the last 7 years and 47 of them came against teams that finished the season with a winning record. Prior to the Swinney era, the most wins over teams with a winning record in a seven-year period was 30 (1986-91).
• The 38-3 win over No. 7 Miami in the ACC Championship game was the largest victory margin over a top 25 team in school history.
• Clemson became the first program to have assistant coaches win the Broyles Award in consecutive years. (Brent Venables in 2016 and Tony Elliott in 2017.)
• Program had a school record 12-game road winning streak dating back to 2015 before it was snapped at Syracuse.
• Had a streak of 11 consecutive wins over top 25 teams, longest streak in ACC history. It was broken by Alabama in the CFP.

Individual Honors

• Clemson had eight different players make at least one first, second or third-team All-America squad.   The list included defensive players Austin Bryant, Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell and Dorian O’Daniel who all made at least one first team.   Mitch Hyatt was a first-team All-American on offense.
• Clemson had a school record six first-team All-ACC linemen, three on offense and three on defense. Offensive line was just the second in school history to have three first-team All-ACC selections.
• First Clemson defensive line to have three different players earn first-team All-America honors by one of the five major All-American selection committees. Those players were Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant.
• Kelly Bryant was a finalist for the Manning Award
• Dorian O’Daniel was a finalist for the Bowden Award and was a finalist for the Butkus Award
• Christian Wilkins was named the National Defensive Lineman of the Year by the Columbus (OH) Touchdown Club (Willis Award).
• Clelin Ferrell was a finalist for the Hendricks Award
• Tony Elliott won the Frank Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in the nation.
• Dabo Swinney was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, Bear Bryant Award, Munger Award and Bobby Dodd Award.
• Dabo Swinney became just the fourth coach in FBS history with at least 100 wins in his first 10 years as a head coach.
• Swinney became just the fourth ACC coach to record 100 wins. He joined Bobby Bowden, George Welsh and Frank Beamer.