Note: The following appears in the North Carolina football digital gameday guide, available HERE.
When Clemson faces North Carolina in Death Valley this weekend, it will be a coaching matchup that features future Pro Football Hall of Fame Head Coach Bill Belichick against future College Football Hall of Fame Head Coach Dabo Swinney.
I feel confident in making that statement.
Swinney has won two national championships at the college level and Belichick has won six Super Bowl titles, two more than any other NFL head coach.
Every retired college football head coach who coached at least 10 years and won at least two national championships is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Swinney and Kirby Smart have each won two national championships, but are still coaching.
The only coach who won two national titles and is not in the College Football Hall of Fame is Pete Carroll, who guided USC to championships in 2003 and 2004. Currently, the Hall of Fame has a rule that a coach must have been a head coach for at least 10 years to be considered. Carroll coached nine years. One must wonder if that rule will be changed at some point. (The Hall of Fame recently lowered its threshold for consideration in terms of winning percentage from 60 percent to 59.5.) Carroll won 97 of his 119 games at Southern California and had an 84-percent winning mark to go with those two national championships.
Winning Super Bowls has not been quite as automatic for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Fourteen head coaches have won at least two Super Bowls, including 12 who are retired. Of those 12, Tom Coughlin, Mike Shanahan and George Seifert are not yet in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Andy Reid has three Super Bowl titles to his credit, but he is not eligible because he is not retired. Belichick is not retired from coaching, but has retired from the NFL and is now eligible.
The history of Memorial Stadium dates to 1942. Over the years, 20 different head coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame have coached against the Tigers in Death Valley. Only one coach in the Pro Football Hall of Fame has coached against Clemson in Memorial Stadium, and that was George Allen, who brought Long Beach State to Clemson for the season opener of 1990. The Tigers came away with a 59-0 victory in Ken Hatfield’s first game as Clemson's head coach. Allen had an Pro Football Hall of Fame resumé coaching the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins.
Digging deeper into the history of college football Hall of Fame coaches who have faced the Tigers in Death Valley, there have been 13 who have faced a Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame coach, Frank Howard and Danny Ford.
The 20 visiting Hall of Fame head coaches are 41-45-2 against the Tigers. The 13 visiting head coaches who have faced a Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame head coach (Howard, Ford) are 13-16-1 against the Tigers in Death Valley.
Those numbers will change dramatically in the future when Swinney is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He has already faced eight coaches at Memorial Stadium who are in the Hall of Fame. He is a combined 11-5 in those home games against Hall of Famers Frank Beamer, Larry Blakeney, Bobby Bowden, Mack Brown, Paul Johnson, Gary Patterson, Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier.
Below is a quick look at some of the more famous games in Death Valley between College Football Hall of Fame head coaches:
Nov. 24, 1951
Clemson 34, Auburn 0
Frank Howard vs. Shug Jordan
Clemson clinched a Gator Bowl bid with its most dominant game of the year against a Power Four Conference foe. Howard’s offense gained 330 rushing yards and 194 passing yards for 524 total yards on 79 plays. Larry Gressette led the offense with 177 yards on 26 carries. The defense held Auburn to 187 yards on just 48 plays.
Sept. 27, 1958
Clemson 26, North Carolina 21
Frank Howard vs. Jim Tatum
North Carolina outgained Clemson 330-299 and totaled 19 more plays, but the Tigers prevailed by five points. The victory was the 100th of Frank Howard’s Clemson career. Doug Cline scored on a two-yard run with 2:52 left in the game to give Clemson the win. It was one of four times in 1958 that Clemson scored a touchdown in the last quarter to win a game. The Tigers went on to win the ACC championship and play in the Sugar Bowl.
Oct. 28 1967
Alabama 13, Clemson 10
Frank Howard vs. Bear Bryant
This was the first time Alabama came to Clemson for a game, and it was a close contest throughout. Future Clemson Head Coach Danny Ford played in this game on the offensive line for the Crimson Tide. It was a defensive struggle, as Clemson actually outgained an Alabama team, led by quarterback Ken Stabler, 281-276. Stabler passed for 202 yards in the Alabama victory.
Sept. 19, 1981
Clemson 13, Georgia 3
Danny Ford vs. Vince Dooley
Forty-five years ago today, Georgia and future Hall of Fame running back Herschel Walker came to Clemson as a defending national champion. The Tiger defense forced a school-record nine turnovers (by nine different Tigers) and held the Bulldogs without a touchdown. It was the only regular-season loss of Walker’s Bulldog career. Homer Jordan and Perry Tuttle connected for the only touchdown of the game. The Tigers beat the No. 4 Bulldogs and went on to win the national championship.
Sept. 19, 1987
Clemson 21, Georgia 20
Danny Ford vs. Vince Dooley
Thirty-nine years ago today, No. 8 Clemson defeated No. 18 Georgia by one point on a 21-yard field goal by David Treadwell with just two seconds left in the game. It was the second straight year Treadwell made a last-second field goal to beat the Bulldogs (31-28 win the previous year in Athens). Clemson trailed 20-16 late in the fourth quarter, but a safety scored by a swarming Clemson defense and Treadwell’s field goal gave the Tigers the victory.
Sept. 17, 1988
Florida State 24, Clemson 21
Danny Ford vs. Bobby Bowden
Florida State defeated Clemson 24-21 in the first battle of top-10 teams in the history of Memorial Stadium. The nationally televised game on a rainy day featured the infamous “Puntrooskie” play, called by Bowden and future Clemson Offensive Coordinator Brad Scott. With the score tied 21-21 late in the fourth quarter, the Seminoles executed a fake punt that resulted in a 78-yard run by LeRoy Butler. Florida State kicked a field goal to win the game. Ford and the Tigers would avenge that loss with a dominant victory in Tallahassee the next season.