Note: The following appears in the Virginia Tech football digital gameday guide, available HERE.
Clemson has a long history of success in college football over its 131 years of competition, but two eras stand out.
From 1977-91, Clemson never had a losing season and had a winning record in 14 of those 15 years. The program had 12 seasons with at least eight wins, won seven ACC championships and finished in the top 20 of the AP poll 11 of the 15 years.
Between 2015-20, the program reached the four-team College Football Playoff six consecutive years, the only team to do that in the CFP era. Clemson made six straight Final Fours and reached the national championship game four times.
There are not a lot of common denominators between those two eras, but one fact stands out and it involves today’s opponent. In each era, Clemson benefited from coaches who came to Clemson from Virginia Tech. Three of the four coaches came directly from Blacksburg to help bring the Tiger program to new heights.
Charley Pell was an outstanding player on Bear Bryant’s 1961 national championship Alabama team. He stayed at Alabama on Bryant’s staff as a graduate assistant, then became the head coach at Jacksonville State, where he had great success.
Virginia Tech Head Coach Jimmy Sharpe took note of Pell’s success and hired him as his defensive coordinator in 1974. The following year, the Hokies showed great improvement, as Pell’s defense allowed just 13.7 points per game and Virginia Tech finished 8-3, the program’s best record since 1966.
Clemson Head Coach Red Parker took note of Pell’s success at Virginia Tech and hired him as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator in 1976. Clemson had struggled on defense in 1975, finishing 135th out of 137 teams in scoring defense. In the season finale, South Carolina defeated Clemson 56-20. The Gamecocks had the ball 10 times, scored eight touchdowns and ran out the clock at the end of each half in the other two.
The Tigers improved on defense in 1976, and Pell was named Clemson’s head coach for the 1977 season. He guided Clemson on an incredible reversal of fortune in 1977 and 1978. The Tigers finished 19th in the AP poll with an 8-3-1 record in 1977, and 11-1 with a No. 6 ranking in 1978. He was named ACC Coach-of-the-Year both seasons, still the only coach to accomplish that feat in each of his first two seasons.
At the end of the 1978 regular season, Pell took the head coaching position at Florida. Clemson Athletic Director Bill McLellan elevated Danny Ford, like Pell a former Alabama player under Bryant, to replace Pell, and Ford led the Tigers to a victory over Woody Hayes and Ohio State in the Gator Bowl.
Ford had come to Clemson as offensive line coach in 1977 after serving three years in the same capacity at Virginia Tech. His coaching of the offensive line in 1975 had been a factor in the Hokies’ 8-3 season.
Working with Pell at Virginia Tech for the 1975 season certainly contributed to Pell’s decision to bring Ford to Clemson.
Ford led the Tigers to unprecedented success as head coach in the 1980s, highlighted by the program’s first national championship in 1981. He led Clemson to the fifth-best winning percentage for the decade of the 1980s, had seven top-20 seasons and won five ACC titles.
One of the reasons for Ford’s success was his decision to hire an experienced defensive coordinator, one who came to Clemson directly from, you guessed it, Virginia Tech.
Tom Harper had been the head coach at Wake Forest in 1972 and was the defensive line coach at Virginia Tech from 1978-80. The 1980 Virginia Tech team finished fourth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 9.9 points per game.
Ford hired Harper to be Clemson’s defensive line coach and defensive coordinator for the 1981 season. Ford will be the first to tell you that Harper made a tremendous difference in that 1981 season, a year in which Clemson finished second in the nation in scoring defense, eighth in total defense and led the nation in turnovers forced with 41, still a program record.
Harper remained a key member of the Clemson staff through the 1988 season, helping the program to five ACC championships by guiding a defense that annually ranked in the top 10 in the nation in many statistical categories.
In 1998, Virginia Tech Head Coach Frank Beamer hired Clemson graduate Danny Pearman as one of his assistant coaches. Pearman had been a tight end on Ford’s 1986 and 1987 Tiger teams that won the ACC championship and finished in the top 20 of the AP poll.
Pearman coached under Beamer from 1998-05 and helped Virginia Tech to a 78-23 record, including five 10-win seasons. That included the 1999 season when the Hokies played Florida State for the national championship. They finished 11-1 the following year as well behind Michael Vick.
When Dabo Swinney became Clemson’s head coach, one of the first coaches he hired was Pearman, who had been an assistant coach at Alabama in 1992 when Swinney and the Crimson Tide won the national championship.
From 2009-20, Pearman coached the Clemson tight ends and had special teams responsibilities. That includes the 2015-20 era when Clemson reached the CFP each year and finished in the top four of the AP poll each year as well.