Novembers To Remember

Note: The following appears in the Louisville football gameday program.

For the last few years, Head Coach Dabo Swinney has used the phrase, “they remember November” when speaking to his team as a motivating phrase when the final month of the regular season begins.

Swinney has come up with a lot of great sayings during his time as Clemson’s head coach, but stories on the internet give credit to “they remember November” to former West Virginia Head Coach Bill Stewart. He first used it in his postgame comments after an Oct. 30, 2009 loss at South Florida.

Swinney has made good use of the phrase, running up a 49-13 record in November in his career as head coach, including a 30-4 record the last nine years.

Clemson has a history of success in the month, dating to John Heisman in 1900, when he had a 4-0 record in November. Clemson closed its first perfect season thanks to that November run that included wins over now prominent teams South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia Tech and Alabama by a combined score of 147-10.

The Tigers had a 15-1 record in the month of November in their first seven years (1896-02). For 32 seasons, Clemson has posted a perfect record in November, including 18 seasons with a 4-0 record and six times in the last nine years under Swinney.

Despite that level of success, Clemson has a chance this year to do something the program has never done…win five games in November. This is the sixth year Clemson is playing five games in November. Each of those years, Clemson has lost at least one game. This is just the second time since 1958 that Clemson plays five games in November. The last time was 2008, when Swinney turned a 4-1 November into removing the interim tag from his title.

Here are some of the memorable November runs in Clemson history:

1939
Banks McFadden led Clemson to a 4-0 record in November, including three wins over teams that finished with a winning record. Three of the four wins were on the road and led to Clemson earning a bid to the Cotton Bowl against Boston College, the Tigers’ first bowl game.

1948
Frank Howard’s best team had a 4-0 record in November 1948, including a 21-14 win over No. 19 Wake Forest and a win over Auburn. The Tigers finished 11-0 and No. 11 in the AP poll.

1967
Frank Howard’s 1967 Tigers started 2-4, then went 4-0 in November to win the ACC for the third straight year. The four wins were against North Carolina, Maryland, NC State and South Carolina. NC State was ranked No. 10 entering the game, Howard’s highest-ranked home win in his 30 years as head coach.

1979
Danny Ford’s first team was 3-1 in November. It was not perfect but worth noting because the three wins were over teams that finished with a winning record, No. 14 Wake Forest (31-0), at North Carolina (19-10) and at Notre Dame (16-10). It was the only time between 1896 and 2017 that Clemson posted three November wins over teams that finished with a winning record.

1981
Clemson was 3-0 in November 1981, a key run to the Tigers’ first national title. Clemson won at No. 8 North Carolina in the first meeting of top-10 ACC teams, clinched the ACC title by defeating Maryland and clinched the perfect regular season by downing South Carolina.

2003
Clemson was 3-1 in November 2003, but Tiger fans will not forget the close to that season. November finished with a win over No. 3 Florida State, at the time the Tigers’ highest-ranked win in Death Valley, a 40-7 victory over Duke and a 63-17 win at South Carolina. Clemson then beat No. 6 Tennessee in the Peach Bowl to finish in the top 25 in the AP poll after a 5-4 start.

2017
Clemson went 4-0 in November behind quarterback Kelly Bryant to become the No. 1 team in the nation entering the CFP. The Tigers beat a top-20 NC State team, Florida State and No. 24 South Carolina to close the regular season with an 11-1 record.

2018
Dabo Swinney’s team was perfect the entire season, but it had to beat Boston College, Duke and South Carolina in November, three teams that finished with a winning record, to stay perfect.

2019
The 2019 Tigers made it three straight perfect Novembers. That squad, led by Trevor Lawrence and Isaiah Simmons, outscored the opposition 204-30 in November.

2023
The Tigers posted two wins over top-25 teams and wins over three teams that finished the year with a winning record, tied for the most in those categories in Clemson history. That included a 31-23 win over No. 12 Notre Dame that was the first of five straight victories to close the season.