Note: The following appears in the Troy football gameday program.
Four Clemson teams celebrating anniversaries are being honored during the Troy game at Memorial Stadium. There are multiple receptions for the 50-year, 25-year, 10-year and five-year reunion teams over the weekend. The squads also have the opportunity to come down the Hill during pregame.
Today, we honor four teams, three that finished in the top 15 of the AP poll and one young team that gained experience on the way to the landmark 1977 and 1978 seasons that started a great era in Clemson football history, an era that included the school’s first national championship in 1981.
197550-Year Anniversary
The 1975 season proved to be a year many future Clemson greats gained experience as freshmen, experience that paid significant dividends in future seasons.
The 1975 season was the freshman campaign for Clemson Ring of Honor legends Jerry Butler and Steve Fuller, two-time All-American Joe Bostic, future NFL MVP Dwight Clark, future NFL offensive lineman Steve Kenney, future NFL defensive end Jonathan Brooks and future All-ACC linebacker Randy Scott.
That group of freshmen were the leaders of the 1977 and 1978 teams that set the foundation for the great seasons we have seen in recent years. The 1977 team finished with an 8-3-1 record and Clemson’s first bowl bid since 1959. The 1978 squad finished 11-1, No. 6 in the AP poll, at the time the highest final ranking in Clemson history, and won the school’s first ACC title since 1959.
The Tigers did have an all-time great in the starting lineup in tight end Bennie Cunningham, who was named a first-team All-American by Walter Camp, Time Magazine and Sporting News. It was the second straight year Cunningham was named a first-team All-American. In 2002, when the ACC chose its 50-Year Anniversary Team, Cunningham was the only tight end selected.
Cunningham was a first-round selection of the 1976 NFL draft, but Don Testerman, Craig Brantley and Gary Alexander were also drafted as seniors from the 1975 squad.
This team was better than its 2-9 record, as four of the losses were by five points or less. That included a 22-20 loss to Maryland in the 10th game of the season, a contest that showed what this team could be in the future. The Terrapins were ranked No. 16 in the coaches poll and finished 9-2-1 and ranked No. 10 in the AP poll.
The highlight victory came on Nov. 8, when the Tigers won a thrilling 38-35 contest at North Carolina.
200025-Year Anniversary
The 2000 team was Head Coach Tommy Bowden’s best in terms of final national ranking. His second Tiger squad finished No. 14 in the USA Today poll and No. 16 in the AP poll with a 9-3 record. The Tigers ran off eight consecutive victories to open the season and reached a No. 5 ranking in the AP poll and No. 3 ranking in the USA Today poll before suffering a heartbreaking loss to a Georgia Tech team that finished the season No. 17 in the AP poll. It was the first 8-0 start for a Clemson team since the 1981 season.
The Tigers were dominant during the eight-game winning streak. It included a 62-9 win over Missouri, a 55-7 win over Wake Forest and a 52-22 win at Duke. Their average victory margin in the first eight games was 29 points per game.
There were many record-setting performances in the first eight games. Woodrow Dantzler had 220 yards on 18 carries in the 31-10 win at Virginia, still the rushing record by a Tiger quarterback. His performance included a 75-yard touchdown run, still tied for the longest by a Clemson quarterback.
Willie Simmons had the top bench performance of the season in the 38-24 win at North Carolina when he replaced an injured Dantzler to total four passing touchdowns, including three to All-American Rod Gardner, as the Tigers came back from a 17-0 deficit in their victory. It was the first time a non-starting Tiger had four passing touchdowns. Trevor Lawrence duplicated the feat at Georgia Tech in 2018.
The eight-game winning streak ended in a 31-28 loss to Georgia Tech when the Yellow Jackets scored a touchdown with just seven seconds left in the game.
The most memorable game of that season took place in the home finale when Clemson defeated rival South Carolina 16-14. A 50-yard pass from Dantzler to Gardner in the final minute set up Aaron Hunt’s game-winning 25-yard field goal with just three seconds left in the game.
The 2000 offense was balanced, averaging 224 rushing yards and 213 passing yards per game. It was the first Clemson team to average 200+ yards per game in each area over the course of a season.
The ground game featured two 1,000-yard rushers who were separated by just one yard. Dantzler finished the year with 1,028 yards and tailback Travis Zachery finished with 1,027. Both had 13 rushing touchdowns, and Zachery added five receiving touchdowns.
The 2000 defense was led in tackles by linebacker Chad Carson with 156. Keith Adams earned All-America honors thanks to 148 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and seven sacks. Alex Ardley led the defensive backs with six interceptions.
201510-Year Anniversary
Our 10-year anniversary team of 2015 was the first of Clemson’s six-year run to the College Football Playoff. The squad finished with a 14-1 record and a No. 2 ranking after reaching the CFP National Championship Game before dropping a 45-40 decision to Nick Saban’s Alabama team.
Clemson was coming off a 10-win season that had ended with a 34-point win over Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl, so the expectations were high in 2015.
Those expectations were realized in the fourth game of the season when the Tigers defeated No. 6 Notre Dame 24-22 in what will forever be known as the “hurricane game.” It was a night all Tiger fans remember. Clemson took a 21-3 lead, but Notre Dame made one of its classic comebacks. Brian Kelly’s team scored a touchdown with just seven seconds left to close the margin within two points.
The Fighting Irish went for the two-point conversion to try to send the game into overtime. Kelly called the same play Notre Dame had scored on earlier in the contest, but this time, quarterback DeShone Kizer’s run to the right was stopped by Carlos Watkins, Ben Boulware and others. The play featured a physical collision of eight future NFL linemen. Clemson won the battle and the war.
Clemson went on to a 14-0 start, including a 58-0 win at Miami (Fla.), a 23-13 victory over No. 17 Florida State, a 37-32 win at South Carolina and a 45-37 ACC Championship Game win over No. 8 North Carolina.
The Tigers won their first College Football Playoff game with a 37-17 victory over Baker Mayfield and the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners in the Orange Bowl. That put the Tigers in the national championship game against Alabama. Clemson gained 550 yards of total offense thanks to 405 passing yards by Deshaun Watson, but the Crimson Tide came away with the victory.
The 2015 Tigers averaged 223 rushing yards and 291 passing yards per game for a 514-yard average, the first team in program history to average 500 yards per game. Wayne Gallman had 1,527 rushing yards and Watson added 1,105 yards on the ground. Watson also had 4,104 passing yards and became the first player in college football history with 4,000+ passing yards and 1,000+ rushing yards in a season. B.J. Goodson led the team with 160 tackles, and Boulware was second with 138 tackles.
Watson, a sophomore, finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting. He was named a first-team All-American by AP, Football Coaches and Football Writers Association. Jordan Leggett, Shaq Lawson, Jayron Kearse, Greg Huegel and Mackensie Alexander were also named to various All-America teams.
2020Five-Year Anniversary
The 2020 Tiger team will always be remembered as the squad that overcame a pandemic to reach the College Football Playoff and a No. 3 final national ranking. It was a strange season, when games were canceled the morning of a game (at Florida State), games were played with no more than 18,000 fans (as few as 68 at Wake Forest) and Notre Dame competed in a conference (ACC) for the only time in its history.
It was a strange season, but Clemson’s 2020 team extended its streak of CFP appearances to six straight years, all in the four-team era. Clemson became the first and still only program to reach the CFP six years in a row.
The 2020 Tigers opened the season with seven consecutive wins, giving the program 36 wins in its last 37 games. The 7-0 start included a 42-17 victory over No. 7 Miami (Fla.). That win further enhanced Clemson’s reputation as the nation’s top-ranked team, a position Clemson held since the preseason poll.
The Tigers traveled to Notre Dame to face the No. 4 team in the nation. But Trevor Lawrence had contracted the COVID-19 virus the week before and missed the game against the Fighting Irish. Freshman DJ Uiagalelei had led the Tigers to victory over Boston College the week before, so the start at Notre Dame was his second.
Uiagalelei had 439 passing yards, still the most against a Notre Dame team, but the Fighting Irish came up with a double-overtime victory (47-40). It was Notre Dame’s first victory over the nation’s top-ranked team since 1993.
Notre Dame and Clemson ran the table the rest of the regular season and met in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte. This time, Lawrence was healthy and led Clemson to a dominating 34-10 win by totaling 322 passing yards and two touchdowns, It was Clemson’s sixth straight ACC title, a league record for consecutive outright ACC championships.
Clemson entered the College Football Playoff against No. 2 Ohio State. The Tigers had not lost to Ohio State in three previous meetings, all in the postseason, but this time the Buckeyes were ready and downed the Tigers 49-28 in the Sugar Bowl.
Lawrence finished with 3,153 passing yards and 24 touchdowns and was second in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. Clemson averaged a school-record 348 passing yards per game. Travis Etienne had 914 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, while Baylon Spector led the defenders with 72 tackles.
