Clemson Football: The Gold Standard
Clemson’s recent success has been particularly pronounced in the midst of Clemson’s five-year streak of College Football Playoff appearances since 2015. Clemson leads Alabama for the most wins in the country in that span, while the teams have split two national championships in that time frame.
Clemson’s 69 wins during the 2015-19 seasons represented the most in a five-year period in the AP Poll era (since 1936).
Clemson has a 111-16 record since starting its current stretch of 10-win seasons in 2011. Only Alabama (114-12) has more wins since 2011. The Tigers also have the second-highest winning percentage (. 881) in that time frame.
Clemson has won 12 games in five consecutive seasons, the longest active streak of 12-win seasons and one of only four such streaks in major college football history, joining Alabama (five from 2014-18), Penn (seven from 1892-98) and Yale (five from 1888-92).
After winning his second national championship, Swinney was asked if his Clemson team had reached the dynasty plateau.
“No, we’re a long way from a dynasty,” he told reporters. “We’re a great program. There’s no doubt about that. We’re incredibly consistent in every area of our program.”
Swinney said the first dynasty he remembers was Bear Bryant and the University of Alabama.
"I grew up in Alabama, and what (Bryant) did in the 60s and 70s, winning numerous national championships," Swinney said. "In those days, I guess you just kind of voted on them. There's some debate, he probably could have won some more."
Even at lower thresholds, Clemson’s streak of success would remain impressive. Of the 130 active FBS schools, only 30 programs won at least six games in all five seasons from 2015-19. That number dips to 12 when pushing the win total to eight, and drops all the way to four (Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State) when setting the bar at 10 wins.
Clemson enters 2020 riding a streak of nine consecutive seasons with 10+ wins. The program’s ninth consecutive 10-win season in 2019 made Clemson only the fourth program in FBS history to record at least nine consecutive 10-win seasons, tying the 2001-09 Texas Longhorns for the third-longest streak on record. With another 10-win season in 2020, Clemson would become only the third program in FBS history to produce a “double-double” — double-digit wins in a double-digit number of consecutive seasons.
The record for consecutive 10-win seasons is 14, set by Florida State (1987-2000). Alabama is the only other program with an active streak of at least nine straight 10-win seasons.
The Tigers have 16 10-win seasons in school history, with more than half coming in the last nine years under Swinney. The 2019 season was Clemson’s sixth with at least 12 wins, with Swinney sitting at the helm for five of them.
Swinney can vividly recall the looks he received when he said Clemson was on the cusp of the winningest decade in program history following a 2010 campaign in which the Tigers finished 6-7. In 2017, that vision became a reality with two seasons to spare when Clemson collected its 88th win of the decade in the ACC Championship Game against Miami (Fla.) to surpass the Tigers of the 1980s (87) for most wins in any decade in school history.
With a rivalry win against South Carolina to close the 2018 regular season, Clemson reached triple digits in wins in a decade for the first time in program history. Included below are the schools that have accomplished that feat.
“Transformative,” Swinney called the 2010s prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship. “We’ve transformed Clemson, and the next decade is the Roaring Twenties. I heard those were great. Hopefully we can relive those.”
Clemson finished the 2010s with 117 victories, tied for the third-most victories in a decade in major college football since the 1890s, trailing only Penn (124 in the 1890s) and Alabama (124 in the 2010s). Clemson recorded a 117-22 record in the decade of the 2010s, an .841 winning percentage that represented the best for any decade in school history.
Every January, Swinney conducts his first official team meeting with his new team. The first order of business in the meeting is to “reset the room,” reorganizing the seating arrangement with seniors in front and all succeeding classes in order behind them in the team auditorium.
The 2020 Clemson seniors reached the front of the room having watched each of the two classes in front of them depart as the winningest senior classes in FBS history, tied with the 2018 Alabama seniors at 55 wins in four years. This year’s group will have the ability to follow in that lineage and earn that same claim.
The 2019 seniors were the second Clemson class and one of only three classes all-time to reach 55 career wins in a four-year span. Clemson’s 2019 group reached 55 wins in 58 games, tying the 2018 Alabama seniors as the quickest to that mark.
The 2020 Clemson seniors are 41-3 since 2017, three more than any current senior class in the country.
Clemson’s seniors can tie the 2018 and 2019 seniors for the best four-year mark in school, conference and Football Bowl Subdivision history with 14 wins in 2020 and can own the record outright if it were to repeat with another 15-0 campaign.
Early in his head coaching tenure, Swinney laid out his belief to then-Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips that the Tigers needed to add tough nonconference challenges on top of their tests in ACC play to serve as a foundation for the program’s growth.
“I had a conversation with Terry Don and said, ‘Terry Don, I know we are not very good right now, but we need to play people because that is going to help me teach and help me develop the culture and the mindset that you have to have to win at the highest level,'” recounted Swinney. “I didn’t think we had that, and that’s what we committed to. That’s what we’ve done.”
That scheduling philosophy and culture change has resonated in the Clemson program, and since 2013, no team can claim more wins against Power Five Conference opponents than the Tigers.
On an annual basis, Clemson has finished the season atop the country in wins against Power Five opponents four times since the institution of the College Football Playoff in 2014, including four of the last five years. That includes a record 13 wins against Power Five opponents in 2018.
After being named Clemson’s full-time coach in December of 2008, Swinney set about securing his first signing class in 2009.
His first class, which he tabbed the “Dandy Dozen,” brought home Clemson’s first ACC title since 1991 during their junior campaign in 2011. All of Clemson’s first 11 signing classes under Swinney have at least one ACC title to their credit in their four years at Clemson. Every signing class since 2012 has played for at least one national title, and every class since 2013 has won a national championship with exception of Clemson’s 2019 class, which fell just shy in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game last season.
"Certainly, what (Saban) has done at Alabama," Swinney said when describing current dynasty's. "I guess the definition is just doing something over and over and over with an unbelievable consistency."
Even before the last five seasons, Swinney began building the Clemson dynasty just a few years after accepting the Tigers' head coaching position. Beginning in 2011, Swinney's third full season, the Tigers had 10 wins. Since that year, the Tigers have had double-digit wins each year of Swinney's tenure.
"I don't think they have been many football dynasties," Swinney said. "It's just so hard to win consistently for a long period of time.
