Dabo Swinney will be chasing history Saturday when No. 17 Clemson hosts Stanford at Memorial Stadium.
Swinney will be going for his 100th career home win. The Tigers are 99-9 at Death Valley under his leadership, including a national-best-tying 67-3 mark at home in the College Football Playoff era.
“That’s pretty awesome,” Swinney said. “I thought last week was pretty cool to be a part of eight hundred and I did not know this either, until I looked at (Ross Taylor’s game notes).
“I was here for six hundred, seven hundred and eight hundred. I was the receivers coach at win six hundred… to be a part of that is pretty cool. A hundred home wins, I guess that is great. It just means I have been able to be here a longtime and we have been able to win at home in a lot of games.”
The Tigers have been downright dominated at Memorial Stadium under Swinney. Since 2015, Clemson has defeated at least one top 15 opponent every year at home, including a 31-23 victory over No. 12 Notre Dame last season.
“It has been a blessing. There were a lot of great players, a lot of great coaches and unbelievable fan support. They have all helped make that happen.”
What are Swinney’s best wins at home?
It’s hard to say which is the best because they were all big wins for different reasons. However, I was able to narrow down Swinney’s best win from each of his first 16 seasons as a head coach, including his interim season.
November 15, 2008
Win No. 1
Clemson 31, Duke 7
C.J. Spiller had an 83-yard touchdown catch and a 24-yard scoring run to help Clemson win its 14th straight over Duke at home 31-7 on Saturday.
Spiller continued his electrifying play in the season’s second half for the Tigers. He accounted for 242 yards two weeks earlier in Clemson’s win at Boston College, its first under Swinney.
The win over Duke was Swinney’s first win in Death Valley.
November 29, 2008
Win No. 2
Clemson 31, South Carolina 14
“Dabo! Dabo! Dabo!”
That was the chant most of the 81,500 fans that were dressed in orange chanted with running back Davis and many other Clemson players following the Tigers’ 31-14 victory over South Carolina. The chant just was not a yell for celebration in Death Valley, but it was a message to Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips to make Swinney, the interim coach at the time, the school’s permanent head coach.
Phillips appreciate what Swinney did and a week later he removed the interim tag in front of head coach, making Swinney the Tigers permanent head coach.
“I probably don’t get the job if we do not win that game in ’08,” Swinney said. “So, I will never forget that one.”
The Tigers used a little trickery to build a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Following Chris Smelley’s second interception, this time from safety Chris Clemmons, Clemson used a play called Cock-a-doodle-do to add on to its lead.
The play called for Ford to stay near the sideline and act like he was tying his shoe where the defense didn’t see him. And No one did.
The Gamecocks blitz quarterback Cullen Harper, and safety Emanuel Cook had Harper by the ankles when he went to throw the ball Ford’s way.
“We were supposed to block that guy on the edge,” Harper said.
But Harper stayed with the play and got out of Cook’s grasp enough to get the ball to Ford, who was wide open near the 30, like the play had been drawn up. After catching the ball, the speedster took it to the end zone for 17-0 lead with 8:33 left in the first half.
“We had certain personnel on the field. Two people came in and three of us ran to the sideline,” Ford said. “Coach (Brad) Scott acted like he was chewing me out, and I kind of bent down like I was tying my shoe. I peeked a little bit to see if they could see me, then he gave me the little go signal, and after that I ran off.”
November 7, 2009
Win No. 7
Clemson 40, Florida State 24
C.J. Spiller gained a school-record 312 all-purpose yards in Clemson’s 40-24 victory over Florida State in what proved to be Bobby Bowden’s last appearance as Florida State’s head coach in Death Valley. Spiller had 165 rushing yards and 67 receiving yards. The victory gave Clemson wins over Florida State and Miami in the same season for the first time.
November 6, 2010
Win No. 13
Clemson 14, No. 23 NC State 13
Quarterback Kyle Parker threw for 214 yards and a touchdown as Clemson overcame several mistakes to beat No. 23 NC State 14-13.
The Tigers fumbled five times, losing two of them, threw an interception, had a touchdown called back on a holding penalty and missed two short field goals.
The Clemson defense was outstanding, though, holding the Wolfpack to 275 yards, while dealing a big blow to State’s hopes to win the ACC’s Atlantic Division. The Tigers also blocked a field goal.
Jamie Harper’s 3-yard touchdown run with 6:18 to play, proved to be the game-winner.
September 17, 2011
Win 16
Clemson 38, No. 21 Auburn 24
Clemson defeated defending National Champion Auburn, 38-24, in Death Valley. The win elevated Clemson’s record against a defending National Champion in games played at Clemson to 3-0 and it ended Auburn’s 17-game winning streak, the longest winning streak snapped by a Clemson football team in history. The Tigers gained 624 yards of total offense, their most-ever against an SEC team.
“That was kind of building momentum within that season,” Swinney said.
October 20, 2012
Win No. 24
No. 14 Clemson 38, Virginia Tech 17
Clemson defeated Virginia Tech, 38-17, at Memorial Stadium, its third win over the Hokies in a two-year span. All three wins were by 20 or more points.
August 31, 2013
Win No. 27
No. 8 Clemson 38, No. 5 Georgia 35
Clemson defeated No. 5 Georgia, 38 35, in front of 84,350 fans at Death Valley. Clemson was ranked No. 8 and the win gave the Tigers consecutive wins over top-10 SEC teams. Clemson became the first non-conference school to win consecutive games against top 10 SEC teams. Sammy Watkins had a 77-yard receiving touchdown from Tajh Boyd, who threw three passing touchdowns and ran for two others.
November 29, 2014
Win No. 39
No. 23 Clemson 35, South Carolina 17
Playing with a torn ACL, Deshaun Watson threw for two scores and ran for two others in Clemson’s 35-17 win over South Carolina, which ended the Gamecocks’ record five-game winning streak in the series. Artavis Scott had seven catches for 185 yards and two scores, the most receiving yards by a Clemson player against South Carolina and the most ever by a Tiger in Death Valley. Wayne Gallman added 191 yards rushing in 27 carries, the second most rushing yards by a Tiger against South Carolina.
October 3, 2015
Win No. 42
No. 11 Clemson 24, No. 6 Notre Dame 22
Clemson defeated sixth-ranked Notre Dame in the first meeting between the two teams since 1979. In a torrential downpour, the Tigers jumped out to a 21-3 lead and escaped with a 24-22 win in the final seconds, as Carlos Watkins led a host of tacklers that stopped the Fighting Irish’s two-point try in the final seconds.
October 1, 2016
Win No. 49
No. 5 Clemson 42, No. 3 Louisville 36
Clemson won a meeting of top five teams in a 42-36 victory over No. 3 Louisville. The game would prove to be a meeting of the top two contenders for the Heisman trophy as Louisville’s Lamar Jackson and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson took their teams up and down the field. But the game’s biggest play proved to be a tackle at the three-yard line by Clemson’s Marcus Edmond in the final seconds of the game to stop Louisville on a fourth down-play.
October 15, 2016
Win No. 50
No. 3 Clemson 24, NC State 17 (overtime)
The Wolfpack were a 33-yard field goal away at the end of regulation from ending Clemson’s perfect start to the 2016 season. Instead, Kyle Bambard pushed the kick right and sent most of the 82,104 at Death Valley into hysterics.
Given new life, Clemson responded like defending ACC champions. The Tigers converted a fourth-and-1 to keep their overtime the drive going, and then Deshaun Watson connected with Artavis Scott on a go-ahead 10-yard touchdown pass. Marcus Edmond intercepted Wolfpack quarterback Ryan Finley’s deep throw into the end zone to keep the Tigers undefeated with a 24-17 victory.
It marked Swinney’s 50 th home win as Clemson’s head coach.
September 9, 2017
Win No. 55
No. 3 Clemson 14, No. 13 Auburn 6
In a battle of outstanding defenses, Clemson defeated Auburn for the fourth time in a row by a score of 14-6. Brent Venables’ defense recorded 11 sacks, second most in school history and most against an FBS school. Austin Bryant led the way with four sacks, most in history by a Tiger against an SEC team. Clemson allowed -15 rushing yards and just 25 total yards in the second half against the only team to beat eventual national champion Alabama in 2017.
September 29, 2018
Win No. 62
No. 3 Clemson 27, No. Syracuse 23
After a week in which Kelly Bryant elected to transfer after Trevor Lawrence was named the starting quarterback, Lawrence exited the game against Syracuse due to injury in the second quarter. Backup quarterback Chase Brice helped Clemson overcome a 10-point fourth quarter deficit in a 27-23 win, completing a fourth-and-six pass to Tee Higgins on the game-winning drive, leading to a game-winning touchdown run by Travis Etienne with 41 seconds remaining.
September 7, 2019
Win No. 68
No. 1 Clemson 24, No. 12 Texas A&M 10
Clemson’s defense held Texas A&M to 289 yards of total offense as the top-ranked Tigers took down the No. 12 Aggies, 24-10, Saturday in Death Valley.
The Tigers harassed and confused Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond all afternoon, limiting him to 236 yards on 24-42 passing, while sacking him twice, forcing a fumble and intercepting one pass.
October 10, 2020
Win No.76
No. 1 Clemson 42, No. 7 Miami 17
The top-ranked Tigers proved once again why they are the kings of the ACC, as it once again embarrassed Miami, 42-17, at Frank Howard Field in Clemson.
Clemson was not perfect, it was far from it, but it dominated Miami in such a way that every one watching at Memorial Stadium and the millions back home knew the game was over even before halftime.
November 11, 2021
Win No. 85
Clemson 48, No. 13 Wake Forest 27
Running back Kobe Pace ran for a career-high 191 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers won their 13th straight over No. 13 Wake Forest, delaying the Demon Deacons’ run to the ACC Atlantic title with a 48-27 victory Saturday.
Will Shipley, with 112 yards, joined Pace in surpassing the 100-yard mark on the ground and had two touchdown runs. Shipley also threw a 2-yard jump pass TD to Davis Allen.
October 1, 2022
Win No. 88
No. 5 Clemson 30, No. 10 NC State 20
The Clemson defense rose to the occasion as Clemson handled N.C. State for a 30-20 win in a top 10 matchup at Memorial Stadium.
With seven minutes and 39 seconds remaining in Saturday’s game, Devin Leary mishandled a snap on a crucial fourth-and-13. In what was ultimately the knockout punch in another home victory for Clemson, K.J. Henry landed on the loose ball.
November 4, 2023
Win No. 97
Clemson 31, No. 12 Notre Dame 23
Swinney became the winningest head coach in school history as Clemson defeated No. 12 Notre Dame 31-23 at Death Valley. The victory was the 166th of his career, pushing him past Frank Howard (165 from 1940-69). The win also moved Clemson to 5-0 against starting quarterback Sam Hartman during his tenures at Wake Forest and Notre Dame, making Clemson the first Power Five Conference team to defeat a starting quarterback five times since Miami posted a 5-0 record against Florida State in games started by quarterback Chris Rix from 2001-’04.
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