Clemson, S.C. — It is Game Day in Death Valley where No. 6 Clemson hosts Georgia Tech as they being the march towards another ACC Championship.
The Tigers’ defense goes for their third shutout in a row to start the season.
Location: Memorial Stadium (Death Valley)
Kickoff: 3:30 p.m.
Television: ABC
Announcers: Dan Orlovsky, Bob Wischusen, Kris Budden
2021 Record: Clemson 1-1, Georgia Tech 1-1
ACC Record: Clemson 0-0
Series History: Georgia Tech leads series 51-31-2
Last Meeting: Clemson won 73-7 on October 17, 2020
CLEMSON OPENS CONFERENCE PLAY SATURDAY VS. GEORGIA TECH
Clemson returns to Death Valley this week for its 2021 conference opener on Saturday, Sept. 18 when the Tigers host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Kickoff at Memorial Stadium is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.
Clemson enters the contest having won 29 consecutive games at Death Valley, a school record and the nation’s longest active streak. With a win on
Saturday, Clemson can tie 1928-33 Tennessee, 1952-61 Auburn and 1994-99 Florida (30 each) for the 21stlongest home winning streak in FBS history. It would be the 24th home winning streak of 30 games or more in FBS history.
After being held to two yards on 23 rushing attempts (including seven sacks credited as rushes) in the season opener, Clemson entered last week’s game against South Carolina State looking for improved production from its running game. The Tigers succeeded, gaining 242 yards on 36 carries, an average of 6.7 yards per rush. The 240-yard week-over-week improvement in
rushing yards is Clemson’s largest in a single season since a 276-yard jump from the Florida State game to the Louisville game in 2018.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEK
– Clemson attempting to win a 30th consecutive home game to extend its school record for both the longest home winning streak and longest home unbeaten streak in school history (as well as extend the nation’s longest
active home winning streak). Of the 135 players on Clemson’s 2021 roster, 130 have never experienced a home loss in their Clemson careers. Five sixth-year “super seniors” on Clemson’s 2021 roster were on the 2016 team that recovered from a home loss to Pitt by winning the national championship that season.
– Clemson (29) winning a 30th straight home game to record the 24th home winning streak of 30 games or more in FBS history.
– Clemson (29) attempting to tie 1928-33 Tennessee, 1952-61 Auburn and 1994-99 Florida (30 each) for the 21st-longest home winning streak in FBS history.
– Clemson attempting to add to its national-best 48-1 record at home in the College Football Playoff era (since 2014).
– Clemson attempting to earn its 34th all-time victory against Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is one of 11 schools against whom Clemson has earned at least 30 all-time victories (South Carolina, Wake Forest, North Carolina State, Furman, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Presbyterian and The Citadel).
SERIES HISTORY VS. GEORGIA TECH
Georgia Tech holds a 51-33-2 lead in the series against Clemson, but Clemson has a 22-17 lead since Georgia Tech joined the ACC prior to the 1983 football season.
Clemson has won a program-record six in a row against Georgia Tech. Prior to the current six-game winning streak, Clemson had won four in a row over the Yellow Jackets just three times, including the first four games of the series from 1898-1903 as well as a fourgame stretch from 1993-96.
Dabo Swinney was already the first Clemson coach to beat Georgia Tech four consecutive times and will attempt to push that streak to seven with a win this year. Clemson had multiple coaches in the two Clemson four-game winning streaks in the series predating the current streak.
The series dates to a 23-0 Clemson win in Augusta, Ga. in 1898, just the 11th game in Clemson football history. Clemson won the first four games of the
series, including games in 1902 and 1903 when John Heisman was at the helm. Clemson defeated Georgia Tech, 73-0, in Atlanta in 1903 with Heisman as head coach. Heisman then left Clemson to become Georgia
Tech’s head coach.
RECORD DAY IN ‘THE A’ LAST YEAR
Clemson’s 73-7 win at Georgia Tech in 2020 resonated historically. Among the superlatives from that contest:
– Clemson’s 66-point victory margin was the largest in a game between two ACC teams since the conference’s inception in 1953.
– The 66-point victory margin tied for Clemson’s seventh-largest in school history and its largest since a 66-point win against South Carolina State in 2014. It was Clemson’s second-largest win all-time against a school presently in the Football Bowl Subdivision, trailing only a 73-0 victory against Georgia Tech in 1903.
ONE OF THE ERA’S WINNINGEST PROGRAMS
Clemson’s recent success has been particularly pronounced in the midst of Clemson’s six-year streak of College Football Playoff appearances since 2015.
Alabama and Clemson rank No. 1 and 2 in the country in wins in that span, with the two teams combining for five out of six national championships in that time frame.
“A”NOTHER “C”LEMSON “C”HAMPIONSHIP
With its sixth straight conference title last year, Clemson became the first program ever to win 20 ACC Championships, five more than Florida State, which ranks second with 15.
Clemson was the first program in the conference championship game era to win six straight conference championship games. Clemson also became the first ACC program to win six consecutive outright titles, as Florida State had a streak of nine straight ACC titles, but that streak included two co-championships that prevented Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles from ever winning more than three straight titles outright.
In 2020, Clemson and Oklahoma’s six-year streaks of outright titles made the two programs the first among current Power Five programs to win at least six straight outright titles since Oklahoma (12 from 1948-59) as part of the now-dissolved Big 8 Conference.
TCI Predictions
Robert – Clemson 64, Georgia Tech 7
Sam – Clemson 55, Georgia Tech 13
Davis – Clemson 42, Georgia Tech 10
Gavin – Clemson 45, Georgia Tech 14
Bart – Clemson 45, Georgia Tech 10