With its 40-10 win over Miami on Saturday at Death Valley, Clemson won its 40th consecutive home game to extend the longest home winning streak in ACC history and tie the 1907-18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (40) for the eighth-longest home winning streak in FBS history.
And the man who has led the Tigers through that historic run at home, head coach Dabo Swinney, made some history individually as well.
With Saturday’s victory, Swinney joined Alabama’s Bear Bryant (57 from 1963-82), Michigan’s Fielding Yost (50 from 1901-07) and Texas’ Darrell Royal (42 from 1968-76) as the only FBS head coaches ever to preside over the entirety of a program’s home winning streak of 40 games or more.
“Do I know Fielding Yost? I missed that one. I know Bear Bryant. Who’s the other one? (Darrell Royal) I know him, too. I missed Fielding Yost,” Swinney said with a big smile during his postgame press conference. “I got to look that one up. That’s pretty amazing.”
Swinney added that the home winning streak is something he can’t really process — and something he’s not trying to process.
“It’s not really something you set out to do. I mean, it’s just not,” he said. “I mean, I’m thankful to be a part of it, and it’s really cool that our guys take a lot of pride in something like that.
“And it’s just a credit to the players. You don’t do anything like that by yourself. It’s just incredible to be a part of something that’s historic. I mean, that’s something that somebody may not do again. Who knows. It’s really, really cool to be a part of that.”
Not only did Saturday’s win extend the nation’s longest active home winning streak — the Tigers’ last defeat at Death Valley was a 43-42 loss to Pittsburgh on a last-second field goal way back on Nov. 12, 2016 – but the victory over the Hurricanes also gave Clemson (10-1, 8-0 ACC) its 19th 10-win season in program history and its 12th straight season with at least 10 wins under Swinney.
It’s that type of consistency from Swinney’s program on the field – and off of it as well – that Swinney will be most proud of whenever he decides to call it quits as a coach down the road.
“The 12 10-win seasons is special,” he said. “That’s one of those things that when I hang my whistle up, I’ll be most proud of – consistency. And 11 out of 12 years, top-10 academically, on top of that. So, consistency on and off the field. Not perfection, but consistency. That’s what we did set out to do.
“We didn’t set out to have 12 10-plus-win seasons or whatever it ends up being. But we did set out to be a consistent program that had a chance year in and year out. Because I felt like if we could do that and build that and have that type of culture, you’ll have those years when it all goes the way you want it to go. But yeah, it’s amazing to be a part of it. It really is.”
As for playing games at Clemson, Swinney noted that it’s nice because the fans gather at the Paw after every matchup, win or lose – but it’s even nicer, of course, when the Tigers do prevail.
And Clemson has been victorious in the Valley much more often than not during Swinney’s tenure.
“It’s one of those things that’s really good at Clemson because they come on the field whether you win or lose at Clemson – it’s a lot better when you win,” he said with a smile. “So, that’s been good.”
–Notes from Clemson Athletic Communications contributed to this story
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