By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Thirty five times prior to Monday night Clemson’s senior class walked off the football field victorious. And though those 35 wins were sweet, it’s hard to imagine any of them being as sweet as Clemson’s 25-24 victory over No. 7 LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

“This was special,” senior defensive end Malliciah Goodman said.

It was special, as were the 11 scholarship seniors that capped off one of the more accomplished careers in Clemson history with a monumental win. Like the 1978 team’s victory over Woody Hayes’ Ohio State Buckeyes and like the 1981 squad’s win over the big-bad Cornhuskers of Nebraska, no one gave Clemson a realistic shot at beating LSU in the Georgia Dome.

LSU is from the powerful SEC. They played for the national championship just a year ago and they were realistically just one play away from playing for it for a second straight year. Clemson came into the Chick-fil-A Bowl still wondering if it belonged.

The Tigers wondered if they were as good as the Alabamas, LSUs and Floridas of the world. Or were they just a top 15 team that can’t compete with the big boys of college football. They found out they can.

“This is a football team that got better all year long,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “Tonight we kind of grew up from some of the challenges we’ve had earlier in the year. I’m just so proud of our team, our staff, for their preparation. I’m proud of them for their commitment and their toughness, just their overall performance against a great LSU team.”

This past seasons’ senior class was the smallest since 1999, but they accomplished more than any class in the last 21 years. Their 36 wins rank as the sixth most in school history and the most since the 1991 team won 39.

They recorded the most ACC wins in a four-year stretch with 23. They won the Atlantic Division title three times in four years. They won the program’s first ACC Championship in 20 years when they helped Clemson win the 2011 ACC title. They recorded back-to-back 10-win seasons, the first senior class to do that since the 1992 seniors, and the list goes on and on and on.

“This group of seniors, when they came to Clemson four years ago to play for me, there wasn’t really much to sell them on other than, ‘Hey, you know, here is my plan. I believe. I just need you to believe. This is where we are going. This is how we are going to do it.’

“Man, those guys, they’ve taken this program where it hasn’t been in 31 years. They won more games than any senior group in forever. Set record for conference wins. Set school record for home wins. The thing I’m the most proud of, is that every single one of them have their degree.”

It’s no coincidence that in the biggest moment of their careers, the one that will define their legacy at Clemson for years to come, seniors like Goodman, cornerback Xavier Brewer, safety Rashard Hall, center Dalton Freeman, wide receiver Jaron Brown and tight end Brandon Ford all made plays in the come-from-behind win over LSU.

“This is how I wanted to go out,” Brewer said. “I wish we could have played for a national championship, but we let two slip away, but this is definitely the next best thing. To beat a top 10 team in the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve was awesome.”

It was also the final step in putting Clemson back on top as one of the nation’s best college football programs. Four years ago Dabo Swinney asked this senior class to believe, to believe in him and in his vision for Clemson football.

Now, for those who follow this year’s seniors, they will not have to just believe anymore, they will know. They now know winning at the highest level can be done at Clemson.

“We’ve been in this situation our whole careers,” Ford said. “We’ve always had to prove people wrong and proving people wrong is a good thing. Tonight we put it all together and accomplished a lot.”