By Will Vandervort.
ORLANDO, Fla. – When 17th-ranked Clemson takes the Citrus Bowl Field Monday night to play No. 24 Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl, head coach Dabo Swinney says it will be an honor for him to take the field with his senior class one more time.
“This is a special group. They are good people,” Swinney said Sunday from the Renaissance Hotel in Orlando, Fla., as the Tigers prepare to play the Sooners at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Swinney’s seniors have done more than any class Clemson’s football program has ever had. They have won 41 games – the most in school history. They won more ACC games than any other class with 26. They posted a 26-2 record in Death Valley and the list goes on and on and on.
“We had same highly recruited guys like Stephone Anthony and Tony Steward and some of those types of guys and then we have guys no one really knows anything about – Robert Smith, Grady Jarrett and Kalon Davis, Sam Cooper, Adam Humphries and guys like that,” Swinney said. “This has been a really fun group to go work with every day.
“They have not only led on the field, but they have led off the field.”
Off the field, 31 of the 34 seniors on the squad—that is including walk-ons—has already received their degrees and the lone three will be back in school this spring and will graduate in May.
“I’m really proud of that,” Swinney said.
“They represent what we want this program to be. Six years ago, when I got this job I wanted it to become one of the more consistent programs in the country and these guys are the epitome of that. They have been very consistent.”
When he took over the Clemson program six years ago Swinney envisioned his program being one of the best in the land. With a victory on Monday over Oklahoma it would mean these seniors have beaten three of the more storied in College Football history with three consecutive bowl victories over LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma. It will also mark the fourth straight 10-win season – the first time that has occurred since the 1987-’90 seasons.
“They all came here four or five years ago when we were just kind of buying into what we were trying to do as a program,” Swinney said. “Now here we are and this is my sixth full year and we are trying for our fourth 10-win season.
“These guys deserve all the credit. It’s about the players. We as coaches get way too much credit. These players have to buy in and these guys have bought in from a recruiting standpoint and also throughout the process as players here at Clemson. It is going to be special and it is going to be an honor to take the field with them one more time tomorrow night and hopefully we can find a way to win and send them out with a another bowl victory, which would be their 42-second win, which would quite an accomplishment from where we were six years ago.”