It was a big year for the Clemson Tigers. Here are the top five events, according to The Clemson Insider, that happened this past calendar year in Clemson Athletics.

1. College Football Playoff bound. If winning every game was easy, more teams would do it.

With Clemson’s ACC Championship win over UNC on Dec. 5 and Iowa’s Big 10 title game loss to Michigan State, only the Tigers are undefeated among the 128 FBS teams.

The North Carolina win was No. 16 in a row for Clemson, which broke a 66-year-old school record for consecutive victories. It also set a new mark for wins in a single season, a record that was previously held by the 1981 National Championship team.

The win also advanced the Tigers into the College Football Playoffs, giving the program its first opportunity to win a national championship since that magical year in 1981. Number one Clemson will play No. 4 Oklahoma in the national semifinals in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

And, with the 13-0 record, Clemson is the third ACC team in history to win at least 13 games. Florida State’s 2013 and 2014 teams won 14 and 13 games, respectively.

One more regular season game and conference title game certainly gives this squad a leg up on other teams in the record books, but the 2015 edition of the Clemson Tigers is going to be one for the ages, regardless of what happens in the College Football Playoff.

Artavis Scott quantified the challenge that is going 13-0.

“We grind. We live for these type of moments. We prepare ourselves for whatever is going to come our way, so I don’t think it’s a big challenge,” he said. “It is hard to go undefeated. We played some tough teams, some tough opponents, but this is what we live for. We work for these moments.”

An undefeated run is pretty special.

“It’s huge for us. It’s been a long time since we’ve been undefeated,” Scott said. “We just keep pushing through it, each and every week. We just trust in our preparation and things that we’ve done, to get us to this situation.”

2. The Tigers are perfect! It wasn’t not the path to perfection top-ranked Clemson thought it was going to take on Nov. 28 in Columbia against a South Carolina team that had lost four straight and was 3-8 coming in.

The momentum was on South Carolina’s side. The Gamecocks had just scored on a Shon Carson 1-yard run to cut what was an 18-point lead to three points with 12:19 to play in the game. But not to worry, Clemson had Deshaun Watson playing quarterback.

“He was unbelievable, again. He was the difference in the game,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said.

On the ensuing possession, the Tigers faced third down-and-nine from its own 41-yard line, and Watson hit tight end Jordan Leggett up the far sideline for 12 yards and a first down. Again facing a third down four plays later, this time on third-and-seven from the USC 33, he threw a bullet to Trevion Thompson for 24 yards to the nine-yard line.

Three plays later, again on third down, Watson ran off the left side and dove into the end zone for his third rushing touchdown of the game and fourth overall. The touchdown was all the Tigers needed as they held off the pesky Gamecocks for a 37-32 victory.

“Nobody panicked. It’s just football, it’s what we do,” Swinney said. “We had a situation where we could have just got five yards and kick a field goal, but we’re here to try and win a national championship. We hit a big play to keep the drive going and later we get a touchdown.”

Clemson improved to 12-0 for just the second time in school history with the victory, matching the 1981 team’s record. It was also the last time the Tigers finished the regular season with a perfect record.

“It is great to be state champs again, and I’m very happy for our fans,” Swinney said. “This team has a chance to stand alone among Clemson greats.”

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson dives for the pylon in the Tigers’ 37-32 victory over South Carolina on Nov. 28. The win clinched Clemson’s first perfect regular season since 1981.

3. Men’s soccer advances to national title game. The Clemson men’s soccer team’s bid for the program’s third national championship came up short when the Tigers fell to Stanford in the College Cup title match on Dec. 13 at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. The Tigers concluded the season as the national runners-up, at 17-3-4.

“I’m obviously very proud of this team. We had a bad day at the office, but, as I told them, not one result is going to define our team or the people we have in our locker room. Even though we are upset and disappointed, the sting will go away in a couple of days and we’ll realize that we did something very special this season,” Clemson head coach Mike Noonan said.

Jordan Morris, a forward on the U.S. Men’s National Team, was the difference for the Cardinal, scoring their first two goals. The junior scored in the second minute to give Stanford an early lead. For the remainder of the first half, the Tigers seemed to control possession, and created six shots, to the Cardinal’s three, but were unable to capitalize on their chances.

Paul Clowes and fellow seniors T.J. Casner, Kyle Fisher and Kyle Murphy conclude their Clemson careers as the 2015 national runners-up. This is only the fourth time in program history a Clemson team finished second or better in the nation. The Tigers were also the runners-up in 1979, and won the national title in 1984 and 1987.

Noonan was named National Coach of the Year.

4. Monte Lee takes over for Jack Leggett. It took just 20 seconds for Monte Lee to tell the hundred or so people packed into the WestZone team meeting room on June 22 how he felt about being named Clemson’s new head baseball coach.

“This is a dream job of mine,” he said during his formal introduction as the Tigers’ new coach. “I don’t know if I can even put into words how excited I am about this opportunity for my family, for my friends and for myself. I’m extremely excited about it.”

The excitement comes from Lee being a true South Carolinian. He was born in Spartanburg, raised in Lugoff, S.C., attended and played for the College of Charleston, was an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina and then returned to Charleston as a head coach.

“I have been very fortunate in my career that I lived in South Carolina my whole life and I have coached in South Carolina my whole life. Not many people get that type of opportunity,” Lee said.

Not many people get the opportunity to be the head baseball coach at Clemson either. Lee is just the third head coach in 58 years to lead the Tigers’ baseball program. He succeeds Jack Leggett who won 955 games the previous 22 years and Bill Wilhelm, who won 1,161 games in the 36 years he led the program.

The Clemson baseball program is in the top 10 in all-time victories and has won more ACC titles than any other school.

“The tradition of Clemson is second to none,” Lee said. “It has been led by two men over the last fifty-eight years between Bill Wilhelm and Jack Leggett. When you look at what these two men accomplished in their careers here at Clemson, it’s incredible. Two thousand, one hundred and sixteen wins at Clemson between these two men.”

Lee followed those comments by spitting out statistic after statistic on Wilhelm and Leggett, while showing his respect on what each man accomplished in Tigertown.

Besides his 1,161 victories, Wilhelm won 17 regular season ACC Championships and seven tournament championships, which is an ACC record. He also had six College World Series teams and his 1991 squad won an ACC-record 60 games.

“I don’t even know how you do that,” Lee said.

As for Leggett, who Lee recognized as the one Wilhelm passed the torch too, he won three ACC Championships, six trips to Omaha, nine Super Regionals and 21 Regionals. His 1994 team won 57 games, which is the second most in ACC history. Leggett won 955 games in his 22 years at Clemson and took the Tigers to 21 NCAA Tournaments.

Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich decided not to retain Leggett on June 4.

“That is tradition,” Lee said. “And that is one of the main draws for me to be here at Clemson, to be able to follow two great men.”

5. Venables becomes one of the highest paid assistants. Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables signed an extension on January 9 to an original contract he signed on May 5, 2014. It’s an extension that could keep the Tigers’ defensive coordinator in Clemson through January 31, 2019, while paying him $5.4 million through the life of the contract.

Under the amended contract, which was obtained by The Clemson Insider through the university’s athletic communications department, Venables will be making a base salary of $245,000 a year with supplemental compensation at $1, 105,000. That equals out to $1.35 million per year. That’s a $475,000 raise from this past season in which he received a total base and supplemental compensation of $875,000. The new terms of the contract means Venables is one of the highest paid assistant coaches in the country.

In 2014, Clemson led the nation in 11 different defensive categories, including total defense. Venables’ defense led the nation in total defense, allowing just 260.8 yards per game, the first time Clemson led the nation since 1990. The Tigers also led the nation in pass efficiency defense for the first time, and led in yards allowed per play, tackles for loss per game, first downs allowed and third-down conversion percentage defense.

The Tigers also ranked second in passing yards allowed, third in scoring defense and fifth in rushing defense. Clemson was the only school in the nation to finish in the top five of the five major defensive categories, and it was the first time in school history it finished in the top five of all those categories in one season.

Venables defense in 2015 has also succeeded, despite the loss of nine starters. Clemson finished seventh nationally in total defense, while leading the nation several other categories as well. The Tigers are second in tackles for loss, fifth in pass defense and sixth in sacks.

In addition to the base salary and supplemental compensation set forth Venables also received $10,000 for Clemson’s ACC Championship. He also received $50,000 for Clemson playing in the College Football Playoff semifinals, and it could increase to $80,000 if the team wins the championship game of the College Football Playoffs.

Clemson’s defense, seen here with All-American defensive end Shaq Lawson getting pressure to Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer on Oct. 3, the last two years has been the nation’s best as it leads the country in total yards allowed, passing defense and third down defense.