To commemorate its victories over No. 10 North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game and No. 4 Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff from this past season, Clemson officially added two new tombstones to its football graveyard on Wednesday.
“It’s really just a tradition that is kind of neat to participate in,” head coach Dabo Swinney said after the ceremony.
This is the second straight year the Sooners have fallen victim to the Tigers in a tombstone game. Clemson beat the Sooners, 37-21, in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve this past season. The Tigers also beat them 40-6 in the Russell Athletic Bowl to end the 2014 season.
Oklahoma is the first program to fall in Clemson’s infamous graveyard in back-to-back seasons.
“It speaks to the type of program we have and the type of team that we have been,” Swinney said. “The fact that we can beat anybody, anywhere … You can look at the recent history. Again, it is one thing to win at home, which is very important, but it is another thing to be able to go on the road and win at a high level against some very good people.”
Clemson began it graveyard tradition in 1989 following its win over then No. 16 Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.

Clemson’s Eric Mac Lain, Stanton Seckinger, James Brown and D.J. Reader joined head coach Dabo Swinney (center) during Wednesday’s unveiling of the new tombstones beside the practice facility in Clemson.
Danny Ford, Clemson’s head coach at the time, came up with the idea after hearing about Florida State’s Sod Cemetery from the year before. The Seminoles took a peace of Death Valley’s turf back with them and buried it in their cemetery in Tallahassee following their upset win over Ford’s No. 3-ranked Tigers in 1988.
FSU takes a piece of sod back following every road win against a ranked opponent. Clemson puts up a tombstone following a win over a ranked opponent on the road, a bowl game or in a championship game.
Since he became head coach in 2009, Swinney’s teams have placed eight tombstones in the cemetery, including at least one every year since 2011.
“Clemson has had a lot of success over the years and since my time it has been fun to be a part of all of those,” Swinney said. “It is kind of neat to walk by and remember all of those moments throughout the years.”
The Tigers’ win over the No. 4 Sooners in the Orange Bowl is the highest ranked opponent marked in the graveyard.
“It is kind of validation for those guys to buy in. We have a proven process if they will trust it,” Swinney said.